“Joe the Plumber” - Thanks a Lot
by KTKOctober 16th, 2008
Everybody seems fascinated by “Joe the Plumber” - the guy who confronted Obama recently and complained that if he buys the plumbing business he wants to he’ll be in the upper 1% of taxpayers who will face increases under Obama’s proposed tax plan, and he just can’t stand the thought of making that much money and paying his fair share of the burden.
Turns out now that most of that is not true, he has no idea what he’s talking about, and all his fears are hypothetical:
“I still don’t know where he stands,” he says of Obama. “I’m middle class. I can’t have my taxes raised any more.”
He also says he actually isn’t in the bracket where Obama would raise his taxes — but he’s worried that Obama will shift the bracket down.
He also said that, in his encounter with Obama, the Illinois Senator [did] “a tap dance…almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr.”
Right. After 2 books, 8 years of political office-holding just 2 states over from you including 2 years in the United States Senate, an extensive Web site filled with detailed policy plans with explicit numerical parameters on scores of issues, a widely-publicized national convention keynote address in 2004, 2 years of policy speeches during the 2008 campaign, tons of advertising, tons of tons of news coverage, and three public debates, it’s Obama’s fault that you don’t know anything about him. Also, you somehow have a personal right not to pay taxes even when you expect to earn more than almost anyone in your state or the country, you are worried about taxes that you have just made up in your head because you assume Obama’s (but apparently not McCain’s) actual tax plan is a lie, and, finally, you don’t actually make as much money as you said so none of this applies to you anyway but you’re still worried about it. Also, that little black boy tap-dances so fine, just like Sammy Davis!
Well done, Joe. Nearly a perfect score on the:
Idolized Populist Doofus Checklist:
- Abysmal ignorance after months of targetted informational outreach about current issues of major importance: Check!
- Nearly spiritual veneration of the “middle class” to the point that it invests them with new and unique moral rights, especially regarding their finances: Check!
- Allergic aversion to taxation with no recognition whatsoever of its role in providing government services otherwise taken for granted: Check!
- Irrational worry about taxation of the rich, on the part of the working class: Check!
- [Potential] small-business owner with far-above-average income claiming to be middle class or lower: Check!
- Assumption that promised beneficial programs are somehow malignant, with apparent preference for worse programs instead: Check!
- Sneering hostility to knowledge, education, sophistication, universities, and foreign countries: [Huh! Wonder how he missed this one?]
- Casual racist stereotyping, slurs, and dismissive put-downs: Check!
And, somehow, we’ve got to chase this clown’s vote because simply appealing to people who actually know something about the issues, respond to them realistically, and have some sense of the national interest that goes beyond 3% variations in their personal marginal income tax rate would (a) lose the election, and (b) be unforgivably “elitist”.
UPDATE: It gets better: he’s apparently not even registered to vote. Both major-party candidates, in a nationally-televised debate, barely two weeks from an election of watershed historical importance, spent the entire night pandering to one single person, who’s a complete bonehead and not even a voter. Jesus Freakin’ Christ . . . UPDATED UPDATE: He may be registered under a mis-spelled name. As Ben Smith points out, this is part of the problem with the so-called “voter fraud” myth.
H/T: Ben Smith
Categories: Culture, General, News & Current Events, Politics, Race, Taxes |
you’re an idiot. Deceived, and stupid. If all you ridiculous lefties had even a little desire for truth at all, you’d be thinking very differently. But instead, you’re content to be blind, led by the blind.
Ridiculous lefties? Leave Cole Hamels out of this, please.
Seriously, I happen to think this is a great freaking post. If you would like to criticize it on it’s merits, please go ahead, and we can have a civilized discussion.
Otherwise, I’m force to respond in kind.
…Your mother!
Bravo, KTK. The Idolized Populist Doofus Checklist is the funniest thing you’ve posted in quite some time.
*applauds*
It’d be even funnier, if it weren’t so depressingly true…
The punch line? He’s not a plumber, and he owes $1,200 in back taxes.
Digg’s forced Fred’s mother?
The punch line? Some guy who asked Obama a tough question is better examined than Obama. Apparently Joe the Plumber owes half as much in back taxes as Obama’s campaign treasurer. And guess which is news.
http://webofdeception.com/nesbitt.html
He’s not a plumber? He’s doesn’t have a plumber’s license in in Toledo. Not quite the same. Maybe, he works outside Toledo, but I don’t care. If you never knew a blue-collar worker who sometimes worked without his paperwork in order, well, I doubt you ever knew a blue collar worker. Or any hard worker at all. The only ones who always had their papers right were the union regs lawyers who were a drag on the whole job crew.
“dismissive put-downs: Check!” KTK, if you give me your address I will send you a mirror.
I wish I could forward this snark to every union guy I ever worked with (even the regs lawyer).
Look, Chaz, the McCain campaign seized this Joe (Sam) fella and made him the face and personification of their attack on Obama. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole of scrutiny applied to the formation of this plan, because it fell squarely on its face as the claims it was based upon turned out to be false, and posturing of its protagonist disingenuous.
If Joe is working without a license, or if he owes some cheese back to gov’t, those are his personal issues. I’m not judging JTP. I wouldn’t want somebody without a license to perform the services they are performing to be performing those services on my (theoretical) property, but that’s not some sort of, per se, evidence of Joe being a bad guy. Neither is the fact that he owes back taxes. Again, not per se.
But you seem to be missing the point. Nobody is really vilifying JTP here. The JTP backlash is being considered as evidence of McCain’s shoddily planned and/or deceitful tactics. Many people may, justifiably, consider to that be a harbinger of his behavior if elected office. JTP is a pawn in this, so relax, you don’t need to become his defender and BFF.
Obama is not parading his campaign manager as some sort of embodiment of the harding working American who will be preyed upon by the ill-conceived and unjust policies of his opponent. He has not thrown his campaign manager into the fray as a public figure to be scrutinized without performing even a cursory check of that person’s credentials. So, this is really apples and oranges.
Finally, nobody is scrutinizing JTP more heavily than they are Obama. They are scrutinizing McCain, through the prism of Joe, and the tactic.
/Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny/ I got no more use for this guy. /Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny/