by wildcherry on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | News, World

Joe The Plumber

The whole world is wondering today: “Who IS Joe the Plumber?” the everyman voter made famous in the final presidential debate last night for being referenced repeatedly by John McCain and addressed directly at one point by Barack Obama.

Cable news gave the impression that the man is just Samuel “average Joe” Wurzelbacher, from Holland, Ohio, who is looking to expand his business and believes that Barack Obama’s proposed tax plan will actually cause him to lose money if he does so. He put his question on taxes to Obama in person while the Illinois Senator was canvassing in the Toledo suburb on Sunday. Plumber Joe later said Obama “tap dance[d] … almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.” in the conversation and implied in an interview after the debate that he would vote for John McCain.

It might be heartening to McCain to know that he has at least one vote in Democratic stronghold Lucas County, Ohio, but for one small fact. A download of the Lucas County voter rolls from the Ohio Secretary of State’s website lists four Wurzelbachers, two in Holland, but none of them named Sam or Joe or Samuel Joseph. There’s a Robert Lee and a Frank Edward Wurzelbacher, but no Joe.

Apparently, Joe the Plumber don’t vote.

Source:Off the Bus

In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing the company, which earns more than $250,000 a year, and said: “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”

Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate…

Wurzelbacher protested, saying he’s been a hardworking plumber for 15 years and why should he be taxed more… He said Obama’s reaction on the tax question left him feeling uneasy.

“I didn’t think much of it the first time I heard it,” Wurzelbacher said, adding that he still thinks Obama’s plan would keep him from buying the business.

Joe the Plumber makes a pretty convincing argument. He somehow managed to frame the debate over Obama’s economic plan in a way that John McCain and a battalion of GOP strategists have been unable to in the past several months? That’s pretty impressive.

 

Joe the Plumber currently polling higher than McCain

 

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