On Monday I received an email from the McCain campaign (of course, I want to know what each party is sending out via email). It was titled "I'm Joe the Plumber." After getting a good 45-second laugh out of just the title, I opened up the email to see "We want you to tell us how you are "Joe the Plumber" and why you're supporting John McCain and Sarah Palin in thirty seconds. You could even see your video as an official McCain TV ad."
And today -- Thursday, October 23 -- McCain kicked off a “'Joe the Plumber’ Keep Your Wealth Bus Tour,” tour in Florida. This is apparently what he's going to go with for a while to see if it works.
I'd like to go through the sequence of events that brought us to this strange state of affairs.
1. Obama canvased neighborhoods in Holland, Ohio. A plumber named Joe came up to him and asked him if he'd be taxed more under Obama's plan.
1. McCain brought Joe up first just 6 minutes into the third debate and then kept going back to him. If he hadn't brought him up, it's possible nobody would have heard of him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pssvmgEWVqM
2. Then McCain goes on to say how bad Obama's plan would be for Joe. But if you watch the video of Obama talking to Joe, you'll see that he explains the plan very well to him and Joe really doesn't have any objections at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPbCSSXyp0
I think it's important to see the whole video. Obama spends over 5 minutes talking to Joe. Of course, what do the people watching conservative Fox News see? Just three clips taken out of context that "prove" to them what a socialist he is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD0GRxzlwmg
He does make the unfortunate "spread the wealth around" comment and that would end up being the money shot for the McCain campaign. But, if he's basically reversing the tax cuts for the wealthy that Bush implemented (or, really, just not renewing them when they expire), is he really a huge socialist for that? I don't get it.
Here's a video commentary where the host makes a very good point: Would anybody really not buy a business if, after the business pulled in $250,000 a year they had to pay 3% more taxes above the $250,000? That's just goofy. Oh, I couldn't pay that... I'll just go work as an unlicensed plumber instead...or maybe at McDonalds...
Well, now we know that Joe probably isn't going to be purchasing the company. As one writer say it "It turns out Wurzelbacher is getting ready to do that pretty much the way I'm getting ready to play the romantic lead in the next Anne Hathaway movie." [http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnists/hc-colin1019.artoct19-col,0,6280248.column]
3. Here's where the silliness comes in. McCain accuses Barack Obama's campaign of "digging through his personal life" because he asked Obama a tough question. He goes on to say:
"Last weekend, Senator Obama showed up in Joe's driveway to ask for his vote, and Joe asked Senator Obama a tough question. I'm glad he did; I think Senator Obama could use a few more tough questions," McCain told supporters. "The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe. People are digging through his personal life and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn't recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks."Read the full story here:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/10/18/mccain_defends_joe_the_plumber/
First of all, it was the media who descended upon Joe, which is what they do.
Second, Obama didn't "show up in his driveway." Joe walked through the crowd to ask Obama the question. In addition, I saw an extended video which has more time at the beginning and shows him walking very purposefully up to Obama. I can't find the exact one right now, but will post it if I do.
Third, McCain states "He wasn't recruited or prompted by our campaign." So I'd like to know if McCain said this in a response to somebody else asking if he was recruited or if he came up with this on his own. If the latter, it would turn out to be a "me thinks he doth protest too much" moment -- as why else would he state such a thing out of the blue. (Think: "I didn't eat the cookie... what cookie? didn't you mention a cookie?)
Some people believe he may actually have been recruited after all. To me, he seemed too deliberate and rehearsed, such as in "I'm getting ready to buy a company that makes two hundred... about $250 uh... $270, $280 thousand dollars a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it." I almost see the gears in his head going "oops, I need to get higher than $250,000 or he'll just say I won't be affected at all." And does anybody actually use the phrase "The American Dream" in real conversation? But then again, I'm becoming a conspiracy theorist.
I've heard two rebuttals on the case of Joe being a plant.
First: How can he be a plant when it was Obama that came to his neighborhood. True, this would make it unlikely. If he'd moved into his place right after it was announced that Obama would be in the neighborhood, then that would be one thing (if indeed there were an announcement, of which I have no idea). So that is certainly farfetched. However, what if McCain's camp found out he'd be there and somebody went out beforehand to find this guy and get it set up? What if he were a friend of a friend? I'm not saying this happened, but that it is not outside the realm of possibility. What if he has to support McCain even though Obama's plan benefits him more or else the Secret Service will visit him some evening. But I digress again...
Second: The second isn't really a rebuttal, but is the statement that it doesn't matter if Joe was lying or if he were a plant -- he stands for all of the regular workers out there. Aside from the fact that I don't want to make this goof ball an archetypal character, I do think it matters that he was lying -- doesn't it always matter if a person is lying to you? If we don't like that from our politicians or from others around us, then why should we give this guy a pass. And if you don't mind that it was a setup from the McCain camp, then would you mind if they set up other things ... say, fake terrorist threats?
Anyway, back to the silly sequence of events:
- Several days before the debate: Obama canvases an Ohio neighborhood; Joe walks up to him and asks him some questions.
- October 15: McCain brings up Joe just 6 minutes into the debate -- he mentions his name 21 times to Obama's 5.
- October 17: McCain calls Joe a victim of attacks by Obama's campaign.
- October 17: At a rally in Florida, McCain encouraged the crowd to "send Joe an e-mail and tell him you're with him." [http://www.wbir.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=66892&catid=16]
- October 20: McCain sends out "I'm Joe the Plumber" email. Advertisements follow.
- October 23: McCain begins "Joe the Plumber" tour.
Here's a funny video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3nmVKghL-c
It's pretty much what political ads are like, except you get the best laugh at the final shot when it you are told that the ad was put on by "Plumbers Cracking the Case for Truth."
One last thing: Book deal. Really. Maybe Joe found his American Dream after all...
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