Could John Fetterman be a real contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028? Is it just possible that Fetterman could assume the role of a Bill Clinton in the next presidential election?
That was the thought I had recently while watching Fetterman in a Fox News segment. I used to think it was a laugh line when it was suggested a couple years ago that the Dems may run him for president, before he'd recovered as much as he has from a near-fatal stroke he suffered in mid-May 2022, just days before he cinched the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. He would go up against Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate in that election. Remarkably, given the debilitating effects of his stroke, Fetterman defeated Oz.
Fetterman became the object of some derision on the right, based on his policy positions, the mangling of words resulting from his stroke-induced neurological impairment, and later for his insistence on wearing hoodies, baggy gym shorts and trainers on the floor of the Senate. One of my friends in conservative talk radio took to calling him “Lurch,” after the Addams Family character. Pretty funny, if a bit unfair.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer quietly ditched the informal Senate dress code in 2023 to accommodate Fetterman’s insistence on dressing like he did as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania and director of the town’s youth program, but that only brought howls of protests from Republicans, who argued that it debased that “august” body and reflected a nationwide coarsening of culture.
After his stint as mayor of Braddock, PA from 2006 to 2019 and before his assuming the U.S. Senate seat for Pennsylvania in 2023, Fetterman served as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 2019 to 2023. In both roles, he demonstrated his liberal credentials by, for example, performing gay wedding ceremonies in his home as mayor of Braddock, despite a Pennsylvania state law banning same-sex marriage. As Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, he would push for the legalization of marijuana, going so far as to hang a pro-legalization marijuana leaf flag from his office balcony (alongside an LGBT pride flag, despite being straight himself).
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In February 2023, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed hospital, suffering from clinical depression. He would be discharged from there two months later, on March 31. Hospitalization for depression can be a political career killer, as Senator Thomas Eagleton might attest. He served briefly as the vice-presidential candidate on Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern’s ticket in 1972, until it was revealed that severe depression led to his receiving electroshock therapy at one point. He was quickly and unceremoniously dropped from the ticket.
Fetterman has struggled to overcome the devastating impacts of his stroke. According to Fetterman, he suffers from “auditory processing” problems, often necessitating the use of closed-captioning during interviews. He is better able to comprehend words through reading than through hearing.
One would think that any politician dealing with the struggles he has dealt with would give up the game. But here’s the interesting thing about Fetterman: The longer he has served in the Senate, the more sensible he sounds.
Perhaps it’s a function of the Democratic Party as a whole allowing itself to be led by its most radical, and seemingly insane, elements, that has given John Fetterman the chance to separate himself from the pack. He comes off these days as, well, kind of normal. And that’s saying a lot for a prominent Democratic politician these days.
One has to recall that Fetterman was a Bernie Sanders supporter not that long ago. But on issue after issue, he is sounding these days more and more like a rational, middle-of-the-road Democratic politician from the 1990s.
Take Israel, for example. Unlike many of his Democratic colleagues, Fetterman did not fawn over anti-Israeli, kaffiyeh-wearing violent protesters. He excoriated Hamas for its actions on October 7 and steadfastly supported Israel’s right to defend itself. He rejects the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel.
Fetterman has warned strongly against the dangers of China, even calling on the U.S. to “take back” Chinese-owned farmland in America.
Fetterman has taken a very hard stance against Iran’s nuclear program, advising the Free Beacon that Trump should destroy Iran’s nuclear program. That’s a position that even I, as a MAGA conservative, am hesitant about.
I could go on with a long list of positions on which Fetterman sounds remarkably Clintonian. And the thing is: He doesn’t seem to care what his fellow Democrats think of him. This sets him apart, and I think makes him a serious contender in 2028.
Fetterman’s positions may simply be a politically expedient recognition of his Pennsylvania constituents’ views, but throughout his career, he has shown a real maverick streak. And given the insane direction the rest of his party has taken, they may need him in 2028 to recover from their bender on lunacy.
William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government, private, and non-profit sectors for 38 years. He is a senior investigator for Judicial Watch, Inc., and has been a contributor to Townhall, American Thinker, Epoch Times, The Federalist, American Greatness, and other publications. His work has been featured on CBS News 48 Hours and NBC News Dateline. (The views expressed are the author’s alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.)
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