Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Trump should be leading, not lying.

People are weird.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans in disarray!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Open Thread: Dr. Oz Is *Bad* At Politics

Open Thread: Dr. Oz Is *Bad* At Politics

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It’s been a *thing* since at least the Roman republic: Rich guy decides a Senate seat would be the perfect centerpiece for his vanity room. Buying a sports team or sponsoring this year’s hot-celebrity tour is *much* less risk of embarrassment, guys!

Compare and contrast!

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  2. 2.

    Benw

    Anecdata from working the polls in the NYS closed Republican primary for CD-1 today, to replace the ambulatory tapioca TFG leg-humper Lee Zledin: Republican voters in my area are not fired up by any of the openly racist, fascist candidates (which is all 3 of them); or maybe the voters just think they are ALL racist and fascist enough to be a fine choice in the general?

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    You’d think that the Oz campaign would have a self-imposed moratorium on mentioning “crudite”, “veggie tray”, “asparagus”, and indeed any plant-based edible subjects. Guess not.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Looks like Nadler, Maloney and Goldman all won handily in NYC

    I haven’t followed that race closely, but I thought Nadler and Maloney were vying for the same seat, thanks to redistricting. How can they both “win handily”?

    ETA: n/m, I see there is a different Maloney running in a different district. Was not aware of that.

  9. 9.

    Tom Q

    Also Goldman hasn’t been declared winner yet.  Still relatively close.  And NY is pretty lenient about mail ballots, so there may not be a final call on the race for a week.or two.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    This might be another good sign in FL – BoltsMag.org:

    Florida | HD109 (Dem)

    James Bush, the only Democratic lawmaker in the Florida House to vote for the state’s 15-week abortion and “Don’t Say Gay” law, faces a challenge from the left in Ashley Gantt.

    Gantt

    So, Gantt won.  Interesting.  A sign of some fired-up FL Democrats, maybe?

    (I’m no expert)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    RaflW

    @Mike in NC: Honestly. Every one of these jackasses is making the case for a return to Eisenhower-level income taxes.

    They’re bored with their insanely rich and wasted lives. And punishing the rest of us with their dilettante, fragile, pissy egos.

  14. 14.

    RaflW

    Sean Trende seems to be having a moment. Maybe someone can hand him a tissue.

    Sean T at RCP @SeanTrende
    It doesn’t really matter what happens in NY-19 tonight — Molinaro is an A+ recruit and isn’t supposed to run just a few points ahead of Biden. Most of the other special elections we’ve seen have some sort of asterisk but this is an unambiguously good result for Ds.

  15. 15.

    RaflW

    This seems a good follow up to Sean’s tweet!
    @DecisionDeskHQ · 9m
    Decision Desk HQ projects Pat Ryan (D) is the winner of the special election for U.S. House District 19 in New York, defeating Marc Molinaro (R)

    (Indeed it *does* matter what happens in NY-19!)

  17. 17.

    Hoppie

    @RaflW: I used to have a game when I was a high-level frequent flyer: I would ask my first class seat opponent (ff speak, my seat opponent was always a Repub) if he preferred Reagan taxes, Bush taxes, or Eisenhower taxes?

    They ALWAYS ignorantly preferred Eisenhower taxes, even though those would have been much higher for them.  Every one.

    Those people are profoundly ignorant, even if powerful.

  18. 18.

    Another Scott

    @Westyny:

    I've seen enough: Pat Ryan (D) defeats Marc Molinaro (R) in the #NY19 special election. This is a huge victory for Dems in a bellwether, Biden +1.5 district.

    — Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) August 24, 2022

    Hmm… Wasserman isn’t usually one for hyperbole, I don’t think.

    :-D

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @RaflW:

     Josh Marshall@joshtpm

    Molinaro was a very solid recruit. It’s a dead even cook district and the Democrat won. That’s not a gop wave result. Not even close. GOPs can’t assume they’ll take the house.

    Not counting chickens…. not counting chickens…..
    I think I heard this race covered on MSNBC today, in the car so not paying too close attention, but I think it was framed, including by the candidates, as freedom of choice vs inflation. If that was Molinaro, they played a quote of him talking about people needing to drive half an hour to work or to pick up groceries, etc.

  22. 22.

    Origuy

    Good news from a local election in Alabama.

     

    Political tea leaves? Tonight in 97% white, wealthy, and conservative Mountain Brook, AL the three anti-woke, pro-Trump candidates lost nearly 3 to 1 in votes cast for their city council seats in an unexpected blowout, despite what looked like organized and well-funded campaigns.
    — Sydney Duncan (@sydneyvduncan) August 24, 2022

  23. 23.

    Ken

    I agree with the Connard tweet, but there must be a better word than “collectivist”, which to me has some not great connotations. Maybe “responsibility”.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    It’s interesting to compare the reaction times of the Fetterman and Oz campaigns.

    Oz makes his “legitimate” houses remark, Fetterman team drops their Family Feud spot within a day.

    Oz buts his crudites, Fetterman campaign (and rest of world) laugh, a week later OZ comes up with this tweet.

  27. 27.

    Lyrebird

    @Westyny: ETA: you know all this, I am just tipping my hat here.

    @Another Scott: “a huge victory for Dems in a bellwether, Biden +1.5 district”

    bellwether, yep, and Delgado’s win was not a given by a long shot.  Big grassroots push.  He is local (Delgado) but also he is not white.  Remember those “OH NOES RAP!” ads?  They were targeting Delgado, who did some brainy rap lyrics before he went off to be a Rhodes Scholar.

    Glad Ryan prevailed!

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    After watching his audition for the Jeopardy! host role, I figured he was a grifting, self-important asshole. [I hadn’t seen him before that.] But that “stroke” comment is about seven levels of assholery beyond that. What a scumbag.​

  29. 29.

    HumboldtBlue

    Am I the only one who couldn’t log onto the blog due to a 502 error a few hours ago?

    Also, there are some heartening results from primaries tonight.

  33. 33.

    Anotherlurker

    @HumboldtBlue: No, you are not alone with log in difficulties today. All day and as recently as 9pm Pacific time, I had trouble logging in.

    I think it’s back to normal now.

  35. 35.

    HumboldtBlue

    This is really good news.

    This is Maxwell Frost. He just won the Democratic nomination in Florida’s 10th district and is set to become the youngest member of Congress at just 25 years old. He ran on abortion rights, gun safety, and environmental justice. He will be the first Gen Z member of Congress.

    Dems needs a new corps of young lawmakers. And those issues are stone-cold winners, particularly abortion rights. I’m hoping that my sense I am getting that Dobbs has shifted the political playing field is spot-on. Women, young and old and I would suspect an awful lot of young men are gonna vote for abortion rights and that’s a win for Dems.

    @Anotherlurker: @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:

    thx

  37. 37.

    Old Man Shadow

    What, pray tell, Dr. Oz, is wrong with communities watching out for each other? Pulling together to make sure everyone has food and shelter from the elements? Helping out members having a hard time? What’s wrong with everyone pitching in a little so they can more for their neighbors than if only one or two felt compelled to give?

    What’s wrong with doing unto others so that if I’m in the same position one day, others will help me out?

    That sounds like a much better world to me than the war of all against all and every man for himself of individualism.

  39. 39.

    bjacques

    @HumboldtBlue: several decades late, but okay. Shame he didn’t also campaign on lowering the voting age.

    14 OR FIGHT!

    Now looking forward to free doses of LSD to over-60s, even if I have to wait a year.

  45. 45.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I would guess it requires a very different relationship with the cats from the normal house pet.  Lions and tigers can be trained, and the behavioral challenges with them are even worse.  It probably doesn’t work with a house cat because their whole life is structured around being a pampered object of affection.  These are just guesses, though.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    @Hoppie:

    I used to ask a similar question to the tea party morans when they showed up at our health care rallies.  They always wanted to go back to somewhere around 1956.  I loved telling them what the tax rates were then. Anyway the real reason is that they want to go back before the civil rights act.  It’s all about racism.

  49. 49.

    HumboldtBlue

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Ain’t it? That opening line is, as the kids say, is FIRE

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    their whole life is structured around being a pampered object of affection

    I ain’t never seen a trained cat, and Salad, who literally spends the summer months living in the neighbor’s very high and uncut grass, and who, now, summer begins to wane, demands both lap space and once that is too much, will sit right next to the mouse on the desk.

    I type a lot with one hand, and that’s NOT due to all internet traditions.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    I’m curious whether Oz thinks uteri belong to the individual or are owned by the collective.

  55. 55.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Wrong state for Oz to attack people.

    Santorum had a job for life until he started with the “man on dog” stuff.  Sunk like a stone and lost by 18 points.

  56. 56.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    This was from yesterday at DailyKos:

    A number of pundits predicted a Republican win here, given the relative lack of spending on the Democratic side (the Dems might have been yielding to practicality: both candidates are prohibitive favorites in different districts come November) and a well-known name on the GOP side in former Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who ran for Governor in 2018. Two polls, one by the DCCC and one by the left-leaning Data For Progress, both showed Molinaro leading Democrat Pat Ryan (the County Executive in Ulster County.

    Molinaro, who leads Dutchess County, defeated then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo by a wide 53-42 in the 19th in 2018 even as Cuomo was prevailing statewide in a 60-36 landslide.

    Here’s a guy who was popular, elected, spent a lot money, had big name I.D. in a district rated R+3 and he lost to a unknown Dem, who didn’t spend anything.

    Inflation, CBT, a backlash over the FBI search – guess not.

    Roll Tide, Roll Roe Tide, Roe

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    More election news: New York state GOP chairman Nick Langworthy beat feral bigot Carl Paladino in the NY 23rd CD primary. With 95% of the vote counted in the southwestern NY district, Langworthy led by 4.2%. Paladino did not concede and his spokesperson said they were looking into voting “irregularities.”

    Langworthy is the favorite in the general election; trump would have carried the new district by 9 points.

  60. 60.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Geminid: ​

    Rolling Stone: Republican [Paladino] Who Praised Hitler Somehow Loses Congressional Primary

     
    This is a shock. As a rule of thumb, the pro Hitler candidate always wins in a rpublican primary.

  61. 61.

    satby

    @Frankensteinbeck: cats can be trained just like any other pet. They’re more independent and so it takes a bit longer, but consistency is the key. Just like with children and dogs. Most people don’t bother to train cats, but they are trainable.

  63. 63.

    MagdaInBlack

    @satby: Thank you. Affection, treats, affection, treats, affection, treats. And lots of patience. Oh, and also, treats 😉😊

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    @Ken: Fetterman is certainly not a “collectivist.” If I had to pin a label on him, I’d call him a communitarian.

  66. 66.

    JWR

    @satby:

    cats can be trained just like any other pet.

    A friend trained her orange tabby to kiss. No, really! She’d always trained her cats to be held, but this little guy learned that the first time she asked for a kiss, he would give her a little nose bump, and the second time, he touched his “lips” to hers.  I’m sure one thing that forced him to learn that was because she wouldn’t put him down until he gave her some sugar. ; )

  69. 69.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I mean in the past pro Hitler candidates like Goldwater, Dump, Madison Cawthorn easily won rpublican primaries.

    14 October 1964

    For some strange reason. Barry Goldwater has purchased two million campaign buttons from West Germany.
    ***
    Goldwater planned to take a vacation at Berchtesgaden, one-time summer retreat of Adolf Hitler, immediately after the convention.
    ***
    Goldwater had been in regular correspondence with German Transport Minister Hans-Christoph SeeBohm, a right wing member of the cabinet who has proposed that the Sudetenland, which Hitler seized from Czechoslovakia, but which has since been returned, is actually a German country today.

    This was in 1964 when the stench of World War II was still in the air and rpublicans thought nothing about voting for a Hitler lover.

  74. 74.

    Suzanne

    @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    Wrong state for Oz to attack people. 

    Not to mention….. if Oz ever left New Jersey and took a look around PA, he would see a lot more people with the body type of John Fetterman than with the body type of Dr. Oz. (And a lot of those people are the voters Oz needs.) He basically fat-shamed Fetterman. Christ, what a jagoff. His campaign needs fixed.

  75. 75.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Baud: ​
      Good! I hope they keep talking about it. Every bit of publicity counts (even unintended) to remind voters they can no longer take choice for granted.

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Oz’s voters are a lot more pizza-wings-hoagies than they are arugula-and-crudité. (Speaking of which, I remember those long-ago days when Obama was called an elitist for eating arugula and Dijon mustard, so one would think that Republicans have learned to stay away from talking about enjoying vegetables.)

  81. 81.

    Ken

    @Geminid: @germy shoemangler: I was expecting this — not from Paladino and Loomer specifically, but Republicans refusing to concede primary losses and crying fraud. More infighting, please, and if we can figure out a way to attach the “sore loser” tag to Republicans via these races, it may be useful in November.

  82. 82.

    davecb

    Anne Laurie wrote “It’s been a thing since at least the Roman republic: Rich guy decides a Senate seat would be the perfect centerpiece for his vanity room.”

    The ancient Greeks, around the time of Socrates and Plato, considered elections to be an aristocratic form of government. People who were well-known or rich tended to win them.

    The Greek democracies preferred the same scheme as we have for selecting juries: everyone who hadn’t served lately got put into a pool, and were probabilistically given jobs.  (I can see reaching into an amphora and pulling out a blank tablet, or perhaps one that said “assistant dog-catcher”, to see what I needed to do for Athens this year.  Assuming Athens had dog-catchers, of course (;-))​​​​​​​

  83. 83.

    Betty

    @Suzanne: Despite being large, I wouldn’t have considered Fetterman to be fat. Besides that, his condition was not diet-related. He was inconsistent in taking his prescribed medicine. Coming from a heart specialist, that comment is unusually egregious.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: The abortion ruling was a game-changer.

    We are well and truly pissed.

    In fact, I’m not sure there is a word for what it feels like to move from first-class citizen to no longer having control over your own fucking body.  No control over whether you become a mother or not.  No control over whether you are forced to carry the fetus of your rapist or your brother or your uncle for 9 months.

    Livestock is the closest I’ve seen yet.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @JWR: My best friend trained his two cats to sit up, roll over, high five, etc.  One of the cats would pick up the trick first, then the other would learn from watching the other cat.

  87. 87.

    Tony G

    @Old Man Shadow: Oz’s parents were affluent, with his mother, in particular, coming from a wealthy family in Turkey.  Many people (there are exceptions) who grow up with wealth grow up thinking that people who are not wealthy are lazy and undeserving of help.  I guess Oz is one of those people.

  88. 88.

    Tony G

    @Betty: Years ago I was getting my annual checkups from a cardiologist in New Jersey who started to recommend to me the wisdom of Dr. Oz.  I switched to a different cardiologist, and I’m satisfied with the new one.

  89. 89.

    Chris Johnson

    @Origuy: Well, in fairness, Trump is a fucking traitor selling nuclear secrets to Russia so what do you expect even Alabamans to do?

    The guy is a fucking traitor.

  90. 90.

    Tony G

    @zombie rotten mcdonald: In general, people who hawk their Miracle Supplements and Superfoods tend to blame people with health problems for bringing illness upon themselves by not consuming their miracle cures.  Gary Null (ostensibly on the “left”) is another example of that.

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