John McCain Blames Senator Obama for Joe the Plumbers' New Problems
« H E » Elections :: Politics :: email
posted 10-18-08
Yes, "Joe" approached the Illinois senator on the campaign trail and asked him a targeted question, but as many a commentator pointed out Thursday after the debate, John McCain mentioned the plumber over 4 times to each Obama mention. By the next morning "Joe" was talking with morning hosts and all sorts of news folk. And the rest was history. You've heard about his lien problems, his 'real' first name (though many use the middle name as a first, so...).
And apparently the local plumbers union says that it is not legal for Joe to work as a plumber without either a license or an enrollment in an apprentice or a journeyman program. I bet that's going to cost, him.
But the point is that Joe seems to have been promoted by the right wing (though most likely annonymous 'friends' at Free Republic rather than overt campaigners) and McCain himself made Joe the main subject of Wednesday's debate, and it's hard not to notice Joe's own delight in being a media star, yet, John McCain is now claiming that Barack Obama sicced the news media on poor Joe. McCain even implies that Senator Obama has been outside Joe's modest home harassing him.
Oh yeah, I guess you can say that's just John McCain being confused again. Well, campaigning is an exhausting and exasperating experience, but so is running the nation. We all see how fast president's health seems to drain from them. I don't even know why anyone wants the job.
Also, a presidential campaign is not just one person on their own. The candidate has a inner phalanx of aides along with a mid level squadron and a hundreds of staffers to help keep him on message, but also, hopefully, in touch with reality. Choosing those people is more of the candidate's first decisions that show whether he is fit to hold office. So far, McCain seems to be batting .059.
Excerpt NY Times article "McCain: Obama Turned Heat on Joe the Plumber "
« H E » Elections :: Politics :: email
posted 10-18-08
Yes, "Joe" approached the Illinois senator on the campaign trail and asked him a targeted question, but as many a commentator pointed out Thursday after the debate, John McCain mentioned the plumber over 4 times to each Obama mention. By the next morning "Joe" was talking with morning hosts and all sorts of news folk. And the rest was history. You've heard about his lien problems, his 'real' first name (though many use the middle name as a first, so...).
And apparently the local plumbers union says that it is not legal for Joe to work as a plumber without either a license or an enrollment in an apprentice or a journeyman program. I bet that's going to cost, him.
But the point is that Joe seems to have been promoted by the right wing (though most likely annonymous 'friends' at Free Republic rather than overt campaigners) and McCain himself made Joe the main subject of Wednesday's debate, and it's hard not to notice Joe's own delight in being a media star, yet, John McCain is now claiming that Barack Obama sicced the news media on poor Joe. McCain even implies that Senator Obama has been outside Joe's modest home harassing him.
Oh yeah, I guess you can say that's just John McCain being confused again. Well, campaigning is an exhausting and exasperating experience, but so is running the nation. We all see how fast president's health seems to drain from them. I don't even know why anyone wants the job.
Also, a presidential campaign is not just one person on their own. The candidate has a inner phalanx of aides along with a mid level squadron and a hundreds of staffers to help keep him on message, but also, hopefully, in touch with reality. Choosing those people is more of the candidate's first decisions that show whether he is fit to hold office. So far, McCain seems to be batting .059.
Excerpt NY Times article "McCain: Obama Turned Heat on Joe the Plumber "
The strange tale of Joe the Plumber unfolded a bit more on the campaign trail Friday when Senator John McCain used a rally here to defend the Ohio man he made a national star of by focusing on him in Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
...
But under the glare of the ensuing media spotlight, reporters found that Mr. Wurzelbacher did not actually have a plumbing license, and that he actually owed some back taxes. Mr. McCain leapt to his defense here Friday in a rally at Florida International University — and made another leap by suggesting that the Obama campaign was somehow maligning the plumber whose vote Mr. Obama has sought at a campaign stop in Ohio.
“The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe,” Mr. McCain said. “People are digging through his personal life, and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn’t recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.”
Why is it that so many times when John McCain is speaking we feel like we've fallen down a rabbit hole, or slipped through that Twilight Zone fissure in a wall into another dimension? Instead of feeding McCain with campaign tricks, his staff should be helping him stay grounded. With his war hero and Vietnam Veteran creds, he probably would have won if he could have just acted like a smart man instead of the typical sleazy Republican candidate he's become.