Fetterman to use computer assistance in Tuesday debate against Oz for PA senate

[mountaineer]

The Media’s Cover-Up of John Fetterman
No amount of spin can undo what voters witnessed on the debate stage last night in Pennsylvania.
Peter Savodnik
5 hr ago

It should now be crystal clear why Democrat John Fetterman refused to take part in more than a single debate with his Republican Senate rival, Mehmet Oz, and why Fetterman insisted on pushing that debate to just two weeks before Election Day—after at least 500,000 Pennsylvania voters had already voted.

Last night’s debate was an unmitigated disaster.

A disaster for Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor—who appeared confused and could barely manage a coherent sentence, let alone a complete paragraph.

And a disaster for Pennsylvania voters, who didn’t get the tough, substantive debate they deserved, one that would have pushed Oz to explain, among other things, why he was distancing himself from Donald Trump (without whom he wouldn’t be the nominee); his position on abortion; China; and how he plans to bring down gas prices.

Oz had some solid talking points, but they were just that—talking points. But Fetterman lacked even those. ...

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the campaign is blaming the closed captioning system for being “delayed” and “filled with errors.” What’s astonishing is how little so many journalists at some of our most storied news organizations respect normal Americans’ ability to use their eyes and ears.

The spin machine is already whirring away, with journalists claiming that it was the technology that was to blame or that Fetterman was brave to debate Oz or that, as Rebecca Traister put it, Fetterman should be lauded for his “remarkable transparency.” Josh Kraushaar, at Axios, was honest and ballsy enough to report that Democrats on Capitol Hill were left rattled by Fetterman’s performance.

Far from shielding Fetterman from scrutiny, in the end too many journalists in the legacy media have simply revealed—once again—why they cannot be trusted. ...

More at Commonsense

[Wingnut]

I fully expect the DNC to contact the DOJ and file a complaint with the ADA on behalf of Fetterman.

[Bigun]

No amount of spin can undo what voters witnessed on the debate stage last night in Pennsylvania.

God knows I hope that's right! But one should never underestimate the stupidity of the voting public.

[catfish1957]

God knows I hope that's right! But one should never underestimate the stupidity of the voting public.

Yep, I'd venture 90% of the PA voters didn't even watch, and of those 90% another 10% bothered to look at the doctored biased highlights.

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/ThatmattersNews/status/1585260941452742657

[Kamaji]

God knows I hope that's right! But one should never underestimate the stupidity of the voting public.

[mountaineer]

Shapiro and Fetterman. 5'3" to 6'8".

[mountaineer]

Ha ha, it just gets better.

EXC: Fetterman’s Finance Director Tweeted ‘N*IGGA’ While Attacking Republicans As Anti-Black.
By NATALIE WINTERS/WarRoom.Org
October 26, 2022

In a stunning display of hypocrisy, a Finance Director for Democratic Pennslyvania Senate candidate John Fetterman, Kelsey Denny, repeatedly used racial and gay slurs on social media, War Room can reveal.

The unearthed posts, which include words such as “n*gga” and “f*g,” appear to be at odds with more recent posts from the Fetterman aide promising to “fight for the lives of the Black community” against Republicans.

Denny has worked on the Fetterman campaign since 2021, beginning as a Senior Finance Associate before being promoted to the Regional Finance Director for Western Pennsylvania. She is also a former Finance Assistant for Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.

In April 2014, a Twitter user shared a photo of Denny from the messaging platform Snapchat captioned “N*gga pls I am swag.” In response, Denny replied “HAHAHHAHA I hate you I’m so ratchet.” ...

[mountaineer]

Dasha Burns
@DashaBurns
A memo from the Fetterman camp on “what to expect” tonight, lowering expectations:

“We’ll admit – this isn’t John’s format.”   
Pointing to the closed captioning aspect as “unprecedented.”

Closing with:
“John is going to win this race – even if he doesn’t win the debate.”

https://twitter.com/DashaBurns/status/1584948433659363339

[mystery-ak]

 Biden goes after Oz on abortion after Fetterman debate
by Brett Samuels - 10/26/22 12:08 PM ET



President Biden on Wednesday hit Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz (R) for saying local political leaders should have a say in a woman’s ability to get an abortion.

“If Dr. Oz gets his way, where does this end? Would he recommend local officials make decisions about cancer treatments? Colonoscopies? Or is this kind of scrutiny reserved just for women?” Biden tweeted, sharing a clip of Oz’s viral answer from Tuesday night’s debate.

Oz was asked during his debate with Democratic nominee John Fetterman about potential restrictions on abortion when he suggested it should be left up in part to local officials.


“As a physician I’ve been in the room when there’s some difficult conversations happening,” Oz said. “I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all. I want women, doctors, local political leaders letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves.”

The comment was quickly promoted by the Fetterman campaign as Democrats argued it showed Oz and other Republicans would not leave decisions about reproductive health up to women and their doctors.

Democrats have rallied around the issue of abortion access dating back to June, when the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, which had for decades guaranteed the right to an abortion. Biden and others have argued the GOP would use majorities in Congress to drastically restrict when women can get the procedure.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3704867-biden-goes-after-oz-on-abortion-after-fetterman-debate/

[Hoodat]

Fetterman cites caption errors, organizers say he opted out of rehearsal

Caitlyn Shelton  |  OCT 25, 2022 / 10:12 PM CDT  |  Updated: OCT 26, 2022 / 07:56 AM CDT

(NewsNation) — After Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman had difficulty speaking during his highly anticipated debate with Mehmet Oz, the stroke survivor’s campaign blamed the caption system provided for him as being “delayed” and “filled with errors.”

Nexstar’s communications chief said both candidates were given a chance to test the system twice, but Fetterman chose to only do one rehearsal.

Fetterman is still recovering from a stroke he suffered in May. The debate included closed captioning as an accommodation. Ahead of the debate, both campaigns agreed to have everything the moderators and Oz said typed out on a large screen by captioners providing live transcriptions.

Following the debate aired nationally by NewsNation, Fetterman’s campaign claimed the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor overcame a slow and incorrect captioning system.

“We are thrilled with John’s performance. He did remarkably well tonight – especially when you consider that he’s still recovering from a stroke and was working off of delayed captions filled with errors. John won countless exchanges, counter-punched aggressively, and pushed back on Oz’s cruelty and attacks,” Fetterman for Pennsylvania communications director Joe Calvello said.

Nexstar’s Chief Communications Officer Gary Weitman said in a statement:

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Fetterman is now criticizing the closed captioning process employed by Nexstar during tonight’s debate. Both candidates agreed to the technical set-up for the closed captioning process weeks ago, which was implemented at the request of the Fetterman campaign.

Both candidates were offered the opportunity for two full rehearsals with the same equipment used in tonight’s debate; Mr. Fetterman chose to do only one.  In fact, Nexstar’s production team went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the effectiveness of the closed captioning process, and to accommodate several last-minute requests of the Fetterman campaign. The closed captioning process functioned as expected during rehearsal and again during tonight’s debate. We regret that Mr. Fetterman and his campaign feel otherwise.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/elections-2022/pennsylvania-2022-midterm-election/nexstar-refutes-fetterman-campaigns-debate-caption-criticisms/


This company bent over backwards to accommodate Fetterman.  Yet they are now being thrown under the bus?

[Fishrrman]

I posted this in another thread, will repeat here:

It's gonna be 3-4 more days yet before we see actual post-debate polls that indicate how much voters are swinging towards Mr. Oz.

My guess is that a good number of "as yet undecided" independents do.
But there's really not that many of them left.

I would expect very very few of the dem-communist voter bloc to change their votes. It's ideology -- they vote for the dem-com candidate, no matter what.

(and that works the other way around, too)

Dr. Oz may well win because of last night's "debate".
But it's still gonna be "that close".
I'll go out on limb (please hold me to this) and predict that his victory will be no more than 1 or 2 percentage points.

If that much...

[mountaineer]

As A Stroke Survivor, I Recognize Fetterman’s Symptoms. He’s Incapable Of Being A Senator
After my first stroke, I could barely speak a word, and I could barely understand even one word of the speech of others.
By: Doc Rushing
October 27, 2022

Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman is grossly unqualified to function in the U.S. Senate. Fetterman’s defenders and apologists persist in referring to his communication difficulty as an “auditory” problem, suggesting that he’s just hard of hearing.

Even his critics in general appear to have not zeroed in on what I firmly believe to be his central problem – that is, aphasia – mostly receptive aphasia with some expressive aphasia too. He’s most likely not “just hard of hearing” – if indeed he’s hard of hearing at all.

Fetterman’s campaign has refused to release the candidate’s medical records since suffering from a stroke five months ago, making it impossible to know his diagnosis for sure. But as a stroke victim myself, I’m thoroughly familiar with that combination of aphasic limitations. I continue to suffer from them somewhat after a devastating stroke in 1996 (and after a smaller stroke this year).   

Fortunately, I’ve almost fully recovered from my expressive aphasia, and I’ve become much better with my receptive aphasia. My recovery from my first stroke, long afterward, took place by divine intervention, I’m persuaded, after my physicians had said that I would not recover beyond a slight measure.

Even after 26 years, though, I still must rely on closed captions while watching anything on my TV set.

People with receptive aphasia, which produces symptoms like Fetterman’s, hear the sounds, but have much difficulty in decoding and understanding the words – especially while trying to understand fast speech or strong accents. The words just do not fall into place correctly in our brains. That diagnosis would explain why John has used a computer-based closed-caption device during at least one interview and during the debate in Harrisburg on Tuesday.  ...

More at The Federalist

[Hoodat]

If it was a hearing issue, then hearing aids would fix that.  This isn't a hearing issue.  It's an audible comprehension issue.

Side note:  I heard the perfect description for Fetterman this morning from Glenn Beck.  He said that Fetterman is just like Karl Marx, never contributing anything to society, but living off the labor of others and bankrupting his parents.

[Bigun]

Side note:  I heard the perfect description for Fetterman this morning from Glenn Beck.  He said that Fetterman is just like Karl Marx, never contributing anything to society, but living off the labor of others and bankrupting his parents.