Posted on October 21, 2022 by Scott Johnson in 2022 Election, Joe Biden, Senate

Pennsylvania tea leaves

John Fetterman’s stroke has badly impaired his functioning. He can’t understand what is said to him and he can’t communicate what he wants to say. Fetterman himself admits the former and one can observe the latter in his (sparse) public comments.

Fetterman has now released a doctor’s note by Dr. Clifford Chen to reassure Pennsylvania voters that he has it together. Chen describes himself as a physician who “established care with [Fetterman] in May.” Dr. Chen doesn’t mention that he is a generous Democrat donor and Fetterman supporter. Unlike Dr. Chen, the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross linked to the relevant records in his diagnosis of Dr. Chen. Chen, of course, did not respond to a request for comment. Fetterman’s medical records remain under lock and key.

One doesn’t need the diagnosis of Dr. Chen as a rabid Democrat to infer that he is not exactly on the up and up. Dr. Chen’s report states that “Fetterman spoke intelligently without cognitive deficits” and his “speech is normal.” This is a classic case of who ya gonna believe — him or your own eyes? I’m going to believe my own eyes.

In other words, it would be a mistake to take Dr. Chen’s note at face value — as the Oz campaign observed in its own way. And by the way, what does Fetterman’s neurologist say?

I have been looking for tea leaves to scope out the competitive races in battleground states. One such was President Biden’s appearances with Fetterman at a public event in Pittsburgh and a private fundraiser in Philadelphia yesterday. I take that as a sign that Fetterman believes he needs help.

However, Biden himself is not exactly a popular figure. In Ohio, for example, Democrat senatorial candidate Tim Ryan would prefer to avoid even appearing in the same sentence with Biden. At the Pittsburgh event we could observe Biden’s resolution of the conflicting forces in action:

President Joe Biden spoke about infrastructure policies in Pittsburgh on Thursday, and while Senate candidate John Fetterman was in attendance, surprisingly, he didn’t take the stage and the president did not urge Pennsylvanians to vote for him.

Biden himself has visible cognitive issues, so it is difficult to interpret his comment that
Mrs. Fetterman is going to be “a great, great lady in the Senate.” I interpret that as a tea leaf that they anticipate the election of Democrat Josh Shapiro as governor and the appointment of Mrs. Fetterman to succeed her husband in office.

As I say, we can all see that Biden has his own cognitive issues. He demonstrated it again as he sought to navigate his exit from the stage in Pittsburgh.

Even when he was of sound mind — I mean pre-stroke, assuming he was ever of sound mind — Fetterman must have been the worst Senate candidate in the country. His present act is a joke. David Marcus gives us a fitting Laughter Is the Best Medicine take.

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