John Fetterman has prompted a fierce debate in the hotly contested race for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat (the Cook Political Report just moved the race from “leans Democrat” to “toss-up”) by attacking his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, for drinking wine at a Penn State football tailgate:
Nothing says ‘I’m a regular Pennsylvanian’ like sipping a glass of red wine at a tailgate pic.twitter.com/ZgHBkYPWhV
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) October 4, 2022
Pennsylvania natives quickly came to Oz’s defense. The American Thinker compiled a list of spot-on responses, including one “Pennsylvania regular” who said she would totally drink wine because “Beer makes me have to pee.” Others pointed to the fact that Pennsylvanians are, in fact, normal people, and drink wine like those from other states. They even have wineries in Pennsylvania — 400 of them! — and the Pennsylvania Farm Show features winemakers every year.
Cockburn notes that Fetterman himself is the essence of a phony. The guy skulks around in immaculately clean XXXXXL Carhartt hoodies — a blue-collar brand — even though he’s never had a real job in his life. He’s also a hypocrite, preaching “diversity,” but mocking Oz for deviating in his choice of alcoholic beverage.
Cockburn has been to his fair share of tailgates (though he has yet to make it in to an actual football game). And what he’s learned is that it’s perfectly acceptable to drink any and everything at a tailgate. Here’s the thing: tailgates often involve getting to the stadium hours ahead of kickoff. This means you’re outside, often in dreadful weather, with nothing to do but hang out. You’re bound to run out of beer. Sure, there’s food involved, but you can only eat so many pigs in a blanket. Plus, a lot of the people you commune with are strangers, at least at first, and everyone knows alcohol is a social lubricant that also makes you warm. Best to get buzzed early and often.
Dr. Oz, unlike Fetterman, whose health is notoriously very poor (Fetterman is like 900 pounds by the looks of it and suffered a stroke at the ripe old age of 53), is a doctor. A heart surgeon, to be exact. He knows that wine “offers more cardiovascular benefits than beer or spirits.” He also knows that wine, with its higher alcohol content, offers more bang from your three-buck chuck than the typical light beer overflowing at tailgates, and that peeing at public porta-potties is a nasty health risk to be avoided at all costs.
Sure sounds like Dr. Oz knows what he’s doing when it comes to drinking at tailgates, though Cockburn recalls that his colleague Teresa Mull reported that Oz’s preferred drink is actually tequila. Now that’s a way to get a tailgate party started…
