Many time-tested tactics have failed John McCain in his race for the presidency. With 19 days to go, he's hoping a blunt Ohioan can help him close the gap.
WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- John McCain has tried to paint his Democratic opponent as a big-spending, big-taxing liberal. In normal times, this would have been an effective strategy; large swathes of Americans - especially the independent voters still up for grabs - are wary of a politician with a voting record as liberal as that of the junior senator from Illinois.
But these are not normal times.
How do you condemn Obama as a Big-Government Liberal when your fellow Republicans in the White House are busily nationalizing portions of the country's biggest banks, bailing out the world's largest insurer, taking over semi-private mortgage securities firms - and, along the way, putting several hundred billion dollars in taxpayer money at risk? When your own plan, borrowed from Hillary Clinton, commands the Treasury Department to spend $300 billion to buy up home mortgages from people who can't make their payments?
So in Wednesday's debate, McCain shifted tactics to accuse Obama of being one of those liberals eager to take your hard-earned wealth and redistribute it to those less hard working or less fortunate. And that's when we got to meet Joe the Plumber, whose name came up 26 times in the course of 90 minutes.
Joe is Joe Wurzelbacher, a Toledo, Ohio plumber who showed up at an Obama rally to challenge his tax policies, explaining that he wants to buy his business but would face higher taxes under the Obama plan's $250,000 threshold.
'Spread the wealth around'
"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him in an episode captured on a TV camera. "I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too...I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Obama's "spread the wealth around" response was McCain's first weapon out of the box, and his most effective one of the evening. "The whole premise behind Senator Obama's plans are class warfare, let's spread the wealth around," McCain said. "Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now...when these small business people, like Joe the plumber, are going to create jobs, unless you take that money from him and spread the wealth around."
Judging by McCain's Cheshire grin, and repeated replays of Joe's story (later in the debate he said Obama's health plan would penalize Joe; Obama said it wouldn't), the Arizona senator clearly thought this could be his "game-changing" moment - that the discovery of a video-clip capturing Obama's exchange with Joe would reset a presidential race that seems headed toward a solid Obama victory.
Maybe. Joe the Plumber did put a face on a critique of Obama that McCain hasn't been very effective at making before now - not only reminding independent voters that the Democrat wants to "spread the wealth" but also that Obama's tax plans, which he repeatedly says would mean cuts for 95% of Americans, would hurt profitable small businesses that are the biggest job producers in the country, and the likely engine of any economic recovery.
Joe is already proving an able media surrogate for McCain, even more so since he won't say which candidate he plans to vote for. His story and photo are all over the national press today. CBS' Katie Couric snagged an interview last night in which Wurzelbacher said, "I've always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question...for once instead of tap dancing around it."
"Unfortunately," he added in pointed attack on Obama, "I asked the question but I still got the tap dance."
A tall order
But it's a tall order to ask Joe to turn around the McCain campaign with only 19 days to go. The Real Clear Politics average shows Obama leading by seven points nationally. He has a wide lead in improbable places like Virginia, and is more narrowly ahead in important battlegrounds like Florida and Ohio.
Most tellingly, perhaps, is this week's New York Times/CBS poll, which found that roughly 7 in 10 voters think Obama has the right kind of "temperament and personality" to be president, while just over half said that of McCain. Last night, Obama played a cool, calm, unflustered defense - guarding his baseline while his opponent scrambled and sweated all over the tennis court. That performance will likely reinforce the sense that it is Obama, less so McCain, who has a presidential temperament.
But McCain's biggest problem lies outside his control. Despite unprecedented federal interventions into the financial markets, the Dow Jones dropped 733 points Wednesday and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke warned of painful economic times ahead. A tanking economy hurts McCain's prospects, but it also robs him of his best line of attack on Obama; that his tax plan will stifle an economic recovery.
McCain may think of himself as a "free-market" Republican, but like his GOP colleagues in the Bush administration he has had to set that aside to become a "safe-market" Republican. All that expensive government activism on the part of Republicans in the past few weeks makes Obama's latest plan to spend another $60 billion - on top of the $115 billion he already proposed to stimulate the economy - look like chump change. McCain himself this week proposed another $52 billion in spending for short-term relief.
That leaves McCain with few other places to go on attack. Last night he tried again to hang '60s terrorist William Ayers on Obama - polls suggest that doesn't work. He's tried to dismiss Obama as inexperienced, untraveled, unready to be president - the CBS poll suggests that hasn't worked.
So now it's Joe's turn. We'll see if that works.
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Hmm. That address doesnt look right. It looks like the link pointing here was faulty.
Joe the plumber wants to buy his boss's business. The price of the business was $280,000. Nothing was said about Joe making more than $250,000 in pay. Everybody is making a big shit over how taxes will go up (actually return to Clinton era rates--before Bush gave them a tax break) on people who earn more than $250,000 a year. Joe dont make that much, not even close, and to make this out as Obama costing a regular Joe more money is a bunch of fabricated bullshit.
If I had a plumbing business with at least 2 people..(Joe works for his boss).. I'd most likely have... A building for the business to work out of/ showroom for products. price of this would be approx $100.000, depending on amount of land, paved parking lot for customers, etc. Figure 2 large vans or pickup's with special plumbers body....$70,000 Figure tools and special plumbing tools for 2 people.... Figure insurance for building and vehicles... Figure insurance against screw up on job and destroying customers building/posessions..loss of life... Figure price of stock of parts, pipe, Display sinks, toilets, hot water heaters, etc..
Now if I had a vending machine route that made $200 a week, and I wanted to sell it..would I sell it for $200? NO!! I'd figure the cost of the vending machines, how much it cost to lease or buy the space those machines physically occupy, insurance, plus how much money I make. I would probably want a period of time profits added to the price. This vending machine machine route could easily be sold for several thousand dollars.
So Joe wants ta buy a plumbing business for $280 thousand. He aint buying much. He probably be able ta earn enough ta pay himself maybe $30 an hour when its all said and done. Just about what we are making Ladies and Gentlemen. Obama isn't going to raise our taxes..He's gonna lower them. Anybody who tries ta press this Joe plummer too far is gonna see it blow up in thier face.
I Just knew it...MSNBC reports that Joe the Plumber does not hold a plumbers license for the locale he lives and works in. Joe the plumber is more like Joe the Laborer.
Poor Joe...everybody's watchin' him now. Except McCain. Meanwhile running mate Sarah Palin showed up at SNL ta prove her mettle! And attempt ta do Tina Fey doing her! WTF?
'Joe the Plumber' strikes back at media
October 18, 2008 11:35 PM EDT
NEW YORK - "Joe the Plumber" is lashing out at the media for analyzing his personal life since he suddenly became a focal point of the presidential race last week.
Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, told Mike Huckabee on his Fox News talk show Saturday that he is upset by the attention and has been unable to work with reporters crowded on his front lawn.
"The media's worried about whether I've paid my taxes, they're worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America," Wurzelbacher told the former Republican presidential hopeful on his show, "Huckabee."
Wurzelbacher said he felt terrible after reading some of the criticism of himself posted online.
"I felt about that small," he said. "I mean I really did."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been portraying Wurzelbacher as emblematic of people with concerns about Obama's tax plans.
Wurzelbacher became famous after he met Obama and said the Democrat's tax proposal could keep him from buying the two-man plumbing company where he works. However, reports of Wurzelbacher's annual earnings suggest he would receive a tax cut rather than an increase under Obama's plan.
"You know, I am a plumber," Wurzelbacher said. "Just a plumber."
Wurzelbacher said he agreed to appear on the show after he received phone calls from friends serving in the military who voiced their support.
"You know, when you can't ask a question of your leaders anymore, that gets scary," he said.
On Sunday, McCain was to travel to Ohio, where he might appear with Wurzelbacher.
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Hmm. That address doesnt look right. It looks like the link pointing here was faulty.
I think SNL fans can see through that transparency. Not voting there I was still fascinated by her show-up and wanted to store visual data for later transferring to Bangkok.
