Someone needs to ask Oz what he’s smoking when he thought this would be a good idea:
In a bizarre political ad part of celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz's campaign to win the Pennsylvania Senate race, Democratic rival candidate John Fetterman gets his head opened up to reveal "some screws lose" and a bong, before his electoral political agenda is laid out and described as "crazy" and "ridiculous."
But the supposed mockery of the Democratic candidate was made into a joke at the expense of Oz, as critics on social media labeled the video "creepy" and "desperate."
"This is so bizarre and creepy. Is Dr. Oz from the Wizard of Oz?" wrote researcher Olga Lautman on Twitter.
"This looks and sounds like a kid's cereal commercial, and has about as much reality," wrote another Twitter user.
Many found that the ad's description of Fetterman's approach to health care and energy production, among others, just highlighted the strengths in the Democratic candidate's agenda.
"Dr. Oz keeps making John Fetterman a better candidate. Great work, Dr. Oz," Josh Manning said of the GOP candidate.
"It's a novel approach, but I'm not sure that Dr. Oz is going to win by airing commercials that make John Fetterman look awesome," wrote journalist Jordan Zakarin.
Friendly reminder, the snake oil diet pill quack doctor is against legalizing marijuana:
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz voiced his opposition to legalizing recreational marijuana in the state, claiming that it will make people lose motivation to go to work.
"There are not enough Pennsylvanians to work in Pennsylvania, so giving them pot so they stay home is not, I don't think, an ideal move," he told Newsmax host Greg Kelly in an on-camera interview.
It's not immediately clear how Oz came to this conclusion, as the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania was 4.9% in March, per the state's latest figures.
Oz also warned against fostering an "emotional addiction" to marijuana.
"I don't want young people to think they have to smoke a joint to get out of their house in the morning," he said. "We need to get Pennsylvanians back at work."
"You gotta give them their mojo, and I don't want marijuana to be a hindrance to that," the celebrity doctor added.
He expressed concern that people could be driving or operating heavy machinery under the influence of marijuana, or as he put it: "When they've been taking their fourth joint of the day."
And putting him out of step and out of touch with the majority of Pennsylvania voters:
New poll results out of Pennsylvania show that nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) adult residents support the “complete legalization” of marijuana in the commonwealth, the highest level of support for legalization since the Muhlenberg College’s annual public health poll began tracking the issue.
“The trend on public support for legalization of marijuana in Pennsylvania is clear, with support growing for the eighth year in a row,” Chris Borick, director of the college’s Institute of Public Opinion, said in a statement accompanying the survey results. “As the state government considers this policy option, the public is increasingly coming to the conclusion that they support legalization.”
Just over a quarter of respondents (26 percent) said they were opposed to legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania. Another 14 percent neither favored nor opposed legalization, while three percent said they weren’t sure.
And it’s a big winning issue for Fetterman:
Fetterman is arguably the nation’s most outspoken pro-weed politician. He supported legalization as mayor of Braddock, Pa., and during his unsuccessful 2016 Senate campaign. In 2019, as the state’s second-in-command, he held a statewide listening tour on recreational cannabis legalization.
Now, with a wide polling lead on opponents in the Democratic primary — despite suffering a stroke on Friday that has knocked him off the campaign trail in the closing days before Tuesday’s election — he’s promising to push the issue on the national level if elected to the Senate.
Political strategists say a bold position on cannabis could be an important piece of a winning policy portfolio for both the primary and general elections in a race that will help determine control of the Senate. Progressives respond well to it — but even more than that, marijuana may do something very important in a state where election margins are razor thin: bring new voters to the polls.
“You’re talking about a state that Joe Biden won by only 80,000 votes,” said Mike Mikus, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania who isn’t aligned with any candidate in the race. “So any people, new voters or people who … may have decided to sit out the election — if you bring them out because of this issue, that is how you win these campaigns.”
And conversations with voters in this mid-sized southeastern Pennsylvania city suggest that Fetterman’s legalization stance is making a difference.
Casey Lofties, 25, from York, Pa., is a Southeast Pennsylvanian who will be voting for Fetterman on Tuesday. She said in an interview on Saturday that Fetterman’s support of marijuana was a major selling point for her.
“If [candidates] support marijuana, they’re more about the people,” Casey said — adding that Fetterman’s refusal to live in the lieutenant governor’s mansion also stood out to her. “I feel like even though they’re older, that they’re still listening to the younger people who are eventually going to be making America, America.”
Cannabis on the ballot has increased voter turnout in past elections. Washington state, for example, saw turnout among voters ages 18 to 29 more than double in 2012, when recreational marijuana was on the ballot. That age group represented 22 percent of the electorate in 2012, compared with just 10 percent in 2008, according to a 2016 Brookings Institution analysis.
Plus, marijuana is already legalized in Oz’s home state of New Jersey:
People don’t say they’re from Pennsylvania. They say Pittsburgh or Philly; NEPA or the Lehigh Valley; Western Pa. or Johnstown; the Philly burbs or Delco. The dividing lines aren’t along our state borders but east vs. west, Wawa vs. Sheetz, city vs. rural, Steelers Nation vs. “Go Birds” and Philly vs. Everybody.
And it’s amid this brand of parochialism that Mehmet Oz has struggled to quiet an onslaught of attacks about his Pennsylvania ties. Oz, a celebrity doctor who moved here from New Jersey to run for the seat, was likely always going to face challenges appealing to everyday Pennsylvanians, campaign strategists, former politicians, and political scientists say, but something about Pennsylvania’s ethos seems to be making it even harder.
“Every single thing about our state promotes local identity,” said Ben Forstate, a Democratic political analyst from Western Pennsylvania, more specifically, Allegheny County, more specifically Pittsburgh, and more specifically the North Hills neighborhood.
The state is carved up into tiny townships, municipalities, and school districts, all with unique tax laws and individual character.
“You vote for everything, you expect your politicians to be accessible,” Forstate said. “We like people from our own regions. We’re suspicious of people from other regions. We don’t like outsiders. ... Pennsylvania doesn’t have a positive personal identity, but we definitely have a negative one, and that’s where Dr. Oz is provoking some sort of weird immune response.”
Pennsylvania doesn’t have one state fair but dozens of county-based ones. We list the home counties of candidates right there on the ballot next to their name — and those hometowns have ended up swaying elections. And while every state has some degree of hometown pride, perhaps most notably, Pennsylvania ranks fourth in states with the most residents who were born where they live.
That hyper-regionalism could be why the carpetbagging attacks against Oz resonate. In social media posts, banner planes, billboards, and via New Jersey celebrities, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has relentlessly shouted the same message at voters: Oz isn’t from here.
At the same time, Fetterman’s branded himself as a Pennsylvania everyman, dressed in shorts and a hoodie, whose latest campaign ad proclaimed he has “Pennsylvania in his blood.”
The efforts have been on parallel tracks. Mastriano and Oz haven’t made any firm commitments to campaign together or host joint fundraisers. Although they have appeared at the same state party functions or at events put on by outside groups, they have done little to promote each other — Mastriano’s posting of photos on Twitter and Facebook of the two at the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police convention in Erie this month was a notable exception.
Trump-backed tickets in other areas have converged. In Arizona, Kari Lake, Trump's pick for governor, and Blake Masters, his Senate choice, campaigned together on the eve of the primary. In Michigan, Matt DePerno, Trump's preferred candidate for attorney general, joined Tudor Dixon, his choice for governor, on the campaign trail hours after he endorsed her late last month.
"It’s an awkward marriage," said Morgan Boyd, a Republican commissioner in Lawrence County, which went for Trump by 30 points in 2020.
At a rally Friday, Mastriano continued to question the results of the 2020 election. "If you ask questions about the 2020 election, you’re an election denier," he said, the Tribune-Review of Pittsburgh reported. "Are you serious? What a stupid thing to say."
Boyd endorsed state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Mastriano's Democratic opponent, but he is voting for Oz and other Republicans on the November ballot. He criticized Mastriano as "pushing more hard-line, hard-core social issues" that he says are "outside the mainstream" while crediting Oz for a sharper focus on the economy, immigration and health care.
"I think that Dr. Oz’s base is very different from Doug Mastriano’s base," Boyd said. "I think it would be difficult for the two campaigns to reconcile and get on the same policy message when you have two very different groups of voters supporting them."
While Mastriano and Oz have yet to join forces, their Democratic rivals have linked up for a coordinated effort backed by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, The Associated Press reported in June.
The effort will help finance a ground game to register and persuade voters for Shapiro and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee, who hosted his first public campaign event Friday after having suffered a stroke in May.
Surveys have consistently shown Mastriano and Oz trailing their Democratic rivals. A Fox News poll last month showed Mastriano trailing by 10 points, while Oz was behind by 11.
Mastriano’s attacks on Oz during the primary could complicate efforts to link up. In March, he criticized Oz to a radio host for his ties to Oprah Winfrey and "the Hollywood class," as well as for his recent move to Pennsylvania.
"We have tapes of him, you know, approving of abortion. Suddenly, he’s pro-life now because [of] his Republican primary. We have video of him encouraging, you know, changing your gender and all this kind of stuff," he said. "And so I just, you know, something’s wrong."
Health and Democracy are on the ballot this year and we need to get ready to keep Pennsylvania Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with Fetterman, Shapiro and these Pennsylvania Democrats campaigns: