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The campaign of Uncle Fester-ish, ne’er do well goon running for United Staes Senator in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, seems to have had a sudden attack of the yips this weekend. They’ve sent out a terse little memo, warning of increased Republican ad spending, and that they can’t match the money.

PHILADELPHIA — John Fetterman continues to lead Mehmet Oz in the polls, but the Pennsylvania Democrat’s Senate campaign is privately sounding the alarm that things could change if he continues getting outspent on TV.

In an internal memo on Tuesday to big-dollar donors, Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips warned that Oz and his Republican allies are together investing more in television ads than Fetterman and Democratic super PACs that support him.

“I am writing with a wake-up call,” said McPhillips in the message, which was obtained first by POLITICO. “In the last three weeks alone, Republicans have spent nearly $12 million dollars — significantly outspending us and out-communicating on the airwaves. We cannot allow this to continue unabated.”

GOP challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz was hammered by Fetterman’s campaign over the summer, even though the stroke victim made few appearances, and lobbed repetitive verbal grenades at each stop. Fetterman coined “NJ Oz” as his sobriquet for the TV personality, referring to Dr. Oz’s homes in that state, and a source of initial contention per his legal residency in Pennsylvania. Oz’s erudition has also come in for some Fetterman jibes, after making a campaign spot about the rapidly accelerating price of ingredients for “crudité” platters played right into Fetterman’s working man/schlub schtick.

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For all the regular guy act, Fetterman has significant problems, and those are starting to surface as liabilities. He’d never had a real job until being elected mayor of a run-down steel town, having lived off of his father’s largesse until his mid-40s, even when married with children, and has failed upward ever since. A political opponent of Dr. Oz’s celebrity coupled with his obvious problems connecting to the common folks should have had Fetterman punching down all the way to the ballot box. Fetterman stuck to that plan.

But a funny thing has happened along the way. Fetterman’s stroke has seriously hampered his ability to campaign – once he emerged from the basement, it’s apparent he lacks the ability to string a coherent sentence together – while his obfuscation concerning his recovery, the bulge on his neck he’s obviously been trying to hide, and, most importantly, how serious his current state of cognitive impairment is, all are hugely concerning. It’s also brought more scrutiny than perhaps an individual of his few good personality points could withstand – there really is little likable about him. Not to mention the nitpicky – does he own a decent shirt? The guy’s a slob.

Dr. Oz, for all the teeth gnashing about his candidacy, and questions about his commitment to a long slog of campaigning, has done something truly admirable and kind of unexpected – the work. The fabulous Salena Zito has trailed Oz across the state: small towns to county fairs to main street storefronts. Watched him connect, meet people in all manner of impromptu settings, and witnessed those folks come away believers. She would caution that just might have the tide swinging right.

“All Oz should be doing is talking about things that are important to people, like the real impact inflation is having on families and communities and small businesses, and how border security and the fentanyl trade has made it to their neighborhoods and the escalating crime in this state,” said Urban. “I mean, he is already talking about it. He needs to talk about it more, and more loudly.”

On Friday, Oz did just that when he spent the day at the Washington County Fair just outside of Pittsburgh. Oz slow-walked through the fair, whose attendance topped 70,000 that night. He was shaking hands, but more importantly, he was stopping and listening to voters and their concerns…

Oz spent the next few days pounding the pavement in the west, then spent several hours greeting attendees at the Westmoreland County Fair, another one of the most important counties for Oz to win by a healthy margin. He drives back across the state to the Philadelphia suburbs mid-week.

“If Oz can continue to articulate that he is the clear alternative to a man and the policies he supports and goes to places in Philadelphia where the crime and addiction rates are soaring and asks Fetterman to debate the issues, rather than hide behind Twitter, voters will respond to that contrast,” said Urban.

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The polls have been reflecting that human touch, that priceless word of mouth between neighbors, that true hard work/retail polticking interaction It was a runaway Fetterman victory at the start of the summer, according to polls and pretty much the general consensus of every pundit. The Fetterman campaign was laissez-faire enough about their status to keep rocking along.

…Fetterman’s campaign for the U.S. Senate has been an endless stream of snarky memes mocking Oz. He has rented planes to troll him along the New Jersey shore. He devotes endless messaging to vegetable trays and the amount of homes Oz owns. He’s even employed the antics of rocker Steven Van Zandt to taunt him on Twitter. He also likes to cuss a lot and use the poop emoji.

It suddenly seems it’s not so cute anymore, and Fetterman’s campaign is employing that emoji internally.

That 20 point lead has evaporated…

…and their lumbering buffoon of a candidate is out of time to rehabilitate himself. This is why they’ve fired the warning shots across the bow of the Democratic funding establishment. But all the money in the world is not going to fix the problems that ARE their candidate. There’s an ancient TV anecdote I remember, which kind of covers the situation

I think it was an old I Love Lucy episode. She had a world-famous clothing designer on as a guest star, and Lucy tried to get him to design a dress for Ethel. He looked haughtily down his lorgnette at her, and sniffed,

“Madame. One doesn’t gift wrap a fifty-pound sack of potatoes.”

Fetterman has essentially been exposed as a sack of potatoes. Money isn’t going to help.

Even money on whether they cough it up for him.

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