What's next after the Fetterman disaster?

 Byron York  "WHAT'S NEXT AFTER THE FETTERMAN DISASTER? Early voting is well underway in Pennsylvania. Indeed, one reason Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, recovering from a serious stroke, wanted to delay his debate with Republican Mehmet Oz was to bank as many early votes as possible before debate night. Given Fetterman's disastrous performance in the debate, it was a good idea. And it worked. According to the Election Project, which compiles early voting figures from around the country, 685,289 Pennsylvanians cast their ballots before the debate. Of those, 499,396 were registered Democrats. The Fetterman campaign wanted to get its team to the polls before what was likely to be a discouraging debate.

The debate turned out to be, as many observed, painful to watch. Fetterman's recovery from his May stroke has clearly not progressed to the point where he can successfully take part in a traditional debate — that is, in one of the traditional events of a campaign. The day before the debate, his campaign team sent a memo to reporters to prepare them for "awkward pauses, missing some words, and mushing other words together" when Fetterman took the stage. The idea was to lower expectations and not have the press express surprise when Fetterman had difficulty communicating.

But it was much worse than that. At times, Fetterman struggled to make even a simple point. To cite one example: The struggle was particularly apparent when he tried to execute a classic politician's flip-flop on fracking. The technique of fracking is hugely important to the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania, which means it is hugely important to Pennsylvania as a whole. But the debate moderators pointed out that in May 2018, not all that long ago, Fetterman said, "I don't support fracking. I never have.". . .

 THE VIEW HOSTS ACCUSE DR. OZ OF BULLYING STROKE VICTIM JOHN FETTERMAN

Hemingway: Fetterman’s Wife And Handlers Should Be Ashamed Of What They’re Doing To Him  “I am actually appalled at the people around Fetterman that they did not protect him or love him more. He has family members. If this had happened to me, I would pray that the people around me would love me enough to not put me through this. This is very bad for them, for the Democrat Party, and it’s an embarrassment to the people of Pennsylvania. They deserve far better than this,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway said on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle.”

‘Ableism’ Rears Its Head in Pennsylvania – Lincoln Institute   "John Fetterman obviously is not cognitively fit for the U.S. Senate."

The screwy little definition box that pops up via Google informs the world, “ableism: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people.” But any good progressive will tell you that that doesn’t go far enough. No, it never does.

. . ."Leave it to a liberal, however, to turn such obvious observations — universally coming from the Right and the Left — into a form of bigotry. To wit, Liz Plank of MSNBC remonstrated, “[W]hen your side is so bad you have to rely on ableism to win.”

"That was the sum Twitter total of what Plank wrote. She seemed to imply that Republicans must rely on “ableism” to win this Senate seat. It’s a strange statement. After all, the Republican nominee is perfectly able, whereas the Democratic nominee is clearly not able. Fetterman’s obvious inability should not constitute “ableism” on the part of Republicans.". . .

The Babylon Bee took note: In Major Blow To Ableism, Airline Hires Blind Pilot