McCain Hints at Campaigning with Joe the Plumber

In an interview with Fox News today, John McCain hinted that he could be soon campaigning with Joe the Plumber. The problem for McCain is that his latest gimmick held a press conference today where he sounded less like a concerned middle class citizen, and more like an empty headed neo-con.

Fox News’s Carl Cameron asked McCain if he had spoken to Joe the Plumber, “I’m probably going to call him this morning. I thought he would probably be up late. I heard that his — that his phone lines were pretty well were flooded. But I think we’re going to be spending some time together.” The new Republican symbol of middle class values held a press conference today, where among other things he stressed the Social Security should be privatized, the Iraq war was about spreading democracy, and he went on an odd little riff about homeless people in the U.S. having cell phones.

Here is the video of Joe the Plumber:

McCain also brought up Joe the Plumber at his rally in Downingtown, PA, “We had a good debate last night. I thought I did pretty well, but let’s have a little straight talk: the real winner last night was Joe the Plumber. He won and small businesses across America won, because the American people are not going to let Senator Obama raise their taxes in a tough economy. Small businesses provide 16 million jobs in America, and Americans know that raising taxes on small businesses will kill those jobs at a time when need to be creating more jobs.”

Joe the Plumber can campaign with McCain all he wants, but it isn’t going to help him win the election. Oddly enough, Joe Wurzelbacher isn’t even a licensed plumber. Joe claims he doesn’t need one, but the county that he works in claims he does. According to an AP story, Joe doesn’t even a plan together to buy the business. It seems that Joe, who voted in the GOP primary, and supports McCain is a fraud.

What Joe the Plumber is really whining about is that if he bought this business and it made more than $250,000, his taxes would increase from 36% to 39%. Joe is crying about 3 percent. It doesn’t matter that Joe will be making lots more money, no what matters is that three extra percent in tax. If John McCain wanted to portray how Obama’s tax would hurt middle class America, find somebody making $25,000-$50,000 who thinks that a tax cut for them is a bad idea. Joe the Plumber doesn’t even own a small business, yet he is complaining about taxes which he may never pay.

This whole thing is a joke, and McCain is a fool if he thinks that this will help him in any way. What he is doing by latching on to Joe the Plumber is confirming the idea that he has no clue who the middle class really are, or the degree to which they are hurting right now. The McCain campaign is built on gimmicks, and Joe the Plumber is their latest creation.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association