The star of the final Presidential debate Wednesday night was not
Barack Obama or John McCain. It was Joe “the Plumber”
Wurzelbacher from Ohio. Joe the Plumber came to the attention of the
candidates when a video of him questioning Obama about his tax policy
made news. Video of Obama’s response that when you “spread
the wealth around” it’s good for everybody, spread like
wildfire across the internet, to some cable news shows, and to John
McCain’s attention. Since Joe was a big focus of the debate, and
a big hit with Republicans, the Obama thugocracy (as tagged by Michael
Barone) wasted no time targeting him.
Some liberal bloggers went after Joe the Plumber saying he didn’t
even make $250,000 and that he would receive a tax cut under Barack
Obama’s plan, supposedly proving “Joe the Plumber”
was a Republican lie. Here is what Joe said in the exchange with Obama:
“I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes about 250,
270-80 thousand dollars a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me
more isn’t it?” So much for the Republican lie. Joe told
Obama that he was planning on buying a company, which he hoped would
put him in that $250,000 or more income range in the future, which
prompted Obama’s response about spreading the wealth around. By
choosing that line of attack, those on the left proved what many of us
on the right already believed – that they don’t
“get” the basic concept of the American dream.
The American “dream” is about aspiring to improve your lot
– to take advantage of the freedoms this country affords those
who are willing to work hard, invest time and energy and often to take
risks, to achieve success. In the response of liberals trying to blunt
the effect of Obama’s spread the wealth comment they revealed
their inability to understand that basic concept. Obama did the same in
the full response he gave to Joe’s question. Obama stressed over
and over again not what his tax plan would do to those who have begun
to experience the success of the American dream, but only what it would
do for those behind them. The idea that increasing taxes on the rich
could negatively impact the not yet rich is a completely foreign notion.
In addition to those who tried to make hay out of the fact that Joe
doesn’t yet make $250,000 (which they would have known if they
had actually listened to his question), the Obama thugocracy went after
him any other way they could. First they questioned Joe’s
political affiliation, some saying he had given to Republicans in the
past and others saying he was not registered to vote at all. Then they
moved to his personal financial and legal records – first digging
up a tax lien against him, then pointing out that he didn’t have
a specific license (something required for commercial work, not
residential).
Joe “not the plumber” Biden, evidently listening to the
talking points and not to Joe the Plumber’s question, thought
that Joe the Plumber made $250,000 and therefore wasn’t really a
“real” plumber at all. On NBC’s Today show Biden
said, “John [McCain] wants to cling to the notion of this guy Joe
the plumber. I don’t have any Joe the plumbers in my neighborhood
that make $250,000 a year. The Joe the plumbers in my neighborhood, the
Joe the cops in my neighborhood, the Joe the grocery store owners in my
neighborhood, they make, like 98 percent of the small businesses, less
than $250,000 a year.” God love’em.
On Good Morning America in an interview with Diane Sawyer, Joe the
Plumber said Obama’s plan to take more money from those who are
successful is “scary” and a “very socialist
view” and a “slippery slope.” If he continues to talk
like that, and if he continues to resonate with Americans, there is no
telling what we will learn next about Joe Wurzelbacher. Is he Trig
Palin’s baby daddy? Does he wear silk undergarments? Is he really
bald? The point those on the left now trying to destroy Joe the Plumber
don’t get is that it doesn’t matter. Not only do their
nasty attacks on him discourage anyone else from becoming involved in
public political debate, but nothing they could dig up on him would
matter anyway.
Whether Joe the Plumber is a Republican or a Democrat, a decided or
undecided registered or unregistered voter, gay or straight, a wearer
of boxers or briefs, a huge GOP donor or even the secret love child of
John McCain doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t change what
Barack Obama said. Of his own free will, Obama admitted that he
believes his tax plan is a good thing because when you “spread
the wealth around” it’s good for everybody.
Those of us who have believed Obama’s policy proposals to be a
socialist redistribution of wealth had everything we believed
confirmed, straight from the horse’s mouth. That is what was so
shocking about the video exchange between Obama and Wurzelbacher --
what Obama said.
Obama told Joe that it is okay to soak those making more than $250,000
because then you can “spread the wealth” around and
everyone will benefit. That is redistribution of wealth – taking
from the rich (and from the kinda rich) and giving to the not so rich
and the poor. And Obama admitted it. Out loud. On video.
Joe the Plumber is not going to be making tax policy (unfortunately),
so even if he was a plant or a liar or Trig Palin’s daddy or John
McCain’s love child doesn’t matter because it would not
change what Barack Obama said. If the scenario described by Joe was
real or fabricated would not even change the fact that Obama, the man
asking to be allowed to reshape America’s economic policies, said
out loud what his philosophy on taxes is and it amounts to
redistribution of wealth.
James Pethokoukis at U.S. News and World Report said that in
Obama’s statement he was “playing into the most extreme
stereotype” of the Democrat party “that is infested with
socialists.” He pointed to what he called McCain’s best
line in the debate, “Now, of all times in America, we need to cut
people’s taxes. We need to encourage business, create jobs, not
spread the wealth around.”
Pethokoukis then pointed to something from a Gallup poll from June:
“When given a choice about how government should address the
numerous economic difficulties facing today’s consumer, Americans
overwhelmingly – by 84% to 13% -- prefer that the government
focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation
in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth
more evenly among Americans.”
That attitude may have changed a bit since June, considering the recent
credit crisis and anger toward Wall Street fat cats. But even if it is
not still an 84-13% split, it is almost certainly still a substantial
majority. No wonder those on the Left have decided Joe the Plumber must
be destroyed. What they don’t get is that he is not what will
cost them votes – Obama’s own words are.
