Fetterman is a 53-year-old man with a Harvard education who has put himself on the national stage; he is not a child or charity case, and does not need to be treated as such by members of the media. By running for Senate, he has opened up himself, his policies, his past, and his present for intense scrutiny. Given that he experienced a major medical issue this year, Fetterman’s campaign would be wise to release his medical records to further inform the public about his auditory-processing issues and to quell speculation about his general mental acuity. The media are justified in asking questions about a candidate’s health, particularly when the matter is partly neurological. What’s unfair is expecting that Fetterman’s disability should be accommodated only when the cameras are rolling.
Admirably, he is not hiding the fact that he had a stroke, yet he has found himself in an unsustainable gray area regarding his communication. Fetterman and those around him are trying, and failing, to have it both ways. On one hand, Fetterman is being matter-of-fact about his need for accommodations such as captioning. On the other, he’s clinging to an antiquated message centered on recovery—he clearly wants voters to know that he’ll eventually get better. The truth is, he might not. A simpler and more honest approach might be to say that he has acquired a disability—and that regaining his old “normal” is not the only path to success, or the Senate. But is that a message voters are ready to hear?
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