 It's pretty obvious that Dr. Oz in his general election campaign against John Fetterman is up to a very rocky start and I think it's because he is running a terrible campaign. Now it's one thing for a leftist like me to say that, but it's another thing for Republicans to say that very same thing and that is indeed what they are saying because they are essentially vocalizing now that Dr. Oz is a terrible candidate and they are losing hope as time goes on. So as Holly Otterbreen of Politico explains, Mehmet Oz is trailing in polls. A key Republican has yet to endorse him since the celebrity doctor won the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania Senate more than a month ago. And Oz has gone dark on the airwaves since May 21st. Even as his Democratic rival John Fetterman burnishes his brand on TV as a political outsider and paints Oz as a carpet bagger from New Jersey. This is not the general election kickoff in a pivotal Senate race that Republicans were hoping for. Quote, I don't have much confidence in their campaign, said Arnie McClure, chair of the Huntington County Republican Party. He said he's been in contact with Oz's team but hasn't received answers to multiple queries. Oz came in a distant third in my county so I called them up and said, you need to talk to our people to change their mind and our mind and I'll help you do that and I don't even hear back. What the hell? Quote, a lot of people in the GOP, both the establishment and local Pennsylvania GOP underestimate Fetterman, said Sean Parnell, a former Republican Senate candidate who dropped out of the 2022 race amid a child custody battle in which his estranged wife alleged abuse. This is a guy that has on the left what Donald Trump has on the right. He's got a very strong populist appeal that doesn't just appeal to base Democrats. So think about how arrogant Dr. Oz's team is being. You have people in some counties saying, you're not winning over support. You came in third. Our help. Let me help you. And Dr. Oz isn't responding to calls. This tells me that he's not running a serious campaign or he's just very arrogant. This reminds me of Hillary Clinton in 2016 not going to Michigan, just expecting to win that state by default because Democrats win that state. And there's a lot of other parallels not to invoke Hillary Clinton arbitrarily but there's a lot of other parallels between Dr. Oz's 2022 Senate campaign and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. So first of all, he is overall net unfavorable. Second of all, his team is basically just running a Thetterman bad campaign where they don't affirmatively make the case for themselves rather they just hyper focus on their opponent. And also they're blaming a divisive primary for low numbers saying, oh, well, you know, it was really divisive. There were attacks against us and whatnot. So you know, it's just going to take some time for us to unify but make no mistake about it. We are indeed unified. Except you're not really helping to unify the GOP and that's good. By the way, I'm not complaining. I hope that he continues to fumble and, you know, mess up, but he's not doing anything to unify the GOP. If people in your party are saying you came in third in our county, let me help you and you're ignoring their calls. Now, Thetterman, on the other hand, seems to have a two pronged approach to his campaign. First and foremost, he's focused heavily on policy. And second of all, he is going out of his way to clown on Dr. Oz at every opportunity he gets. So this, for example, is a video that he has pinned to his Twitter timeline. Hey, people, magazine. Welcome to our home. Come on in. The original owner had gotten it from King George III. Come on down. We hid the vessel of work around the corner. People in Pennsylvania tell me they can't go on vacation this summer. Folks you mentioned are going off to these beautiful houses. They're second to third houses. They've got to hang it up. That's not what's going on with many people in Pennsylvania. That is brutal. That shows somebody who is out of touch, who claims that he cares about working people, but doesn't really have any idea what they're dealing with. You cite, you know, high gas prices and inflation because you hear that in the news. But do you honestly understand the struggle of working Americans when you have an indoor basketball court, when you own multiple mansions? Most Americans currently can barely afford to purchase their first home. And you have multiple mansions. It's just it's astonishing how out of touch people like Dr. Oz is and all the hubris there. You know, despite despite him being out of touch, he's not even showing any willingness to try to learn even from fellow Republicans or saying, hey, we don't want Federman to win. Let us help you. But he's ignoring them. Now, another reason why I think the true reason why Federman is doing so well is because he is hyper focused on policy substance. If you look at his YouTube page, he has specific ads that he's running based on policies, legal weed, Medicare for all, LGBTQ plus rights, raising the minimum wage. And I can't play the audio for this particular ad that you're seeing on the screen, but he makes a populist appeal to workers who lost their jobs due to neoliberal policies and so called free trade agreements like NAFTA, whereas Dr. Oz, if you look at his YouTube page, well, it doesn't really feature any TV advertisements. Rather, he just re uploads his appearances on Fox News. And the one ad that he posted from nine days ago, I kid you not, is probably one of the worst ads I've ever seen. It features an endorsement from Louisiana Senator John Kennedy. And if somebody had chosen to endorse me in this way, I just disregard it because this isn't helpful. If anything, this is going to hurt Dr. Oz. Take a look. Let me think of a couple of things I want to say about Oz. All right, let me just take this. In Washington, D.C., when I feel inadequate, I just look around. On bad days, I see liars and frauds and meatheads in every direction. That's why we need men at Oz in the United States. Quite the ringing endorsement. I mean, imagine including that part in the ad. You have so little to say that you include the beginning of the ad in order to make time so you can see John Kennedy wonder aloud. Hmm, what exactly do I say about Dr. Oz? Fuck it, I'll just wing it. OK, he's not a meathead. We need less meatheads in D.C. support Dr. Oz. That's the best endorsement that you can come up with. Now, again, we talked about this last time, but Dr. Oz is not so subtly distancing himself from Donald Trump. So if you're avoiding Trump, you don't really want to play his ad, which is probably the strongest endorsement. So instead you come up with this endorsement from a Milk Toast Republican who probably a lot of the base views as a rhino who struggles to find a single nice thing to say about you. Really, that's all you have. Unbelievable. No wonder why Republicans are losing faith in him. Now, before I previously stated that even if Dr. Oz is a terrible candidate and John Federman is a good candidate, that doesn't necessarily mean that John Federman is going to win because this is an election where Republicans have a lot of momentum and Dr. Oz could just be lucky enough to get swept up in that momentum. But things are starting to change. According to 538, Republicans still do hold a one point six point advantage overall. But on generic ballots, momentum has shifted in the Democratic Party's favor following the reversal of Ravi Wade with YouGov and big village polls, giving them a four point advantage on average. So if Democrats have an advantage now on generic ballots, actual popular Democrats like John Federman, they have a pretty solid advantage. I mean, he's in a good position to win. I'm not going to, you know, say definitively that John Federman will beat Dr. Oz because, again, name recognition didn't go a long way. A lot can change between now and November. But just think of where this race started. Originally, you know, at the start of this general election campaign between Federman and Oz, it was viewed largely as a toss up. But then a USA Today and Suffolk University poll found that Federman had a nine point advantage. And now you have Republicans vocalizing how frustrated they are with the campaign that Dr. Oz is running. He's just kind of saying, oh, Federman, bad gas prices, bad inflation, bad, not really proposing any policy solutions, not actually making the case for himself. And any time he tries to attack Federman, Federman just hits back 10 times harder. And Federman is going out of his way to clown on Dr. Oz. Look at this tweet that he shared in response to a video that Dr. Oz posted on Twitter. Federman writes, pro tip, don't film an ad for your PA Senate campaign from your mansion in New Jersey. Yeah. So you have John Federman doing that. Meanwhile, Dr. Oz is trying to cobble together some Hillary ask, I'm with him campaign. And it's just it's falling flat. I'm I'm sure he's proud of his Fox News appearances. But usually candidates utilize their YouTube page to post their campaign advertisements to explain specifically what policies they would institute to help their future constituents. But Dr. Oz isn't doing that. He's essentially just saying, hey, I'm a Republican. See, I'm on Sean Hannity again, not working in this race. And, you know, if you want to win a campaign, if you want to run a dynamic political campaign, you've got to be able to adapt. And to the extent that Dr. Oz has adapted, he's done worse. Because again, when you make a pivot in the general election and you move away from Donald Trump, the person who arguably got you to where you are right now, you're going to piss off a lot of voters. So the odds of you, you know, bringing Republicans together after you spat in the faces of their base, people who like Donald Trump. I mean, you're making that more difficult. And, you know, if anything, you could try to put forward some policy ideas, but Dr. Oz is an out of touch oligarch. So he has no idea what people want to hear. So he's just saying, Federman bad. And then whenever he brings up Federman, Federman beats him over the head and clowns on him because Dr. Oz is a clown. So I love to see this, you know, I hope that he continues to face plans. I love that Republicans already have buyers remorse for Dr. Oz. Hopefully, if anyone wins, I hope that is John Federman. But this just kind of gives me hope that, you know, not all is lost. Maybe there's a chance that some horribly out of touch bad faith actors, opportunists won't become members of the U.S. Senate. You know, here's, here's helping to that.