Posted on 10/16/2008 5:47:29 AM PDT by Tolik
The title of this piece His invisible friend Joe the Plumber comes from a line with which MSNBCs Keith Olbermann started his late-night post-debate broadcast on Wednesday night.
The problem with the hosts description is that Joe the Plumber is anything but invisible. To the taxman. Now, to the candidates. I dont know if Joe the Plumber will win the election for John McCain. But he should.
Because in the end this election is all about freedom. And Senator Government is not.
Joe the Plumber, as everyone by the end of this weekend is liable to know, is one Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber who wants to buy a business but knows its going to hurt him, tax-wise, if Barack Obama becomes president.
To his concerns, Obama told Joe: Its not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that theyve got a chance at success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.
What does that sound like to you. Could it be . . . Marx? Could it be . . . socialism?
In an Internet interview this week, after his now-infamous run-in with Barack Obama, Plumber Joe worried about just that: You start giving people stuff, and then they start expecting it and that scares me. A lot of people expect it now. They get upset when their checks late, they get upset when they dont get as many benefits as they used to, or when different government agencies are cut or spending is cut here and there for whatever reason people get upset at that. And thats because theyre used to getting it and they want more. I mean, everyones always gonna want more. People work the system left and right to get more out of welfare, to get more out of state assistance, federal assistance. And if governments there for them, theyre gonna keep on trying to manipulate it to get more out of it. You got people that come along and say, Hey, I wanna help you people, I mean, theyre all ears! Theyre like, Hey, you can help me more, I dont have to work as hard, I dont have to do as much, and youre gonna give me this? Man, thats great, youre a good guy.
He continued, So yeah, it goes down the socialist His health-care plan scares me. You know, I dont like people going without health care, but its not my job to pay for everyone elses health care. Its hard enough paying for my own. I like the idea of deregulation as far as nationally, you know, you only get insurance companies that can work in this state if you deregulate that then you have more people competing and then the prices would go lower. It seems pretty simple to me. It probably isnt that simple but you flood the market with more products, usually they go down cheaper.
Whereas John McCain talked Wednesday night about things like choice and not the murdering type Obama did Barack Obama rightly worries Americans like Plumber Joe.
In this election, the burdens of our taxpayers have been an afterthought in the face of an unprecedented government takeover of the mortgage industry. But excessive government comes at an excessive cost not just in economic theory, but to very real people. (Thats real in the sense of non-imaginary, Keith.) I dont know how the Joe the Plumber strategy polls, but, for the sake of all the Joes out there, lets listen to the Plumbers concerns about what a President Obama would mean to all of our pocketbooks.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online.
OMG! How did Joe the Plumber escape the socialist indoctrination of the last 40+ years? Off to a re-education camp STAT!
It could be softened like that. But nobody ever gets ahead by following followers. And ‘indepentents’ and ‘moderates’ are followers.
If you lead, they will follow. If you let them lead, you go nowhere.
a) Obama is a man of poor judgement
b) He's just another lying politician
He gave us great ammo last night on the later count, with his very direct, articulate and incontrovertiable LIE about his only connection with ACORN being his one lawsuit in 1995.
Not up with spelling. Heh. The "correct" spelling one has been in use since 2004.
nope, it’s owned by another Joe in Amarillo, TX
He's going to get a media rectal exam that makes the Clarence Thomas hearings look like a walk in the park.
He's a legitimate threat to Obama because he puts a face on Obama's tax plan. He's about to get unloaded upon.
Hmmmm...Joe Biden, .....3 letter word...jobs......
Uh, is this about Joe’s own personal lobbyist dynasty?
Does anyone know...is Joe the Plumber getting local airtime in Ohio? If he’s become a bit of a celebrity now, and is getting some attention for his conversation with Obama, couldn’t that help McCain’s cause? We could really use Ohio in the “red” column...
Palin/Joe The Plumber ‘16!!
Easy...he ran his own business.
Everybody should be pushed to start their own business.
Even if it doesn't work out, it's a fantastic education that's worth the losses!!! Even if you fail, you win!!
Keith Obamaman is the invisible one. Most Americans wouldn’t be able to identify him in a photo. He and his butch buddy, Madcow, might as well be drawing a paycheck from the Obama campaign.
Is Joe the Plumber married? I think I am in love.
IN all seriousness, I would love to see a Palin/Jindahl ticket.
You are so right. Entrepreneurship should be taught in school as the assumed path one will take in life . . . rather than the outdated worker-bee/factory drone approach that I assume still pervades the public school system.
“Reviewing the polls printed in The New York Times and The Washington Post in the last month of every presidential election since 1976, I found the polls were never wrong in a friendly way to Republicans. When the polls were wrong, which was often, they overestimated support for the Democrat, usually by about 6 to 10 points”. Ann Coulter
...We need to keep away from the double digit leads. “Joe the plumber” will help a great deal. Just as Sarah Palin resonates with the the avaerage American, so will Joe. He needs to go on tour with McCain. Palin does fine on her own. McCain needs the “juice” of “Joe”.
Calling it socialism won't work (even though that's the truth). Republicans have used that playbook for decades and when people hear it, their eyes glaze over. In two paragraphs, Joe explained it in real terms that even a 5 year old could understand.
Conservatives really need to learn some new political jargon. Joe gave them some ideas.
If Joe is a small business owner as he claims, I doubt he has much free time to waste helping McCain. We know he is not wealthy, no matter how much Obama wants the nation to think he is. Joe’s main priority would be taking care of his business and keeping the money rolling in.
McCain is a big boy and he needs to step up to the plate.
Let Joe take care of his family.
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