Enough of “Joe The Plumber” Already!

First and foremost, last night’s debate was very good, and Bob Schieffer was an excellent moderator, probably the best of the bunch this election season. And I liked the format better than all the other debates because it actually made it seem like a debate.

The person who got the most media coverage from last night’s presidential debate wasn’t one of the candidates. No – it was Joe the Plumber.

The fact that McCain brought up Joe the Plumber – his real name is Joe Wurzelbacher – makes me think that Joe was a republican plant in the crowd when Barack made his appearance.

But, now there are allegations that Joe isn’t even a registered voter. Hopefully, there is someone out there in the national media that can verify this and determine if this allegation is true. If it is, this could make McCain look bad for not completely vetting Joe out before he used him as an example in the debate.

But registered voter or not, I think that for McCain to focus on one person’s plight so heavily in the debate tells me that he’s out of touch. Sure, the American Dream is to earn lots of money and have lots of nice things. But the problem is that most Americans can still only dream of buying a company as Joe the Plumber said he was going to be doing. There are many people out there who are having trouble just putting food on their tables, gas in their cars, and paying their utility bills. While I can understand Joe feeling squeezed because he may have to pay a little more in taxes, I think that there are many Americans who would be happy to pay a little more in takes if they made even half or less of what Joe dreams to make.

So Joe, don’t expect many Americans to have a pity party for you. There are many people out there who wish they had your problem of having too much money.

By the way, check out the pictures after the video.

Here’s the debate excerpt




Here’s the encounter in question:





PS: Here are two pictures of the same scene taken from last night’s debate. They look like they couldn’t possibly be real, but I assure you they are not doctored in any way. What kind of a face is that on McCain? One of the pictures, from Reuters, was captioned with this:

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008)

(Reuters - above)

You can write your own captions too. It could be fun!


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The McCain Town Hall Wander

John McCain’s performance in last week’s “town hall” debate caught the eye of the late night talk show hosts and comedians. It seems that John just couldn’t manage to remain seated while Barack Obama spoke, and seemed to wander about the stage. I was also interested in the weird gestures and facial expressions he sometimes made while Barack was speaking. Not only did the wandering show disrespect to his political opponent, but so did the gestures and facial expressions. Was John trying to show how comfortable he is in “town hall” sessions? If that was the case, it didn’t work for me. He seemed a little too much like a caged animal who couldn't wait to get out.

So you also can enjoy McCain’s wanderings, here is a video of a group of clips from the late night and comedic talk show hosts.


The McCain Wander




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