Worried about Biden's age or capacity? Let's revisit a certain Senate race

It was, by many accounts, the most dismal performance in a debate by a political candidate in this country’s history. And it wasn’t the candidate’s fault, either. 

Senatorial candidate John Fetterman was running almost evenly in most polls against his Trump-anointed opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in a race to replace Sen. Pat Toomey and represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Fetterman had suffered a severe, life-threatening stroke just five months prior. Although his thought processes were fine, he still had problems with auditory processing, a fact that clearly and vividly impaired his ability to articulate during his Oct. 25, 2022 debate appearance in Harrisburg. The debate format was even changed so Fetterman could read the questions and answers off a closed-captioned video screen.

A smirking, hyper-aggressive Oz dominated the debate. And although Fetterman was able to withstand Oz’s constant barrage, he couldn’t do much more, and it showed. After the debate the Oz campaign instantly made ads depicting Fetterman’s responses as indicative of mental weakness or instability (because that’s what nasty people do when their opponents are suffering the after-effects of a disabling stroke).

All the GOP knives immediately came out for Fetterman after that. He had his defenders (and Oz had made a really bad gaffe on abortion), but the audience saw what they saw. And Republicans instinctively knew that no amount of effort Democrats expended explaining that the stroke had no impact on Fetterman’s capacity to perform as a senator could change that fact. 

Politico’s coverage at the time was typical, asserting that Fetterman had seriously imperiled his chance to win the election. As reported by Holly Otterbein and Burgess Everett, Republicans—such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—immediately weighed in:

Republicans were harsh in their assessment. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in an interview that the whole episode was “stunningly painful” to watch.

“Every person I’ve talked to is flabbergasted that the Fetterman campaign allowed him to debate in such an obvious condition of impairment. I don’t know how anybody objectively could watch that performance and conclude anything other than: This guy can’t possibly do this job,” Cruz said.

However, in the actual election (two weeks after the debate), even following Oz’s barrage of criticism and snide insinuations, a strange thing happened. It seemed that voters weren’t changing their vote. Many had made their minds up by that point and even Fetterman’s glaring difficulties during the debate weren’t about to change their opinions. Fetterman handily won the race by nearly five points (538’s polling average had Oz leading on Election Day) even as Oz tried to paint himself as a moderate in his commercials beamed into the voter-rich Philadelphia suburbs.

There’s a lesson in that for those currently transfixed by the media’s stunning discovery that President Joe Biden is now 81 years old.

RELATED STORY: House GOP to launch critical investigation into just how old Biden is