Editorial: Did Fetterman-Oz debate change any minds?

For weeks and months, the question was out there.

When would the candidates for Pennsylvania’s first up-for-grabs U.S. Senate seat in years face off in a debate?

It finally happened Tuesday. So did it change anyone’s mind?

Maybe for some people. In reality, probably not for many.

It is increasingly hard to find an undecided voter in a world of blue urban jungles and red rural areas. Without voters who are still weighing their choices, it almost feels like the debate is a theatrical exercise at best.

It shouldn’t be. Debates should be one of the most important ways to make a decision. It is the way to see the candidates side by side and listen to how they deal with the same questions in real time.

Are the debates perfect? Not by a long shot. They should be civil. They should be focused. They should spotlight the ideas each candidate has for the important issues rather than becoming a muddy, bloody snowball fight where they lob hard-packed ice wrapped around the rocks of low blows. But that’s a Utopian dream that has never been the reality of political discourse.

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Instead, we are given debates where Lt. Gov. John Fetterman — the Democrat who went into the evening with a narrow lead and the heavy handicap of post-stroke complications hampering his speaking ability — gave exactly the performance his team had said was likely. He stumbled in places. He misplaced some words. He made it through, which could be a success when some questioned whether his five-month recovery would even let him stand that long.

It was a debate where Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was as smooth as a man with a long-running television career should be. He answered questions with a rapid-fire patter that might have left some confused about whether there really was an answer.

In the end, as with most debates, both sides left declaring victory and pundits found holes in the walls of words both built.

Maybe when it’s all said and done the Senate seat will be decided on the last question, the one that might prompt more passion than politics in Pennsylvania.

Moderators asked who would win Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles. Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock, predictably came down on the side of the Steelers while Oz endorsed the Eagles. They were the least political responses of the night, so perhaps if that’s what sways a vote, it’s progress.