Joseph Sabino Mistick: Oz. vs. Fetterman and the future of the nation

In the peculiar race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz for a Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate, those voters who proudly say that they vote the candidate and not the party might well be tempted to sit this one out. That would be a mistake.

Both Fetterman and Oz are unconventional candidates running for a very traditional office during very unusual times. Anyone looking for reasons not to vote for either candidate can find something to pick at, and even the party faithful have plenty of things they must overlook with their party’s nominee.

Fetterman concedes in one of his campaign ads, “I do not look like the normal politician. I don’t even look like a normal person.” It is not a normal pitch to voters, but he is right. He has a unique style, adorned in the cargo shorts and hooded sweatshirt of a teenager who spends his days at the neighborhood asphalt basketball court.

Fetterman’s positions run from left of center, historically a tough sell across Pennsylvania. If you have roots in Braddock — the Sabinos and Misticks settled and flourished there — and if you love Braddock, his campaign ads claiming that he saved the town as the part-time mayor are hard to take. You know better.

Fetterman is hardly the crossover candidate Democrats wished they could offer to Republicans unhappy with Oz.

Oz is a citizen of Turkey. He served in the Turkish military. He voted in Turkey in 2018. He says that he will renounce his Turkish citizenship if the voters of Pennsylvania elect him to the Senate, which is small comfort. During the Republican primary, his opponent and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick accused Oz of being a threat to national security.

Oz is a heart surgeon, but his real claim to fame is “The Dr. Oz Show,” where he offered advice and hustled “miracle” get-well products. Oz owes his narrow primary win to the endorsement of Donald Trump, who said Oz “lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected and smart.” Trump’s support was a blessing in the primary, but it will be poison for many voters in the general election.

Oz is hardly the crossover candidate Republicans wished they could offer to Democrats unhappy with Fetterman.

It might be that neither one of these guys feels right for you. You might even be tempted to pass. But it’s not about these two guys. There are big differences between the national Democratic Party and the national Republican Party, and that’s where your decision must be made.

As Charlie Cook said a while back in the Cook Political Report, “It’s not the face anymore; it’s the jersey.” It’s all about blue shirts versus red shirts, and that’s “enough to make some voters automatically vote either for you or against you — based not just on partisanship but, among independents, on who they are most mad at that year.”

Whether it’s Fetterman or Oz, we know that the winner will line up with his party and vote with his party most of the time in a closely divided Senate, making this race bigger than the candidates. This time, you really will be voting on the future of the nation.