Ever since Democratic Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman suffered a stroke in May, his critics have relentlessly questioned his fitness for office. Fetterman himself acknowledged this during last week's debate with Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz, informing voters in advance that he "might miss some words" and "mush two words together" but that, despite being "knocked down" by the stroke, "I'm going to keep coming back up."
Fetterman's warning did not seem to change the conversation about whether his recent stroke should be relevant to his Senate campaign. The debate moderators repeated the controversial request that Fetterman release his medical records, and pollsters are either saying survey outcomes between Fetterman and Oz since the debate are either breathlessly close or suggest Oz has benefited from a slight bounce. The attacks on Fetterman are, stylistically, similar to the criticisms of President Joe Biden's speaking style (he has a stutter and suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988). They are even reminiscent of how, more than a century ago, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke so debilitating that his First Lady Edith Wilson had to help him run the country.
