With CHARLIE HARPER

JOHN Fetterman doesn’t look like a Washington politician. And that’s an understatement. This former mayor of a Rust Belt relic and current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania is an NBA-sized white man with a shaved head, goatee, visible tattoos and, to put it politely, an eccentric taste in clothing on the campaign trail. He has hardly followed a traditional path to political prominence, either. And yet, Fetterman won a resounding primary election victory this week to secure his place on the November ballot as the Democratic nominee for a US Senate seat from Pennsylvania that is critical to his party’s hopes to cling to its present precarious majority in the Senate.

Fetterman was a Bernie Sanders supporter as long ago as the 2016 presidential primary campaign, and while he certainly embraces many parts of his party’s “progressive” agenda, he has made clear that he decides on issues on their individual merits. This giant man, seeming even larger than his six-foot eight-inch height by the way he dresses and his casual grooming, has built a reputation for something largely missing in American politics these days: Integrity.

Here’s what former Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell had to say recently about Fetterman: “In part because of his history, in part because of his personality and in part because of just the way he is, he is a guy who a working-class blue-collar Democrat can look at and feel like he is looking at one of them.” Fetterman has run a strong, smart campaign, and has raised a whopping $16m through this spring. He has also made headlines by regularly visiting Democrats isolated in the hills and vales of Appalachian central Pennsylvania where Republicans have predominated since the days of Ronald Reagan.

In a four-way race in Tuesday’s primary election, Fetterman captured 60 percent of the total vote. He won every county in the state. To win an absolute majority in a contested four-way race is uncommon, to say the least. Republicans, whose Pat Toomey is retiring from the seat Fetterman seeks, should be wary in November. They may be facing a politician in whom voters may be able to believe.

It’s presently unclear whom Fetterman will face in November. There was a three-way Republican primary race between a hedge-fund millionaire, David McCormick; a TV doctor, Mehmet Oz, and an improbably radical right-wing zealot named Kathy Barnette who is also a black woman. That race was close, and the two men are headed for a recount as the margin between them is really small.

Whoever ultimately prevails for the GOP is not heading for an easy contest in six months. Increasingly rarely, but still every so often, an American politician emerges from national obscurity to develop a solid base and generate real momentum that can prove to be irreversible. On the evidence so far, John Fetterman may be one of those mesmerizing mysteries.

 “At the core of his argument is that he is one of those unique candidates that really forms a connection with voters,” one party strategist told reporters. How refreshing.

One million deaths

The COVID death toll in the US just passed one million, almost three percent of the total American population. That would be equivalent to more than a thousand deaths here in The Bahamas, where the toll is presently reported to be 801. Several American publications have studied the pandemic’s course and have reached some interesting findings. Here are some of them:

The first death in the US was reported on the last day of February 2020. Within seven weeks, the reported death toll reached 34,800, more losses than in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined plus the awful potential tally of nine attacks like the 9/11 terrorist assaults on New York and Washington.

Within eight more months, the tally of COVID victims had exceeded 300,000, and that was just before January 2021, the worst month of the pandemic so far, when 96,000 Americans died. However, within six months by last July, that grisly monthly toll had dropped to less than 9,000.

By the end of October 2021, fueled by the arrival of the delta variant, the total reached 744,000 and exceeded the number of Americans who died in the infamous 1918 influenza epidemic. Now in the grip of the omicron variant, the US is staggering again. And the anti-vaxxers and mask protests proliferate.

Good news on the ice and on the court in Florida

A check-in with South Florida’s ice and hoops playoff teams is at least partly reassuring. The Florida Panthers took care of business against the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin, who may yet break the all-time NHL scoring record now held by Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin, whose outspoken Russian patriotism has put him on the wrong side of US public opinion during the Ukraine war, trails Gordy Howe by only 21 goals and Gretzky by 114. He is 36 years old. He is still a prolific and ruthless scorer, but the Panthers are becoming recognised as a ruthless team themselves. Once they got over first-playoff-in-forever jitters, they prevailed.

Now the Cats face cross-state rival Tampa Bay, which defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in their first-round matchup. The Leafs, one of pro hockey’s Original Six franchises, haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, nor any playoff series at all in 18 years of sustained futility. The Leafs play in Canada’s great metropolis, have a rich if ancient history of success, and are certainly one of the most revered franchises in the game. Their long lack of success, especially in light of rival Montreal’s continued playoff relevance, has been a frustration for many hockey fans, in Canada and elsewhere.

But the Leafs were up against a juggernaut in the Lightning, the two-time defending NHL champions. And now, so too are the Panthers. The Cats are not favored by many oddsmakers despite their superior regular season record. Their grit and comeback skills will be sorely tested by the Tampa stars. In the opening game on Tuesday, the Panthers fell apart in the third period against Tampa’s relentless power play and lost 4-1, squandering their home ice advantage for the series. If you support the Panthers, it’s very hard to be optimistic about their chances.

Meantime, the Miami Heat are hosting the Boston Celtics along Biscayne Bay in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals. The Heat have had a much easier path to this round, and that can be an indication of ongoing success. Still, the Celtics, who have an even richer history in basketball than the Leafs do in hockey, are good. In dethroning the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, the Celtics remained committed to their league-leading team defensive approach and got enough individual scoring from their stars to oust Milwaukee.

However, the top-seeded Heat have the overall number four rated defense themselves. And both of these teams are playoff-tested. The Heat will make their eighth postseason appearance in the past 18 seasons, while the Celtics will make their seventh in the past 15. Miami is looking to make the NBA finals for the sixth time in the past dozen years. Boston will be hoping to snap a streak of four straight losses in the conference finals, including two to the Heat, most recently two years ago. The Heat and Celtics should offer a fascinating, balanced matchup.

In the West, the man-child, 23-year-old Slovenian Luka Doncic, forced the Dallas Mavericks past the heavily favored Phoenix Suns. The Mavs will now face those wily championship veterans, the Golden State Warriors. Seth Curry, Klay Thompson and especially Draymond Green will likely prevail over Doncic and Company, but it was amazing to watch Doncic on the floor against Phoenix. He looked like a man against boys at many times, moving around the perimeter and then toward the basket with an easy, almost effortless-looking efficiency. But Green and Thompson know how to play defense, as does this entire second-rated overall defensive team. Curry will light up the scoreboard. The Warriors should win.

Who will they face in the NBA finals? On Tuesday, the Heat fiddled around for the first half. Then their talisman, Jimmy Butler, scored 17 points in a decisive third quarter that the Heat won by 16 points. The hosts cruised to a crucial first-game triumph. If they keep this up, the Heat should find themselves matched with the Warriors in the final. That will be a treat.