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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, August 01, 2022

Republicans Are Their Own Worse Enemy

Democrats are poised to lose control of the House and possibly the Senate in this year's midterm elections. But Republicans, who are their own worst enemy, have all but assured a Democratic victory in the Governor and Senate race this Fall. Moreover, I believe they'll hold on in the Pa.7th, where incumbent Susan Wild faces Lisa Scheller. 

Governor's Race. - I don't like Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro. His entire life has been in a bubble, isolated from the working man he wants to champion. He's going to win easily. He is well-educated, very bright and as smooth as they get when it comes to campaigning. He makes no mistakes. 

In contrast, Doug Mastriano is a poster boy for everything that's wrong with the Republican party. He represents its fascist faction, and will get no votes from Democrats, most independents and even some Republicans. 

That race is already over. 

John Fetterman. - I also dislike John Fetterman. He poses as the common man, right down to the tattoos and his relaxed attire. But as Lt Governor, the only thing he managed to do is piss off Republicans by constantly flying a marijuana flag. He did nothing for Braddock, where he was Mayor, except to give the tiny black-majority borough an even more negative image. 

He'll beat Mehmet Oz, the TV doctor who is now trying his hardest to distance himself from Donald Trump, the man he embraced during the primary. Many Trump loyalists are unenthusiastic about this New Jersey transplant. Fetterman is killing him in the money race, too. 

This will be a bit closer than the Shapiro race, but this is Fetterman's to lose. 

Wild-Scheller. - Attempts to portray Wild as part of the squad are absurd. Yes, she votes with Pelosi, and those two are more partisan Democrat than enthusiasts of the far-left agenda.  What's going to save her is Lisa Scheller. It';s hard to justify her decision to manufacture paint pigments in China. We should avoid doing business with our enemies, as we recently learned with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.   

Republican will lose three seats they should have won.

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I certainly don't want to see it, I'm actually afraid that your predictions are correct.

Anonymous said...

You are all about love and hate. You hate Shapiro because he beat your boy JM for state attorney general. Fetterman is a breath OF FRESH AIR.

Anonymous said...

Penna. people deserve what they get.

Anonymous said...

Pa. can become just like New York and California if that what the pa. citizens want.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your assessments of the candidates. Unfortunately, I hear of lot of Republicans say they'll vote for the GOP candidates because, as bad as they are, "at least they're not Democrats."

Anonymous said...

Shapiro will be wolf on steroids.

Anonymous said...

Will there be a mea culpa on November 9th? Intelligent inquiring minds want to know. Asking for a friend.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately the Republicans will not win as many seat as they thought. Women are mad and they will vote.

Anonymous said...

Yes, we all know how much you care about the Republicans so these predictions must be true.

The basic premise of your post is that Republicans are their own worst enemy because they're not nominating radical democrats in their primaries. I would instead applaud Republican voters for their choices.

Fetterman, Shapiro and Wild are the embodiment of the failed democrat policies that are ruining this country.

If you want high energy prices; runaway inflation; shortages of baby formula and other necessities, runaway crime, open borders, having our police defunded, a continuation of the economic policies that have caused our current recession; etc., etc., etc.; then Fetterman, Shapiro, and Wild are certainly your choice.

That's fine, but it's also the definition of insanity.

We need to change the direction that the country is heading. Even if Oz, Mastriano, and Scheller were not your first choices in the Republican primary, they are BY FAR the best choices in the general. It's not even a difficult choice.

At this stage of the race, I'm surprised that any of the Republican candidates you mention are polling so close to their democrat opponents. All three of them went through crowded primaries and were relentlessly attacked. There is plenty of time for them to get their messages out, while simultaneously letting voters know the truth about their democrat opponents.

That's why we have campaigns, and I think the final polls - the election - will be much different from what you're reporting now.

Anonymous said...

Lifelong R. Fair post, sadly. I agree with the senator and governor predictions. Scheller is going to win, though, and it won't be a squeaker. The wild card may be Fetterman, who is still hiding and may have profound speech problems following his stroke. He wasn't straight with the legislature and the media regarding his health. He already looks like Lerch from The Addams Family. If he stammers like Lerch when he finally emerges from hiding, he's going to have a much tougher time winning. The debate will be difficult anyway. He'll get crucified if he shows up drooling and stuttering. In the last TV ad, the guy is wearing that filthy sweatshirt in the middle of the hottest weather PA's had in a decade. It's obviously a bit dated and looks absurd.

Vladmimir Ill-itch said...

I agree. I think Scheller has the best chance of the three to win but she's still going to get "schell"acked in November. Wild just bobbles her head and votes party line and that's enough to be vulnerable and some national analysis says that this seat could turn R, but I don't think so.

Kudos to Oz for keeping it classy, so far, and not dwelling on Fetterman's shotgun waving at an unarmed African-American jogger incident. But, that won't help Oz. Oz only has a chance if Fetterman steps down for health reasons (he won't; PA Democrats will play Weekend at Bernie's and prop him for as long as they can if his health takes another bad turn). The only knock on Oz is that he's from NJ. To PA Democrats, that is worse than profiling innocent, unarmed joggers. At least that's the perception.

I don't see the appeal of Mastriano. He'll get the rural votes and the Trumpbots but Philadelphia alone should put Shapiro over the top.

And I'll say it: Democrats who support Fetterman are no better than Republicans who support Mastriano. Same delusional support of someone unfit, just different parties.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more. The Democrats are doing their best to hand it over, and the Republicans respond with this band of idiots? WTH.....


Anonymous said...


More people will move out of this state in next few years if you predictions come to be.

Anonymous said...

As Pogo said: We have met the enemy and he is us.

Anonymous said...

Fetterman's ads are a disaster for Oz. Is it really true Oz lived with his mother-in-law to
secure residency? If true, big fraud mistake.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"More people will move out of this state in next few years if you predictions come to be.:

That would be wonderful. I could finally drive from Easton to Allentown in less than an hour.

Anonymous said...

Up until Trump, I was your classic swing voter, socially liberal but fiscally conservative. I'm registered independent and I always voted for the person who I thought could best do the job so I've voted for both Democrats & Republicans over the years.

But now? I'll never vote Republican again. This nutty embrace of conspiracy & authoritarianism is frightening. Moreover, the shift towards a theocracy is what is truly scary about Mastriano.

So I'm going to hold my nose & vote for Wild, Fetterman & Shapiro because the Republicans didn't give me a better choice. At least I know what I'm getting with them plus they're not hellbent on destroying democracy.

Bernie O'Hare said...

" Fetterman is a breath OF FRESH AIR."

Not if he's smoking weed. Actually, he's quite divisive and is a terrible choice. But he has the money boys behind him. No fresh air, but lots of cash.

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to voting for both Shapiro and Fetterman. Mastriano and Oz can sink back into the bog from which they emerged.

Anonymous said...

While I expect a Red Wave nationally, I believe Shapiro, Fetterman and Wild will win in PA. To me its a combination of poor Republican candidates plus all the money flowing to PA Democrat candidates from pro-abortion sources nationwide. Mastriono and Oz are the subject of daily negative ads on the Philadelphia morning and evening news months before the election. I would argue that the Roe V Wade decision may help the Dems raise lots of money and beat back the Red Wave in some tossup states like PA, VA, NC etc.

Anonymous said...

Scheller gave us the Happy Meal Tax Cut which saved LC homeowners $10 while saving her family $100,000. So there’s that.

Anonymous said...

Candidates matter. Trumps influence on the republican party is becoming a drag. Oz is a terrible candidate, and so is Mastriano. Fetterman has a cult following, much like Bernie Sanders, but he's nothing more than a goofball who won't even wear a tie for his official state portrait. Shapiro has been groomed since his early days in the state house for this run.

You are right on with this post today Bernie. Fetterman and Bob Casey as our senators LOL!

Anonymous said...

Elections will be interesting, including the primaries in 2023. Especially with the amount of people who want to run for DA & Judge.

Anonymous said...

Mastriano said that my being Jewish and my friend being an atheist we can't belong to his little Christian Nationalist club. He was kind enough to say we won't be asked to leave the state, at this point. He also said with a stroke of a pen he will erase votes he thinks are invalid. Yeah 6:52 AM what a guy.
Oh and then there is this

https://news.yahoo.com/doug-mastriano-keeping-big-secret-120005341.html


Anonymous said...

Fetterman will lose. Mainly because of his health--I am afraid to vote for someone with his health status plus his ideas. If he wins and doesn't make it to the end-one will never know who they're get as a replacement. Too risky. Mastriano is still the better choice than Shapiro --more experienced in government and can get things done. Shapiro will get stopped by the senate with anything he wants to put thru. Wild has had 4 years to do something that would help the people in her district and not sure that it happened yet. Time for her to go--Time for someone that could get something done instead of being a Polosi puppet. Anyhow thats my take on this election.

Anonymous said...

Josh Shapiro never argued a case in his life. His life has been politics and his record as Attorney General is dismal. John Fetterman supposedly went to Harvard but he didn’t have the good sense to take heart disease seriously when diagnosed four years ago. So - give me a retired army colonel with combat experience and strategic planning experience and a world renowned Cardio thoracic surgeon with patents on two heart valves born and educated in PA. I’m not a Scheller fan but Wild is no friend to the Lehigh Valley (unless you think as she does). Pennsylvanians will suffer and our state will lose citizens if those Dems are elected. If supposed negative ads are all they have, then shouldn’t that be a concern

Anonymous said...

Weed is the only thing Fetty has right. He's being either dishonest or cowardly regarding his health. But Oz has had the state to himself for over two months. He left the country on vacation and fell farther behind.

Anonymous said...

There used to be a complaint (and its still valid) that "Coastal Elites" have overlooked and forgotten about "Fly Over Country" and rural areas.

One thing is now also true - Middle America/Rural voters are overlooking and ignoring urban areas and voters. Reading comments on this post and many others, it is very clear this country is living in 2 separate bubbles, yet neither will acknowledge that each one needs the others for this country to continue.

The anger and vitriol needs to stop. The gamesmanship, the tit for tat parliamentary bullshit needs to end.

Acknowledge, work for and respect the freedoms and rights of ALL Americans, even the ones you disagree with.

Anonymous said...

Mastriano claims he found the actual shell casings from Sgt. York's medal of honor battle in France. These casings were the same ones issued to the approximately 2.8 million soldiers that served overseas during WWI. I'm sure he has all the bullshitting experience he needs.

Shapiro never met a camera he didn't like. constantly running for the next office and makes no issue with letting people know he wants to be the first Jewish president.

Megalomaniacs, the both of them.

Nov will come down to what motivates the turnout, simple as that.

Anonymous said...

With less that 100 days until Election Day, a lot can still change, but without a doubt it looks like the GOP is going to potentially soil the mattress this fall.

Biden is at Trump level approval #'s which should equate to a landslide Republican takeover, but the "Generic Ballot" lead which Republicans had held since last fall has evaporated over the past 8 weeks and is now a dead heat.

Interestingly - neither party has really been above low to mid 40's, while Dems floated around 47-48% in the run up to 2018.

Another broad level example is voter enthusiasm, where as recently as this past February, the GOP had a 10 point lead in likely voter enthusiasm over Dems. That lead is down to 2 points as of last week.

SCOTUS/Roe v Wade and Jan 6th Committee revelations are eroding a lot of would be GOP support.

Again its still early - plenty of time for things to change.

Anonymous said...

Here we go again masks, mandates of all kinds, shut down the economy especially small business taxes will go up, no property tax relief. The people the Dems are putting will make Wolf look like a conservative.

Anonymous said...

The Republican Party LITERALLY intends to overthrow the Constitution and free elections.

Not much else to consider, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

The repubs need to lose power until they shed the maga folks.
repubs created the monster and they have to accept political losses.
More and more middle of the road conservative voters will be pressing to oust the maga groups as they are a drag in the general elections
The maga forget that the louder they scream the more the average voter goes deaf.
Death sentence Desantis is starting to grab the trumpie crowd by offering a younger, smarter, and more capable politician than trump.
Even Fox is dumping trump.
So the repubs can shed the trumper maga folks and try to gain power.
It will be tough as the coup attempt will hurt them as well as women punishing them for the theocracy push.
conservatives would benefit from trump doing the perp walk as they can claim it is all trumps fault not theirs.

Reginald Kress said...

I hope you are correct, Mr. Bernie . . . We thought TFG would lose . . .

Anonymous said...

I am amazed that it’s all of a sudden bad to be doing business in China. Our government encouraged businesses to expand to China. It also asked the Chinese to purchase our debt. And while we are at it, that cell phone that you will no doubt use today was a result of Chinese manufacturing. (70% of cell phones sold in US were from China) Every American business sought a trading relationship with the Chinese to reduce their costs, particularly labor. The shots against Scheller are not warranted unless you have stopped buying any Chinese products which means you live in a cave heated by fire and lit by sunlight. Our country permitted its manufacturing base to evaporate leaving us in an indefensible position. Scheller should lose for better reasons than that.

Anonymous said...

Republican are their worse enemy...how about Democrats are? What do you all think about vice president Harris introduction of herself with pronouns and sitting at a table and in blue suit? Like a bad Dr. Seuss book!!And the Republicans are the problem? What has happened to our country??

Anonymous said...

The table was set for the R's to have a huge year, but this post is right on. R's will still win the house, maybe pick up 15 seats but that's about it. The senate will go Dem 51-49 as I see it right now. D's have a very tough map for 2024 in the senate though, so if the R's get their shit together and find some decent candidates they could take the senate in 24. Herschel Walker, Oz, Mastriano, I mean c'mon man! There's got to be better people out there than that. Trump is the elephant in the room, I think many R's privately want him to ride off into the sunset but his ego won't allow it.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Shapiro never met a camera he didn't like. constantly running for the next office and makes no issue with letting people know he wants to be the first Jewish president."

I agree with the first half of this sentence. Shapiro is certainly opportunistic. I am troubled by the second part. While I've heard others mention him as America's first Jewish President, I never heard that from Shapiro himself. Some of those saying so are laudatory, while others are anti-Semitic. I think a large segment of the population is still quite biased. I believe Shapiro's religion should be irrelevant.

Anonymous said...

You must be joking. If there's any party that wants authoritarian/totalitarian government, it's the Democrat party

Anonymous said...

It's true; abortion is a big bucks industry, and it's just as good at throwing money around as any other industry with a powerful lobby.

Anonymous said...

Big Abortion is spending a lot of money. The best response is from companies that will pay to ship a sexually active female out for an abortion. That's a lot cheaper than FMLA and goes directly to a healthier bottom line. In other words: "Get rid of the kid and get back to work, you ho!" This is the full manifestation of the women's movement: a reduction to their private parts as mammalian breeders and their value as a means of production. We're so evolved now. Women strong!

the Huntress said...

I haven't read any policy issues debated here, its all about cult of personality and the horse race. I guess that's because, on the Republican side, they have put forward nothing...nothing...crickets. Dem policies like negotiating drug prices for medicare, money to try to make a dent in reducing potentially worse effects of climate change, re-up subsidies for Obamacare that has become even more popular, minimum tax of 15% on large corps worth over 1 billion, beef up IRS to finally have capability to nab wealthy tax dodgers, are popular with the MAJORITY of people. Not the brainwashed Fox-watching public of course, but the rest of America that knows its ass from a hole in the ground. Bernie, you are guilty of the same here. What specific policies that any of the Dem candidates support do you have a problem with. Your descriptions of them are generalized and at least 1 you hold a grudge against bc they beat your candidate in a primary. C'mon folks this is not a beauty contest. There is a real choice here. One leads to actual governance, the other leads to the potential end of democracy and that's not hyperbole with guys like Mastriano.

Anonymous said...

GOP has put forth a Jan 6th Big Lie True Believer and Conspiracy Lover for Governor and a "I Know That Guy From My TV!" for Senate (who is only mildly associated with our state).

I feel bad for a lot of my intelligent and reasoned Republican leaning friends, they are frustrated and angry at losing elections on a regular basis and do sometimes lazily lean on some of the "they cheated!" excuses, but in their hearts they know that White Christian Nationalist platforms and talking points have almost everything to do with these loses. Those platforms and talking points simply appeal to about 40% of the population and 40 will always lose to 60, even 50, 45 or 41%. Its just simple math.

Anonymous said...

I suspect the last poster hasn't a single "Republican-leaning" friend. I further suspect he has no friends at all, and has deep conversations with made up friends who strangely all agree with him because he is brilliant. Also, 89.78% of all statistics are made up. And 97.62% of those made up statistics are pulled directly from posters' rectums. Simple math is right.

Anonymous said...

The math right now is about not moving from republican or democrat and going party lines which will always make Democrats win because theirs just more of them in Pennsylvania

Anonymous said...

I suspect that 3:36 has his head up his own rectum and really enjoys the smell up there.

Take a look at what happened in that rAdIcAl LeFt wIng paradise of Kansas last night if you don't think the GOP has screwed the pooch. The abortion issue trumps the economy...

Anonymous said...

BO, I'll admit that it is second hand information on being the first Jewish President. I've been informed on more than one occasion, from multiple Democrat legislators in Harrisburg about his goal. Nothing anti-Semitic about the post. I do believe it is and should be irrelevant. Apparently to Shapiro it is not.

Anonymous said...

@9:20 You call Kansas "that rAdIcAl LeFt wIng paradise " But you should check your facts before you spew your horseshit. It seems to me that the GOP is following its incestual policy beyond the politicians which lead it. The reality is quite different in that there are far more republicans then democrats (almost double) in the state. as of 07/2022 Republicans 851,882 - Democrats 495,574 - Libertarians 22,207 - Unaffiliated 560,309 Total 1,929,972 SO it is not just democrats who women should have a choice.

I may be reading it wrong but I am gathering that you might be a self empowered angry old white man or hollier then though religious zealot who does not feel women should have any choices and have deemed Kansas a "rAdIcAl LeFt wIng paradise" even though many of your own have sided with the right for women to chose.

I know it is a crushing mental defeat for those that think they can tell everyone else what to do and how to do it without thinking they have to play by the same rules they inflict on others.

Anonymous said...

Don't you mean "worst" enemy?

Anonymous said...

Bernie, where’s your blog on your favorite Republican targets in Norco? Maybe check out what they’ve been up to since the chair/vice chair election.