Posted on 10/20/2008 11:49:49 AM PDT by Gopher Broke
John McCain and an Army of Joes
The real anger at McCain’s rallies
By Byron York
National Review
October 20, 2008
Woodbridge, Va. -- Tito Munoz was ready to rock when John McCain showed here up at the Connaughton Community Plaza in Woodbridge, Virginia Saturday afternoon. Dressed in a yellow hard hat covered with McCain-Palin stickers, wearing an orange high-visibility vest, Munoz carried a hand-lettered sign that said CONSTRUCTION WORKER FOR McCAIN. He got a coveted spot in the bleachers directly behind McCain, where he could be seen in the camera shot along with the guy holding the sign that said PHIL THE BRICK LAYER and the woman with the ROSE THE TEACHER banner. He cheered a lot.
Everybody was playing on the Joe-the-Plumber theme. McCain spent a lot of time on it in his stump speech, using the now-famous Joe Wurzelbacher of Toledo, Ohio, as a stand-in for “small businessmen and women all over America [who] want to keep their earnings and not give it to the government.” McCain added that Obama’s response to Wurzelbacher — the assertion that it would be best to “spread the wealth around” — made Joe the Plumber “the only person to get a real answer out of Sen. Obama.”
The crowd laughed and cheered. But for them, Joe the Plumber is much more than a zinger in McCain’s stump speech. In recent days, the Joe the Plumber phenomenon has taken on a deeper meaning for McCain’s audiences, for two reasons. First, he is a symbol of their belief that Barack Obama is going to raise their taxes, regardless of what Obama says about hitting up only those taxpayers who make more than $250,000 a year. They know Wurzelbacher doesn’t make that much, and they know they don’t make that much. And they’re not suspicious because they believe that someday they will make $250,000, and thus face higher taxes. No, they just don’t believe Obama right now. If he’s elected, they say, he’ll eventually come looking for taxpayers who make well below a quarter-million dollars, and that will include them.
The second reason Joe the Plumber resonates with the crowds is what his experience says about the media. Everybody here seems acutely aware of the once-over Wurzelbacher received from the press after his chance encounter with Obama was reported, first on Fox News, and then mentioned by McCain at last week’s presidential debate. Wurzelbacher found himself splashed across newspapers and cable shows, many of which reported that he didn’t have a plumber’s license, that he wasn’t a member of the plumbers’ union, that he had a lien against him for $1,182 in state taxes, and that he failed to comprehend what many commentators apparently felt was the indisputable fact that Barack Obama would lower his taxes, not raise them. As the people here in Woodbridge saw it, Joe was a guy who asked Barack Obama an inconvenient question — and for his troubles suddenly found himself under investigation by the media.
In the audience Saturday, there were plenty of people who were mad about it. There was real anger at this rally, but it wasn’t, as some erroneous press reports from other McCain rallies have suggested, aimed at Obama. It was aimed at the press. And that’s where Tito Munoz came in.
After McCain left, as the crowd filed out, Munoz made his way to an area near some loudspeakers. He attracted a few reporters when he started talking loudly, in heavily-accented English, about media mistreatment of Wurzelbacher. (It was clear that Spanish was Munoz’s native language, and he later told me he was born in Colombia.) When I first made my way over to him, Munoz thought I was there to give him the third degree.
“Are you going to check my license, too?” he asked me. “Are you going to check my immigration status? I’m ready, I have everything here. Whatever you want, I have it. I have my green card, I have my passport — “
I was a little surprised. Did Munoz really bring his papers with him to a McCain rally? I asked.
“Yeah, I have my papers right here,” he said. “I’m an American citizen. Right here, right here.” With that, he produced a U.S. passport, turned it to the page with his picture on it, and thrust it about an inch from my nose. “Right here,” he said. “In your face.”
Munoz said he owned a small construction business. “I have a license, if you guys want to check,” he said.
Someone asked why Munoz had come to the rally. “I support McCain, but I’ve come to face you guys because I’m disgusted with you guys,” he said. “Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber? Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. . . . I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A.”
The scene turned into a mini-fracas when David Corn, of Mother Jones, defended press coverage. Munoz was having none of it. Why, he asked, would the press whack Joe the Plumber when it didn’t want to report on Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber? “How come that’s not in the news all the time?” Munoz said. “How come Joe the Plumber is every second? I’m talking about NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN.”
A black woman with a strong Caribbean accent jumped in the fray. “Tell me,” she said to Corn, “why is it you can go and find out about Joe the Plumber’s tax lien and when he divorced his wife and you can’t tell me when Barack Obama met with William Ayers? Why? Why could you not tell us that? Joe the Plumber is me!”
“I am Joe the Plumber!” Munoz chimed in. “You’re attacking me.”
“Wait a second,” Corn said. “Do you pay your taxes?”
“Yes, I pay my taxes,” the woman said.
“Then you’re better than Joe the Plumber,” Corn said.
That set off a general free-for-all. “I’m going to tell you something,” Munoz yelled at Corn. “I’m better than Obama. Why? Because I’m not associated with terrorists!”
And so it went. I walked away for a few minutes to strike up a conversation with the woman who had jumped into the debate. Her name was Connie, and she said she had been born and raised in Antigua, in the West Indies. “I immigrated to the United States over 20 years ago,” she told me. “It’s my home. America has become my home. I came here freely of my own free will because I loved it, and I loved what it had to offer, and I don’t want to see it ruined.”
I asked her whether it was difficult, as a black person, to support McCain at a time when probably 90 to 95 percent of black voters support Obama. “I have always been a conservative,” she told me. “I’m mad. I was extremely upset to see the way the media went after Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. . . . To see the drive-by media and the Obama campaign attack two ordinary Americans simply because one of them managed to get Barack Obama to tell the truth, it was shameful and disgraceful.”
Meanwhile, the great debate was continuing, with Tito the Construction Worker and David the Journalist trading points. Much of it wasn’t terribly informative, but there was one lovely moment when a shouting match turned into a lesson on the fundamental meaning of American constitutional rights — and the immigrant was the teacher.
“Let me talk,” Munoz said to Corn. “I know the Constitution, and I know my First Amendment — ”
“I’m not the state,” Corn said. “I can’t take that right away from you.”
“No, no,” Munoz shot back. “Even the state, the state cannot take that right away.”
“Right, right,” Corn quickly agreed.
“Nobody can take that away,” Munoz said.
And indeed they can’t.
I’m ex-Navy also. Sonar on a DD, old Fletcher Class.
I tend to agree with Rushs’ terminology. Drive-bys, be they gangs or the media, tend to be indescriminate with their fire.
“Wait a second,” Corn said. “Do you pay your taxes?”
Pop!
Right there is where I splatter David Corn's nose all over his face.
Don’t believe the polls. People are mad.
I agree.
I'm in Texas, not a swing state, so I likely won't see either McCain or Obama, but wouldn't it be awesome if from now on, all the Freepers who can make it to rallies do so with plungers held high and proud? For those like me in non-battleground states, I ask you to think about doing what I plan to do...MAIL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN A PLUNGER WITH A MESSAGE...."WE ARE ALL JOE!" Might be fun to mail plungers to the "news" departments at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC, too...might even send a thrill up Chris Mathews' leg!
God Bless John and Sarah, and the army of Joe's out there...we can do this....together, we can defeat Obamunism!
pabianice, RC2 - proud Navy vet here too...I was a snipe Electrician’s Mate in Ronald Reagan’s Navy, and served aboard a Knox-class Frigate as well as the USS Forrestal out of Mayport.
Were you on the Forrestal when they had that mishap? I never could ride on a ship that rock and rolled like that. When we refueled from a carrier, I think some of the carriers crew got sick just watching us. We had a saying on Destroyers in a storm....”Over one and under two.” Waves that is.
And thank you. It was a good time and I have never had that feeling of togetherness since. Life was good.
Thanks for that list. I looked and saw a friend’s Dad listed on there. Awesome list.
Amazing thing.
My pleasure. I thought it was? Now how many generals are supporting 0bama? Isn’t it 2, like Weasly Clark (misspelling done on purpose) and Colon Powell?
Share Your Story - I am Joe the Plumber
johnmccain ^
Learn How Your Story might be McCain's new TV ad Create your own Joe the Plumber sign
How are you Joe? ( McCain camp creates contest for you to make a TV Ad)
How are you Joe the Plumber? Tell us in 30 seconds... During Barack Obama's recent event in Toledo, Ohio, "Joe the Plumber" asked a simple question and got a surprising answer from the Democratic nominee. When he asked why Barack Obama's tax plan was going to punish him for working hard and living the American Dream, Barack Obama responded, "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." In that brief exchange, the American people got to see what this campaign is all about ... a choice between honoring the hard work of everyday Americans like "Joe the Plumber"...
How are you Joe the Plumber? Tell us in 30 seconds...
During Barack Obama's recent event in Toledo, Ohio, "Joe the Plumber" asked a simple question and got a surprising answer from the Democratic nominee. When he asked why Barack Obama's tax plan was going to punish him for working hard and living the American Dream, Barack Obama responded, "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." In that brief exchange, the American people got to see what this campaign is all about ... a choice between honoring the hard work of everyday Americans like "Joe the Plumber" and increasing taxes to "spread the wealth." In these tough economic...
RC2, I was on her long after the mishap...I was there early 80’s. I rode her back in to Mayport on her last med cruise in ‘82 before she headed to Philly for an overhaul.
I remember well when I was I stationed on the Frigate the first few times we headed out to sea, I got sea sick...took a while for me to get my sea legs. They used to put a big bowl of crackers out on the mess decks, but they didn’t help much, lol.
I only came close to getting sick once. I was in the chow hall. I took off and went topside. After that I was OK. Yep, they said “crackers and get as high as you can.” I went up to the flyin bridge. Don’t know if it did any good but I kept busy so I didn’t have to think about it.
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