PENNSYLVANIA’S SENATE RACE TO THE BOTTOM:

Every election cycle has one. That absurd farce of a race that hardly seems like it can be real. This year the honors go to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its clown car of a Senate campaign. There are 13 million people in the Keystone State and somehow it has come down to Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democrat John Fetterman to serve in the upper house of the Congress. Where is DJ Jazzy Jeff when you need him?

By dint of a coin toss backstage, I’ll start with Dr. Oz. But where to begin? Oz is the Trump backed candidate, but he’s running like Mitt Romney, with all of the electric Utah energy that entails. There is a kind of Mid-Atlantic Republican who sort of apologizes for it — Oz oozes that. Because of this, there may be no other major GOP candidate in the entire midterm more out of step with the zeitgeist of the party than the mild-mannered, perfectly coiffed Republican.

Oz also has a demographic problem: as a daytime TV star and wellness guru, the group he should naturally appeal to is suburban women. The problem is that suburban women are the only group among whom Republicans have lost support in the past year. That’s not his fault, but it’s like being a fastball hitter who only sees breaking balls: you have to adjust — and Oz hasn’t. Even his viral crudités faux pas seemed directed at Martha Stewart-watchers, not NASCAR dads.

Now on to Fetterman. Let’s set aside the medical stuff for a moment and start from a baseline. He has the vibe of a Trump-endorsed Republican. He embodies the populist energy that Oz just can’t muster. With his gargantuan frame wrapped in a hoodie and bald head, he looks more like a guy you don’t mess with in a bar than a Senate candidate. But behind that facade lies some troubling insights.

Including: Hypocrisy: Fetterman Puts His Own Kids in Private School, While Standing in the Way of Vouchers.

UPDATE: John Fetterman: My Top Priority is Ending Life in Prison Without Parole for Convicted Criminals. “Fetterman, as Breitbart News reported, has overseen the release of 13 convicted murderers while heading the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. Likewise, one of Fetterman’s appointees to the board sought to end mandatory life without parole sentences for first and second-degree murderers. In 2021, Fetterman advocated for eliminating the state’s mandatory life without parole sentence for suspects convicted of second-degree murder.”