Has Obama Camp "Attacked" Joe The Plumber?
In a speech in Pennsylvania this morning, John McCain said that Barack Obama and the Obama campaign have been attacking Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio man whom McCain repeatedly referenced during the third presidential debate and has been citing on the campaign trail.
"Now, Joe didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house, and he didn't ask to be famous," McCain said. "And he certainly didn't ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign." This prompted cheers from the crowd.
"Joe's dream is the American dream to own a small business that will create jobs, and the attacks on him are an attack on small businesses all over this nation," McCain added. "We're not going to stand for it."
Wurzelbacher has criticized the media for its treatment of him, suggesting that the press corps is worried about issues such as whether he's paid his taxes and "any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America." But asked on Fox News yesterday if he blamed either of the campaigns for how he was depicted, Wurzelbacher said he did not.
"Oh, no, no, I think the media pretty much did that all by themselves," he said. "You know, I don't think -- I held no animosity towards either of one them, by no means. No.”
I asked the McCain campaign for specific examples of what it considered attacks on Wurzelbacher from Obama and the Obama campaign. "Their campaign has been moving dirt on Joe and their allies in the press and liberal blogs have been going after him," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in an email.
He also provided three examples of what he said were attacks. The first was Joe Biden's statement on the "Tonight Show" Friday that he doesn't "know many plumbers who are making $250,000 a year and worried about it."
"We're kind of worried about Joe the fireman, Joe the policeman, Joe the real plumber with a license," Biden added. As media reports have noted, Wurzelbacher does not have a plumbing license.
The second example provided by Rogers involved Biden saying last Thursday, "I don't have any 'Joe the Plumbers' in my neighborhood that make $250,000 a year and are worried." And the third came from Obama, who said on that same day, "How many plumbers do you know making $250,000 a year?"
In an interview after the presidential debate that made him famous, Wurzelbacher told CBS' Katie Couric that, despite his concerns that Obama would raise his taxes, he does not presently make $250,000 per year. Obama says in his administration, taxes would only go up for individuals making more than $250,000.
Obama-Biden spokesman Nick Shapiro told Horserace that McCain's claim is false.
“We’re not criticizing Joe – in fact Senator Obama’s plan would give him a tax cut – but we are criticizing John McCain’s tax plan because it gives billions in tax cuts to corporations while offering no relief to more than 100 million middle class Americans,” he said.
UPDATE: Obama responded to McCain’s charges that he is attacking Joe the Plumber in Miami today, CBS' Maria Gavrilovic reports, calling the claim a fabrication. “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber,” Obama said. “That’s why I want to give him a tax cut.”
"Now, Joe didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house, and he didn't ask to be famous," McCain said. "And he certainly didn't ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign." This prompted cheers from the crowd.
"Joe's dream is the American dream to own a small business that will create jobs, and the attacks on him are an attack on small businesses all over this nation," McCain added. "We're not going to stand for it."
Wurzelbacher has criticized the media for its treatment of him, suggesting that the press corps is worried about issues such as whether he's paid his taxes and "any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America." But asked on Fox News yesterday if he blamed either of the campaigns for how he was depicted, Wurzelbacher said he did not.
"Oh, no, no, I think the media pretty much did that all by themselves," he said. "You know, I don't think -- I held no animosity towards either of one them, by no means. No.”
I asked the McCain campaign for specific examples of what it considered attacks on Wurzelbacher from Obama and the Obama campaign. "Their campaign has been moving dirt on Joe and their allies in the press and liberal blogs have been going after him," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in an email.
He also provided three examples of what he said were attacks. The first was Joe Biden's statement on the "Tonight Show" Friday that he doesn't "know many plumbers who are making $250,000 a year and worried about it."
"We're kind of worried about Joe the fireman, Joe the policeman, Joe the real plumber with a license," Biden added. As media reports have noted, Wurzelbacher does not have a plumbing license.
The second example provided by Rogers involved Biden saying last Thursday, "I don't have any 'Joe the Plumbers' in my neighborhood that make $250,000 a year and are worried." And the third came from Obama, who said on that same day, "How many plumbers do you know making $250,000 a year?"
In an interview after the presidential debate that made him famous, Wurzelbacher told CBS' Katie Couric that, despite his concerns that Obama would raise his taxes, he does not presently make $250,000 per year. Obama says in his administration, taxes would only go up for individuals making more than $250,000.
Obama-Biden spokesman Nick Shapiro told Horserace that McCain's claim is false.
“We’re not criticizing Joe – in fact Senator Obama’s plan would give him a tax cut – but we are criticizing John McCain’s tax plan because it gives billions in tax cuts to corporations while offering no relief to more than 100 million middle class Americans,” he said.
UPDATE: Obama responded to McCain’s charges that he is attacking Joe the Plumber in Miami today, CBS' Maria Gavrilovic reports, calling the claim a fabrication. “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber,” Obama said. “That’s why I want to give him a tax cut.”
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See all 223 CommentsMcCain is the one who keeps bringing up Joe the Plumber. It''s Joe the Plumber who says he doesn''t want publicity, yet he goes on Fox News. It''s McCain and Joe that keep this going, not Obama.
Or this one from WisdomFirst: From Day 1, the "mainstream media" has fed us Clinton and Obama, as if no one else existed, and tried to make us believe these were the major candidates. How frightening it must be for all of you that there''s a candidate out there who''s not fake. No Democrat I know is voting for war zealot Hillary Clinton. Pure propaganda brought to us by the military industrial complex and filtered through you. Is the reason you''re in lockstep with the fascists that your life has been threatened? You guys are unAmerican and just disgusting.
Now, I think your WisdomFirst''s other posts speak volumes for his lack of credibility.
Found you over at newsvine 71 - Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:10 PM EDT. (http://lynch.newsvine.com/_news/2008/10/19/2017346-mccain-casts-himself-as-middle-class-guardian)
Found you also at buzzflash! Folks go over to this cite and pull these articles that WisdomFirst has also blogged on. Seems that he or she isn%u2019t being exactly forthright in who he is. You folks should go to this site http://www.buzzflash.net/user.php?login=WisdomFirst&view=commented and then click on the %u201Ccomments%u201D section of each piece that WisdomFirst has posted there.
get together with MAXIFY55, pack your bags and BOTH of you move up to Canada. There you can alway bleed some other poor sucks dry financially with all the money you rob from them for you so-called "services." After all, YOU and all the other rich REPUBLICANS have been robbing the Middle Class Americans blind for the last 8 year so PLEASE MOVE OUT OF AMERICA AND BLEED SOMEONE ELSE DRY.
I am a fourth generation democrat which has broken with my party this election for good reason. 68K a year does not make me rich. Well, how much of your time and money have you contributed to the groups of victims above. I will bet none! How many times have you held the hand of a 10 year old who had been raped repeatedly over time and championed for her rights to be safe? I will bet never. How many times have you gone into court after a baby had been blinded, maimed or killed by vicious shaking? I will bet never. You are arrogant, and nasty. You exemplify why I can not vote my party line this election.
So, regarless of Obama qualities and deffect, the fact is tha McCain himself showed us that he is neither honest, nor prepared to shoulder responsibilities. Note quite the resume one would hope for in a candidate intent on gaining the status of commander in chief.
Posted by john43218 at 10:14 AM : Oct 22, 2008
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government", "and I won''t be buried under their d*a*m*n flag."
"I''m an Alaskan, not an American. I''ve got no use for America or her damned institutions."
Jo Vogel, Founder of AIP
Sarah Palin addressed the Alaskan Independence Party Convention a little over 6 months ago, happily telling its attendees that she shared its "vision of upholding the Constitution of our great state", curiously not mentioning the Constitution of the United States. She encouraged AIP to "keep up the good work".
Now I will be voting for John McCain in November for many reasons...including having the insight to recognize that our country is better off with a moderate Republican than a far left hardcore liberal like Obama (with a Democratic controlled Congress).
As for Barack Hussein Obama...once Barack, as Commander-In-Chief, is given our countries top military secrets... he will find a way to give the information to his "brothers" in the middle east. For anyone that doesn''''t think this is possible...think again.
How soon Americans everywhere forget how unprepared we were for 9/11. Intellectually we could not accept the real danger of such an attack. Now we are unprepared to accept the real threat that the next attack to destroy America will come from within....that threat is Barack Obama.
This country has sold out common sense and intelligence in their efforts to prove that a black man can become elected President. Not measuring Barack Obama''s character and political allegiance by his association with people like Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers or organizations as corrupt as ACORN... is unforgivable.
Obama will finish the job of ruining this country started by George W. Bush...but Barack will prove to be the catalyst to the final fall of America and the ending of the American way of life.
NEVER. NOOBAMA_EVER!
Are Americans still optimists at heart? It is hard to say. The never-ending hand-wringing emanating from academia, the media, the entertainment industry and the Democratic Party has taken its toll. The left has made a massive investment in promoting the idea that our country is in dire need of redemption which only they have the %u201Cwisdom%u201D to administer.
In a better world, such self-inflation of one%u2019s abilities to transform an entire society would be recognized as the arrogance it truly is. Even more so for the consolidation of power by self-righteous elitists that would be necessary to pull it off. Hopefully, despite decades of woeful public schooling, most Americans still have to be coerced into accepting the idea that America, on balance, is a deficient nation.
Sadly, it%u2019s probably a close call. If it weren%u2019t, Barack Obama and company wouldn%u2019t stand a chance in November.
No country is, or ever has been, perfect. If America has fallen short of many peoples%u2019 expectations, maybe it should dawn on them that it might be because no other country in the world has set the bar as high as we have.
Yet for most liberals, all the good we do in the world is never enough. Any shortcoming is evidence of wholesale failure, of a need to completely re-order the American landscape. Such unrestrained pessimism is both unrealistic and unseemly. It is the whine of spoiled children who can%u2019t seem to remember that half the world struggles to survive , not prosper.
Have we never cared for the sick or jobless? Trillions of dollars of wealth transfer for health entitlements, Social Security, job-training and unemployment insurance suggest otherwise. This (is) was the moment? Over the course of almost three hundred years, hundreds of thousands of American troops have paid the ultimate price to %u201Cheal%u201D the planet of sicknesses far more deadly and self-evident than global warming. This was (is) the time we came together? No other nation on earth comes close to matching our historical legacy of assimilation, uniting against a common enemy, righting historical wrongs or creating equal opportunity for all.
This %u201Cthe perfect is the enemy of the good%u201D attitude has been politically nurtured by the American Left. Without it, imposing their particular version of %u201Cperfection,%u201D aka big-government socialism, becomes impossible. With it, a country far too %u201Cimperfect%u201D to be left to its own individualist, free-market, personally responsible devices can be brought to heel.
Today%u2019s liberalism is not about selling reasoned or sensible change for a country that needs %u201Ctweaking.%u201D It is about selling the hysteria that we are a nation in need of an %u201CExtreme Makeover.%u201D
In my lifetime, there has never been a shortage of Americans more than willing to believe that our nation is tawdry collection of small-minded people ,imperialists, racists, homophobes, sexists, xenophobes, evil rich, etc., etc. , whose devotion to the principles espoused by our Founding Fathers , those slave owning, dead white European males , amounts to little more than lip service.
For them, patriotism is an admixture of jingoism, naivete%u2019 and illusion. All war is a business opportunity. Religion is a repository of prejudice and fear. History is a systematic whitewash of our genocidal exploitation of an above-reproach indigenous culture. In short, we%u2019re a hopeless, hapless mess of a nation.
While such simplistic notions always have a kernel of truth in them, the driving force behind them all is the same: a lack of perfection equals total failure
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