Fetterman’s debate showing raises questions | Letters

What were the advisers to Democratic Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman thinking when they agreed to the Oct. 25 debate with Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz?

Fetterman suffered a stroke six months ago that almost killed him. He survived; however, he was left with some serious deficits. Those deficits were on display at the debate.

Fetterman had a great deal of difficulty expressing his views on various topics. He repeated himself and was not very convincing. He needed the aid of a teleprompter as a result of his stroke.

Two years ago, he clearly indicated opposition to “fracking,” a system that involves injecting fluid into shale rock to capture oil and natural gas. But, at the debate, he indicated his approval of fracking and seemed to be unable to express his reasons for his change of mind. This is just one example.

I applaud Fetterman’s attempt to try to overcome the effects of the stroke. Hopefully, with time and proper rehabilitation, he will succeed.

However, the big question must be whether or not he is able to assume the full-time duties, with all they entail, of a U.S. senator.

Paul Bunkin, Turnersville

What happened to ‘safe, legal, RARE,’ abortion policy?

Gov. Phil Murphy’s Oct.15 speech in Florida, as reported in the South Jersey Times (“GOP to blame for ‘activist judges’ who ‘force their unpopular agenda’ on women”), seemed quite disingenuous to me. Murphy was in Florida to support the Democrats’ candidates there.

The New Jersey governor blames the Republicans for the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, which overturned the nationwide abortion rights in the court’s earlier 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But, Dobbs did not make abortion illegal, it turned regulation over to individual states — where it should have been all along.

Progressives, including Murphy, obsessively promote abortion rights found nowhere specifically in the Constitution. Many Democrats have abandoned their former mantra of keeping abortion “safe, legal, and rare” that was once the center of their politics. Now, they call people who want pro-life and pro-family policies “extremist.”

Unborn children are dehumanized by dismissing them as clumps of cells that are not alive, while it elevates the woman’s right to choose to be above all considerations.

In Florida, Murphy said, “I find it odd about how many people who clutch the Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other only ever end up proving that they’ve never actually read either one.”

Considering his radical policies, I doubt if he has ever read them either. In my belief, God’s word is clear that children are created in God’s image and are gifts from Him.

Murphy may think that the abortion issue is going to help Democrats win legislative seats and governorships in the midterm election, but he may be sadly mistaken.

Barbara Essington, Carneys Point Township

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