Posted on 10/16/2008 11:08:02 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
NEW YORK – John McCain hung his final presidential debate performance on an Ohio plumber who campaign aides never vetted.
A day after making Joseph Wurzelbacher famous, referencing him in the debate almost two dozen times as someone who would pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, McCain learned the fine print Thursday on the plumber’s not-so-tidy personal story: He owes back taxes. He is not a licensed plumber. And it turns out that Wurzelbacher makes less than $250,000 a year, which means he would receive a tax cut if Obama were elected president.
McCain likes to say that he isn’t George W. Bush – and in this case of bungled public relations, it is clear he is not. The famously-disciplined Bush campaign operation would likely have found the perfect anonymous citizen to illustrate a policy proposal, rather than spontaneously wrap itself around an unknown entity with so many asterisks.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Joe the Plumber has been vetted more thoroughly by the MSM then Obama has.
The MSM ignored “Can Lady” the one who claimed she had to pick up aluminum cans to make ends meet in the 2000 election despite that fact she was a Gore plant.
Citizens of this country must now be VETTED in order to question or voice an opinion according to the new rules of the so called media! Let’s tell them we will not be silenced. They are disgraceful and I am saddened at how they are making “The land of the free” look like a joke in the eyes of the world. They have gone too far with their Obamania.
spoiled indeed...by way to much of our tax money and by the blood of totally selfish abortion freedom. If we need to have a civil war to stop the murder of unborn children, then let’s get it over with.
If this was Jose the Plumber I don't think the Obamaggots in the Obamedia would have a problem with any of this.
RE: Well That Didn’t Take Long [Mark Hemingway]
Getting a lot of emails along these lines:
I don’t know why I’m e-mailing you, except that I just need to vent to someone on The Corner. Pass this around to the others if you like — I bet I’m not the only one.
I really don’t like McCain. I’ll probably vote for him just as a vote for divided government. I’m far too libertarian in my leanings to be comfortable with McCain (or Obama, for that matter).
That said, the way the pro-Obama media and bloggers, and Obama himself, have responded to Joe has got me nearly shaking with rage. They are attempting to destroy a man — a private citizen — who had the audacity to ask The One a question. Mind you, Joe was on his front lawn playing football with his son when Obama strolled up to give him his hopenchange spiel. Obama approached Joe, not the other way around. And Joe asked Obama an honest question. And Obama gave him an honest — and very, very revealing — answer. Again, mind you, the embarassment was on Obama’s end, not Joe’s. It wasn’t a gotcha question.
And yet, for that Joe is being pilloried, every aspect of his private and professional life being sorted through and exposed. To prove ... what? What does that have to do with Obama’s answer? What does Joe’s situation have to do with Obama’s philosophical answer — that he wants to “spread the wealth”? Obama’s answer goes down the memory hole while the nation concentrates its fire on obliterating Joe the Plumber.
It’s sickening, it’s maddening and it’s downright chilling.
Sorry for the length. But I am just SEETHING.
And:
I was at LSAT class tonight and the instructor had the audacity to state that Joe the Plumber is a “lunatic” fit to be paralized because he allegedly questioned the merits of social security. The instructor then went on to construct a sample question in which Joe the Plumber is confined to a wheel chair because he has been run down by McCain’s ‘straight talk express’ bus.
Mind you, this professional “educator” graduated from Georgetown, Harvard Law, and Harvard Business. And I’m supposed to be worried about Sarah Palin’s lack of an “elite” education?
And:
I could care less about Joe’s background, whether he’s legit, or whether he is a McCain operative. What I do care about is that I could be attacked like a public figure simply for asking a question, like Joe. I am chilled. No longer undecided either.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDI0ZTZmODRhNGI4MWEzNGQ2NWNmZmI3Nzg3ZGFmZDg=
“The media is doing this to draw attention TO Joe and AWAY from what Obama said about spreading the wealth around; this is typical rat behavior.... we all need to keep the eye on the real ball here and it is Obama’s comment.”
If that’s it, then ‘ol Joe just needs to hit back. Say, something like “Most of the media is investigating me more than they are Sen. Obama.” Turn it right back on them...
I am an average income American too, and I wish to heck McCain would pick up on this stupid mantra that tax breaks are “giving money to the “rich” people” and jam it right back into Obama’s socialist teeth. The money in question is the rightful possession of those who have legally earned it, rich or not. A tax break means less is being forcibly taken away, not that something is being given to someone who does not deserve it. I also wish Palin, if not McCain, would start using the word “Socialist” in connection with the “spread the wealth” comment.
Now, if Barack wants to heavily tax those who supported the imposition of risky mortgages onto the banks, that’s fine by me...
We all know what Joe said, the msm is spinning away trying to make McCain look bad again. Totally transparent.
McCain has the perfect issue to drive home right now and I wonder if he even knows it. The Democrats want to drop the tax breaks for 401k’s and make it mandatoryeveryone donates 5% into a retirement plan administed by Social Security....this in addition to the 6.2% of income the employee already pays into SS... I don’t see anything here other than a flim-flam to add an additional amount into SS... where is the self-investment benefit?
It’s a deliberate spin. Joe was on Neil Cavuto today, he is no idiot, spoke very well and clear.
exactly! And they are so obvious as usual.
McCain has the perfect issue to drive home right now and I wonder if he even knows it. The Democrats want to drop the tax breaks for 401k’s and make it mandatory everyone donates 5% into a retirement plan administrated by Social Security....this in addition to the 6.2% of income the employee already pays into SS... I don’t see anything here other than a flim-flam to add an additional amount into SS... where is the self-investment benefit? The dems are going to hold hearings on this next week. Every GOP candidate should take this and run with it...
Just like they did after McCain announced Palin - they run to scrap up any crap they can find and even reshape it to smear on something that may give a Republican edge.
This really is one of the nastiest elections in my lifetime. As usual, because of any dems, it's getting nastier every day.
“I will always believe this was a God thing, and Satan’s minions recognize it as such, thus their fury”.
..you really nailed this. I was struck when I heard his interviews on how well spoken he is. Better than McCain. As well as Palin. All of his talking points are out of the conservative “handbook”.
The treatment of JTP is a preview of what will happen to anyone who dares to question “The Messiah”
We’re going to know a lot more about Joe than we do about Bill Ayers before all this is over.
But make no mistake this is a deliberate smear and the old Saul Alinsky tactic of “otherizing” someone.
In my mind, Joe is being brownshirted by thugs.
This looks like a communist country when you have someone criticize a government official and embarrass them and then they get demonized by the media.
OMG he owes back taxes!!! isn’t there a Congressman name Charlie Rangel out there that owes some back taxes.
why doesn’t the MSM crucify Obama for not knowing about
Bill Ayres?
The MSM completely missed the point attacking an average “Joe”.
They let themselves open for a knock out.
Obama-Biden allies are absolutely trashing him as if Joe himself was their opponent.
IN DOING SO, THEY ARE TURNING JOE INTO A MARTYR!
Americans have identified completely with Joe and the Obama campaign is now being clearly seen as the enemy of the everyday guy!
They are demonstrating big government socialists are not our friends but our BITTER AND VINDICTIVE ENEMIES!
A simple truth, as articulated by Joe, is fifty times more powerful than all the packaged lying delivered by the ton using $450 million in campaign contributions delivered by the world's most vicious tyrants, terrorists and thugs.
These are not people with whom we can ever reach common ground.
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