Posted on 10/18/2008 5:56:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
Can Joe Wurzelbacher, Joe the Plumber from Ohio, change the course of this campaign? Thats one question that was raised at the third presidential debate. Wurzelbacher is the man who, in a moment caught on YouTube, confronts Barack Obama on his plan to raise taxes on people like him. Obama, sotto voce, replies that he wants to spread the wealth around. In the third consecutive week in which the headlines of the financial crisis have prompted both candidates to denounce Wall Street greed, the image of those whom Obama would tax higher was suddenly not an investment banker but a plumber.
The conventional wisdom going into the final debate was that the financial meltdown has pretty much finished off John McCains campaign and has made an Obama victory inevitable. The polls -- not just the national tracking polls but those in critical states -- have supported this view unequivocally. The Democratic Party entered this campaign year with impressive advantages that have been undercut by one surprising development after another -- the protracted and bitter contest for the Democratic nomination, the success of the surge strategy in Iraq, $4-a-gallon gasoline, the overgrandiosity of the Obama campaign.
Yet the narrow lead that McCain had after the conventions vanished (if the tracking polls can be trusted) precisely on Sept. 18, the day that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke observed a coagulation of credit that threatened to bring down the economy and, in response, advanced the 1.0 version of their financial bailout/rescue package.
In the days that followed, voters seemed to be unnerved by McCains impulsiveness and reassured by Obamas calmness. A majority reverted to the default mode of those long-ago days before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary: In bad times, throw the candidate of the in party out and put the candidate of the out party in.
It is obvious that the economic platform of neither candidate was fashioned with anything in mind quite like the situation the nation now faces. Obamas cadre of sophisticated economists, if they knew that we would be facing a recession with the potential of ripening into something more dire, would hardly have recommended raising taxes, even on the evil rich like the deposed Lehman Brothers CEO (a Democratic contributor) or Joe the Plumber (more inclined to Republicans). Nor would they have advocated, absent the demands of the unions which do so much to finance and man Democratic campaigns, opposing the Colombia Free Trade Agreement or renegotiating NAFTA.
DECISION TIME
Both Obama and McCain have recently advanced additional economic planks to help hard-pressed, middle-class Americans. But neither can claim to have contributed much in the way of substance to the actual steps that Paulson and Bernanke -- and, critically, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- have taken to get credit circulating in the blood veins of the economy once again. The fact is that neither Obama nor McCain knows precisely what he would do upon taking office Jan. 20, and voters may sense that it is naive to expect they should.
Democratic spin artists have dismissed McCains attacks on Obama as distractions amid a possible economic disaster, and I suspect they will be proved right. Yet it remains the case that about half the voters have doubts about Obama.
In three debates, the spin artists go on, Obama has shown that he more than meets the minimal standards for the office, as Ronald Reagan did in the single debate in 1980, and in a year like that one, in which most voters want the in party out, that will be enough. But the 1980 debate was on the Thursday before the election, and the decisive swing came over the weekend. Voters took almost every minute they could. Will they take more time this year, and give some thought to Joe the Plumber?
McCain needs to stay on message with Joe the Plumber.
He is the face of blue collar, middle America and the economy.
Small businesses are the evil rich in Obamanation, not the fat cat CEO contributors to Obama.
Warren Buffet is going to get even RICHER in this economy and under Obama, while the Joe’s of the world are losing everything.
This is correct...I’d mention him 24/7 til the election and while I am, I’d also point out the drive-bys (and bambi) are more interested in “vetting” the AMERICAN PEOPLE than they are bambi. At every turn I’d mention bambi came to HIS neighborhood. And rightly as explained earlier, McCain should point out that Americans have a right to question the candidates. Rightly point out the govt is to serve the people, not the other way around.
Once that is out of the way I’d remind AMerica they don’t know who bambi is...a person that wants us to beliueve for some 20 YEARS he either napped in church or didn’t hear Wright’s hate whitey insanity.
Joe the Plumber can’t turn it around by himself. Joe is getting screwed by the news media wing of the Democratic Party.
I saw that and it was disgusting. It reminded me of his ad when he ridiculed John McCain because he couldn't use a computer. It's typical of a common street bully. That is all what Obama is
“I can’t believe the McCain camp didn’t vet this poly plant.”
Your statement that Joe is a “poly plant” is false. Thank you for your Democrat contribution to this thread.
Is it me or do some of the "old timers" seem to be coming out of the woodwork and revealing themselves?
Again, it’s obvious
Both of those reality glimpses of the real Obama should scare the hell out any independent or Republican voter.
Obama if elected will make Hitler look like a beginner re how we will be treated by Barack the Bully and his thugs.
Had a tall glass of drive-by koolaid this morning, huh .......
A real man like JOE should take a plunger to your head and suck out what little brains are left!
A real man like JOE should challenge your conflicted candidate to a debate on Marxism versus Capitalism and expose what the evil anti-American has in mind.
A real man like Joe should challenge your metrosexual candidate to a duel and open a can of whoop ass on the whining liberal freak.
Is this a rhetorical question? McCain was already creeping up in the pseudo polls. In reality he is probably ahead. Joe the Plumber is a gift that probably seals the deal. I don’t get statements like “can [Joe] turn in around”? There was/is nothing to turn around.
It looks that way
Turn what around? If you factor in MSM bias and oversampling Dems in polls and phony ACORN registration and etc etc etc...
McCain/Palin were never behind....
I agree with you, the guy was NOT a plant. He was legit.
I posted this elsewhere but think it more appropriate here.
I’m surprised no enterprising vendor/GOP fundraiser has shown up at McCain/Palin rallies selling “Joe the Plumber” plungers. (I’d suggest OBama rallies but the seller would be immediately “suppressed”(cough).
Or, some outfit sell “Joe” plungers at a slight markup and send the proceeds to Joe. Lowes and Home Depot are missing out on a sale item here.
All kinds of angles to play here.
Right out of ACORN’s talking points. You are exposed Flat Attorney.
Someone from Ohio, or anyone else, please clarify and get out the talking points to the right person(s),RNC, McCain org, and at least Fox and appropriate hosts and reporters over this nitpicking “he is not a plumber-because he’s not licensed yet, his name is not Joe, etc.” HE IS A! PLUMBER. He goes by Joe-that’s a fact-nickname, abbreviation-whatever. Was Clinton’s birth name Bill or Bubba? No, it was William Jefferson Clinton. So Bill is not his real name and that affects his credibility? Not according to Dem playbook logic. Only Joe the Plumber’s credibility apparently.
And even more importantly, in this instance, my hunch is that,in OHIO, LIKE FLORIDA-WHILE HE’S BEEN UNDER ANOTHER OWNER, HE’S BEEN WORKING UNDER THE CURRENT OWNER’S LICENSE TRYING TO WORK TO BUY THE BUSINESS, didn’t WANT to JOIN THE UNION, THEN WANTED!!!TO GO ON and on and MAKE $250,000, with HIS NEW BUSINESS as in THE FUTURE!! AND THEN NOT BE WORRIED BY PUNITIVE TAX SCHEMES-WHICH IS ALL, I SAID ALL, THAT HE CLEARLY IMPLIED WHEN ASKING A SIMPLE QUESTION OF A CANDIDATE. AND NOW THEY ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS GARBAGE, this TWISTING. Everyone usually gets licensed WHEN BECOMING a CURRENT OWNER. In fact, in FL, you CAN WORK UNDER ANOTHER’S LICENSE (AND ALL OF YOUR PEOPLE AS WELL) as long as the licensed person is an employee.
It might read “Joseph” on his birth certificate, a fact, along with others here, would help, in even some degree unmask the the petty trivialities the burn and raze surrogates-such as the primary spokesman for Acorn (the NONPARTISIAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS) and the other surrogates, and the hit-man press all use. This guy on a Fox interview said “he’s not a plumber. Well, then a licensed plumber” when corrected. He also made a big deal about him not even being “right” according to a local union boss-NO, NOT FROM A UNION BOSS-COULDN’T BE. AND THEN SO WHAT? There are no are or very minimal unions in FL and plenty of licensed plumbers who are either self-employed and ACTUALLY OWING THE BUSINESS. Or other very qualified technicians working under a businesses license.
In an unprecedented fashion, this citizen, who asked a question, is being slimed by the Obama campaign and the usual suspects by relentlessly prying in to his personal life. The idiot spinner “Professor” Marc Lamont Hill even said that by “THRUSTING himself in to the national spotlight, he opened himself up to media scrutiny” which rendered the maligning “OK”..... So IF the Second Coming gets away with the extensive voter fraud and a REPORTER actually calls him on an issue effectively, it makes the national news and resonates, will that reporter, pundit, whomever, just accept the complete intrusion in to their personal life, bank accounts or family’s life if nothing else sticks or any other soviet type tactics they might encounter in an effort to humiliate and discredit them?
So your the kind of attorney that gives good lawyers a bad rap! Check your thermostat...the room temperature is higher than your IQ. Now, sit down, and be quiet, bad attorney!
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