October 18, 2008
I am Joe
Iowahawk has written a great post about "Joe the Plumber" who has quickly become public enemy number 1 to the moveon.org, nutroots, codepink, types:
Politicians -- Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, et al. -- obviously have to put up with some rude, nasty shit, but it's right there in the jobs description. Joe the Plumber is different. He was a guy tossing a football with his kid in the front yard of his $125,000 house when a politician picked him out as a prop for a 30 second newsbite for the cable news cameras. Joe simply had the temerity to speak truth (or, if you prefer, an uninformed opinion) to power, for which the politico-media axis apparently determined that he must be humiliated, harassed, smashed, destroyed. The viciousness and glee with which they set about the task ought to concern anyone who still cares about citizen participation, and freedom of speech, and all that old crap they taught in Civics class before politics turned into Narrative Deathrace 3000, and Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0.
That's right folks, Joe Wurzelbacher was playing football in his front yard when the Obamessiah came over with his throngs of followers to evangelize. Yet Wurzelbacher had the unmitigated gall to reject the salvation that the messiah was offering. Of course it would have ended right there if McCain, and the conservative blogosphere hadn't decided to publicize the encounter. But that's not Joe's fault. Since then every aspect of Joe's life has been scrutinized. It seems that all the left's attorneys and investigators have made it back to the lower 48 and are now looking for dirt on a civilian who isn't even running for office.
Just remember that all Joe the Plumber did was ask a question. It was Obama's answer that set this whole thing off:
"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
I have a friend that tells me that have nothing to fear from Obama, after all I'm in the 7th-10th percentile of wage earners (not the the top five Obama is currently targeting). He says Obama has great economic advisers like Warren Buffet. Well I'm here to tell you that if they are telling him that economic growth comes from the "bottom up" then they are sadly mistaken regardless of how much money they may have.
Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at October 18, 2008 02:30 PM
Comments
I am Joe.
Posted by: rsnlk ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 18, 2008 04:07 PM
Henry, I guess we were on the same wavelength today. I added the "I am Joe" logo to the sidebar with the RedState petition.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at October 18, 2008 04:35 PM
I am Spartacus. (and Joe)
Posted by: honey at October 18, 2008 05:40 PM
Is anyone selling I AM JOE bumper stickers and t-shirts yet? Thia really makes a statement!
Posted by: roland at October 18, 2008 08:08 PM
I find it funny that no one mention that Joe the plumber totally mentions and is probably in favor of Dr. Alan Keyes.
It's funny how McCain is now 'oh I'm turning Joe into a fucking symbol'
Pffft...It'll really be funny if Joe is just taking advantage of the whole attention thing and just votes for Alan Keyes.
....or he could be a cleverly placed plant by the McCain campaign. who knows? Think about it.
Posted by: Felix L. Ricardo at October 19, 2008 02:21 AM
It is still a free country. He can write in who he wants.
But name one IDEA he said that you can disagree with after what he said about Keyes. I wish all of America agreed with Joe on all of that.
Posted by: honey at October 19, 2008 08:21 AM
Felix,
If Joe the plumber is a plant then the McCain campaign was incredibly lucky. Joe was in his front yard in Toledo when The One came up to him.
They must have a plant on every block in America.
Posted by: Henry Louis Gomez at October 19, 2008 03:57 PM
The problema I have with Dr. Alan Keyes is that he is a raging homophobe. His daughter recently came out as a lesbian and he has basically disowned her. If he claims to be a Christian, then he obviously hasn't read the Scriptures! Joe can vote for whomever he wants though. What he said is still valid.
Posted by: Cangrejero de Caibarien at October 19, 2008 05:22 PM
Nothing the media can dish out about Joe will change Obama's scary answer. That's all I have to say.
Posted by: Lori at October 19, 2008 07:07 PM
I don't see what Alan Keyes has to do with Barack Obama's answer to Joe the Plumber's question.
It doesn't matter whether Joe the plumber likes Alan Keyes, was once a member of the natural law party, doesn't actually make 250,000 dollars per year, has a license to plumb (is that a word?) etc. Obama came to Joe's neighborhood and Joe asked him a reasonable question.
It's Obama's answer that was newsworthy not Joe's question. And for the record Obama said it would be better if we spread the wealth around.
Now that doesn't come as a surprise to me or anyone who has read the man's tax plan in which he wishes to give income tax credits to people who don't actually pay income tax. Except it's not a credit like you or I think of a credit (toward future liabilities) it's a check from the treasury.
So you have people who already pay a disproportionate share of the taxes paying more under Obama's plan and people who pay nothing because frankly they contribute very little to the economy and society getting checks.
That's redistributionism plain and simple. Obama made a mistake and let his mask slip off.
Posted by: Henry Louis Gomez at October 19, 2008 07:17 PM
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