McCain continues with Old Shoe

Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher is still a feature on John McCain's campaign trail. I had said in a previous post previewing the first debate, and scorning the fact that a "McCain Wins" display ad popped up on several websites the morning before the debate, that if McCain started muttering anything about "Old Shoe" I would need a drink. Well, he waited for the third debate to introduce "Old Shoe" in the form of Joe the Plumber.

For those of you who don't know, Old Shoe, aka Sergeant William Schumann, was the semi-fictional war hero in Wag the Dog, that was created by Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) and Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro). He was created to perpetuate the myth that the United States was at war with Albania in order to distract the press and public from a presidential sex scandal. If you haven't ever seen the film, you really need to.

Joe the Plumber has become John McCain's "Old Shoe". I remain optimistic that Willie Nelson will not write a song about him, not least because he in no way shape or form shares John McCain's politics.

Now to show how John McCain can even mess this up. (I will disregard for the moment that the man is not a licensed plumber, his boss had no idea that he wanted to purchase the business, he is behind on his taxes and it is highly unlikely that the business in question actually "nets" anywhere near the $250,000-$280,000 that Joe claimed in his "talk" with Barack Obama.) Look at this quote today:

"You better be careful who's considered rich," McCain said, in an apparent warning to Obama. "I don't think Joe the Plumber thinks he is."

Does this man not understand that it does not matter what Joe the Plumber thinks? What matters is what all of those people out there who are undecided think. I think that a lot of them, including the massive number of them who earn less than $200,000 a year, think that Joe the Plumber doesn't have it all that bad. If he is right with his numbers, that is a big if, then he really isn't doing all that bad. These people don't think so either. Another example of a rich guy for McCain.

If Joe is wrong on his numbers he is backing the wrong guy. Unfortunately, for him, he does not seem to know this. Fortunately, for him, by the time he buys his plumbing business and fails he may be eligible for a government bailout.

That said, it's time to move along people. Nothing more to see here.

Comments welcome,

Pat McGovern

It's got electoral votes. It's what politicians crave.