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U.S. debate / Forget Obama and McCain - Joe the Plumber for president
By Benjamin L. Hartman
Tags: John McCain, israel news 

On Wednesday night in New York, the topics of Iraq, Bin-Laden, Bush, Putin, and Ahmadinejad were upstaged by one "Joe the Plumber," a shadowy figure who until now was not even been a factor in the race for the White House.

Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio voter looking to expand his plumbing business, emerged as the greatest swing vote in the election, as he was mentioned over a dozen times in the first minutes of the debate.

Joe the Plumber (it has not yet been determined whether he is a blood relative of Joe Six-Pack, if he is married, or if his wife is a hockey mom) on Wednesday night became the seemingly most important man in the McCain campaign.
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He is a figure with unlimited electoral power, emblematic enough of the economic crisis to merit 13 mentions by McCain and 5 by Obama.

When I grow up, I want to be Joe the Plumber.

Even though it emerged on Thursday that Joe isn't actually licensed or registered in Ohio as a plumber and never underwent an apprenticeship in the field, he was used in the debate by McCain as an example of the small business owners who he said will be punished under Obama's tax plan.

The consequences of such a plan on Joe's taxes showed a clear, every day case of how Obama's tax plan would hurt some small business owners - like Joe, if he were to net over $250,000 a year - while at the same time reminding millions of viewers how much, in fact, we pay our plumbers while watching our own assets slip down the drain.

Joe the Plumber was such a factor in Wednesday's presidential debate, that all diplomatic or security issues disappeared. Worries of war and potential nuclear strikes were nowhere to be found at Hofstra University, as the two candidates debated the recent economic crisis, energy independence, health care, and - for the first time in the debate series - abortion.

The debate on Wednesday was seen by many as a final opportunity for McCain to make up some lost ground. Trailing as much as 14 percent behind Obama in some polls, McCain was widely expected to pull out all the stops, to bring out all of the "past associates," to bet the bank on William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, and possibly Louis Farrakhan for good measure.

Things had looked so bleak this week for the McCain campaign that it almost seemed that nothing short of dragging the corpse of Osama Bin Laden onto the stage Wednesday night could save the Republican senator's presidential dreams.

Other than the saga of Joe the Plumber, this final debate will probably be remembered most by McCain's admittedly effective zinger against Obama, when he told him: "I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should've run 4 years ago."

A tense moment came later, when debate moderator Bob Schieffer, who definitely brought the heat and was by far the best of the three moderators, asked the candidates about the attack ads and negative campaigning that both sides have been taking part in as of late.

He gave the debate some street cred, called both candidates out, asking them if they would be willing to sit at this table and say to each others' face "what your campaigns and the people in your campaigns have said about each other?"

At this point, those of us who spend too much time surfing both wings of the election blogs could see the ugly, nasty, must-see-T.V. elememts of this campaign - ideal for balancing out Fannie Mae and Iraq - finally becoming a subject of discussion at the debates.

John McCain spoke of his deep regret for the negative aspects of both campaigns. First, he blamed the negative tone partly on Obama's refusal to meet him for Town Hall meetings (a spectacle that the American people may be thankful to have been spared).

Then he mentioned how much he was hurt by it all, and demanded an apology for statements made by civil rights activist and Obama supporter Congressman John Lewis of Georgia - the man who accused McCain and Palin of practicing at their events the sort of hate politics that typified the rallies of segregationist former governor of Alabama George Wallace, invoking some of the darkest days of Jim Crow America. The fact that the statements were made in regard to the first ever campaign against an African-American presidential candidate made them all the more volatile.

Though in recent polls, Obama has been seen running a less negative campaign, to his own detriment he did not apologize or acknowledge the problems caused by statements his supporters and surrogates may have made.

Instead, he took the opportunity to wax on about how the American people don't want to hear such negativity or petty bickering and would try to steer back to the issues. Though this could be seen by many as a desire on the part of the Illinois senator to talk about the issues rather than petty negative politics, in a sense it seemed he was dodging what could have been a simple and effective formality of an apology.

By shifting subjects, Obama seemed to show the ethereal, almost too smooth style that drives many of his detractors to see him as distant, long-winded, and in many cases, 'empty suit.' Even to some of his most fervent supporters, Obama can seem so slick, so untouchable and cool under fire that he makes Bill Clinton look like, well, Joe the Plumber.

At the same time, by seizing the issue of negative campaigning, McCain put Obama in the strange position of trying to apologize for his own campaign when recent days have seen the news filled with reports of fringe supporters at McCain campaigns yelling such charming phrases as "terrorist', "kill him", and "off his head" in regard to the Illinois senator.

McCain, with his back against the wall, kept hitting Obama hard, and managed to avoid any of his roundly mocked moves from the last debate, such as "that onegate" and his at time borderline surreal across-the-stage-wanderings. On the other hand, the split-screen segment of the debate did seem to highlight a sort of disdain on his part towards Obama, and he was caught at one point rolling his eyes ala Al Gore in 2000.

McCain would have surely been helped even more if the debate had shifted to his perceived specialty - foreign policy - in which he could have served up red meat to his supporters, flouting the Iraqi surge and Obama's perceived willingness to meet with America's enemies with no preconditions.

Seen at times as an erratic candidate, McCain probably disappointed those who expected him to crash, to lose his cool, to show his age or vaunted temper.

Though it could be too little too late, McCain turned in a strong performance Wednesday night. On a night in which his opponent also put in a strong performance, McCain showed a measure of resilience, steady awareness and knowledge of the issues, as well as a previously unseen cool that had not typified his two previous, and less than dominating debate performances.

He also may have managed to temporarily appease those more fervent supporters who were dying for him to play the "questionable associations" card against Obama.

Still, only time tell where Joe the Plumber will lend his fateful vote...

Related articles:
  • VP debate / Palin beats the odds, fails to be field dressed by Biden
  • VIDEO / McCain, Obama get tough and personal in final debate
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      1.   Joe the Plumber 20:14  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 16/10/08
      2.   Stupid 20:16  |  Andrew 16/10/08
      3.   Distractions and competencies 20:34  |  Michael Steib 16/10/08
      4.   Joe the (kinda) Plumber 20:39  |  Sassmo 16/10/08
      5.   Last Debate 20:48  |  Zamarah 16/10/08
      6.   Joe the Plumber should look at the facts again 20:51  |  Zev Davis 16/10/08
      7.   #1 Leeza..."Joe the Plumber" has made a statement 21:06  |  Lynn 16/10/08
      8.   Borrow and Spend Republicans - Lynn 22:28  |  Mark Lincoln 16/10/08
      9.   More Joe the Plumber 22:35  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 16/10/08
      10.   #5 Zev Davis...and when Joe the Plumber has 22:35  |  Lynn 16/10/08
      11.   Please read and tell me what you think 23:03  |  Josh 16/10/08
      12.   #7 Right on, Mark, right on! 23:18  |  ballistic 16/10/08
      13.   #8 Say Leeza!!! High five!!! 23:20  |  ballistic 16/10/08
      14.   #9 Golly Lynn, I do believe 23:24  |  ballistic 16/10/08
      15.   Jake the Plumber (1927) 23:46  |  Arik Silverman 16/10/08
      16.   Lynn, read facts 23:59  |  Greg 16/10/08
      17.   Joe the Plumber was a liar 00:56  |  Pablo B 17/10/08
      18.   Ballistic,Greg,Mark,Josh,Zev-Just the guys 01:41  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 17/10/08
      19.   Were both Joe and John liars, Pablo? 01:50  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 17/10/08
      20.   Mother`s Report 03:14  |  Yosemite 17/10/08
      21.   Turns Out He`s NOT A Licensed Plumber...OWES Back Taxes..$1,800 03:40  |  Jim 17/10/08
      22.   Joe the plumber is not licensed. 03:52  |  Maureen Ann 17/10/08
      23.   Joe`s fantasy tax hit? $900 USD on $280,000 of profits 05:05  |  Pablo B 17/10/08
      24.   Let`s see how McCain backs away from his plumber. 05:06  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 17/10/08
      25.   #Lynn. $700 billion taxpayer bailout! 05:40  |  Maureen Ann 17/10/08
      26.   This Is In Response To Some Hate Mail... 06:19  |  Yosemite 17/10/08
      27.   Stuff I Saw Today In Southern California 06:44  |  Yosemite 17/10/08
      28.   JOE THE FAKE 06:50  |  indrajaya 17/10/08
      29.   THE WASHINGTON POST ON OBAMA (10/17/08) 07:36  |  indrajaya 17/10/08
      30.   indrajaya, did you see the latest??? 07:53  |  Akiva P 17/10/08
      31.   Lynn, "joe" is not even "joe" and he`s not a plumber... 07:57  |  BBSNews 17/10/08
      32.   Andy Warhol was a genius 08:12  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      33.   For Maureen Ann # 21 08:17  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      34.   GREED " THE IMPORTANT FACTOR" 09:14  |  MJ 17/10/08
      35.   For Yosemite # 26 09:15  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      36.   #31 Clickfool. Yosemite`s post - hobos and junk scavenging. 09:49  |  Maureen Ann 17/10/08
      37.   Joe the Dodgy Bodger 09:50  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      38.   Where`s the beef? 09:53  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      39.   # 27 to indrajaya re: cutting taxes 10:10  |  eric 17/10/08
      40.   Of course not!... 10:12  |  Akiva P 17/10/08
      41.   For Maureen Ann on Yosemite`s post # 33 10:18  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      42.   # 23 to leeza cohen coleman re: not much to say 10:23  |  eric 17/10/08
      43.   Stupid, it`s the working woman and man 12:23  |  Afflalo, Ya`ish 17/10/08
      44.   when is obama going to show us his birth certificate ? 13:12  |  victor hardman 17/10/08
      45.   Victor Hardman abandons Joe the Dodgy Bodger # 43 14:35  |  Clickfool 17/10/08
      46.   #43 Hey Paul Harris 16:56  |  ballistic 17/10/08
      47.   wingnuts and Barack Obama`s birth certificate... 16:57  |  BBSNews 17/10/08
      48.   #30 BBSNEWS...so what? 17:03  |  Lynn 17/10/08
      49.   #17 Leeza 17:04  |  ballistic 17/10/08
      50.   #25 Yosemite 17:08  |  ballistic 17/10/08
      51.   #6 Say Lynn re Joe 17:34  |  ballistic 17/10/08
      52.   Victor-a little information about life in my great nation 18:25  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 17/10/08
      53.   I have to laugh... 19:14  |  JES 17/10/08
      54.   independent scared Right 22:43  |  Don`tneedhandout 17/10/08
      55.   Ballistic Got It!!!!!!!!!! 03:38  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 18/10/08
      56.   For Ballistic # 49 09:40  |  Clickfool 18/10/08
      57.   For JES # 51 09:48  |  Clickfool 18/10/08
      58.   The responsibility 21:49  |  De Se 18/10/08
      59.   Lynn, Guess who promotes Big Government!? 23:31  |  Zev Davis 18/10/08
      60.   #51 Jes. The real point. 23:48  |  Maureen Ann 18/10/08
      61.   #56 Zev Davis....Fed Gov just gave our schools 02:00  |  Lynn 19/10/08
      62.   De se...awesome!!! 02:03  |  Lynn 19/10/08
      63.   The left`s bashing of "Joe the Plumber", and media plays along 04:49  |  Raymond in DC 19/10/08
      64.   Too Risky To Play Change - Republicans Will Win 14:16  |  No To Demagogues 19/10/08
      65.   Obama: Hardly A Socialist 20:40  |  Tex 19/10/08
      66.   # 53 to leeza cohen coleman re: bubbles and obama 05:13  |  eric 20/10/08
      67.   #17 BTW Leeza 22:05  |  ballistic 21/10/08
      68.   #56 Cut him some slack Clickfool 00:50  |  ballistic 22/10/08
      69.   Obama is bad for Israel 01:58  |  Rosenthal 29/10/08
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