It’s been a devastating 24 hours for the man the world has come to know as “Joe, the Plumber.” Just yesterday morning, he was the toast of the political world, appearing on Good Morning America and being interviewed by Katy (don’t call me a journalist) Couric. He appears in a new John McCain ad, conservatives have embraced him as an entrepreneurial icon, and the apparel industry is going nuts with every manner of Joe the Plumber T-Shirts (For just $35.95 plus shipping, you can own this “Joe the Plumber is my Homeboy “T” in black, navy blue, or ten other colors.)
But this was before the minions of our political savior decided that Joe the Plumber must die.
Well, not literally, I suppose. Rather, they set out to kill his name – a careful, deliberate, gleeful campaign to assassinate, smear, and destroy his name in order to lay the icon low. The problem is that this icon is just an ordinary American citizen whose own mother would now probably disown him after the left and the national press have unearthed a frightening amount of information – some of it not very flattering – about his life.
A tax lien, a question of whether he is working legally (there is a a debate whether he actually needs a license to perform residential work), a divorce – it is enormously disconcerting to see the kind of information you can dig up on someone if you know your way around a search engine or two.
And the dumpster diving press must have temporarily re-assigned the smelly, stinking reporters who have been rummaging in Sarah Palin’s trash in Alaska the last 6 weeks. They probably welcome the change in scenery although I imagine the stench in which they are now wallowing in Holland, Ohio smells pretty much the same. From the looks of what they’ve been able to dig up, they sure seem to know their way around a sh*t hole.
For those in the upper echelons of the garbage sniffing media, it is important to get the smear out – even if you are unsure whether the crap you are dealing out is actually, like, you know, true and stuff.
Example: Huffpo:
You see, Joe Wurzelbacher is apparently related to Robert Wurzelbacher. Who is the son-in-law of (are you ready…?) Charles Keating!Yes, that Charles Keating. The Charles Keating of the Keating 5 Scandal. For which John McCain was reprimanded by the United States Senate, for his involvement in attempting to illegally influence government regulators. The Charles Keating who John McCain has been trying to avoid have mentioned. So, he basically mentioned it 24 times.
[snip]
Mind you, I thought it odd when John McCain first brought up Joe Wurzelbacher’s but then never referred to his last name again. I thought perhaps he’d forgotten it. Or it was too hard to pronounce. Apparently though there was a better reason for him to quit saying the name “Wurzelbacher” 24 times. If only Sen. McCain (R-AZ) had remembered the pesky Tivo, where you can rewind.
Now, in fairness, John McCain might not have known than Joe Wurzelbacher was from that same Wurzelbacher family. He might have thought it was just some regular Wurzelbacher. And who knows, maybe they’re not even related?
Get that? All of this smear by association, all of this information about Joe splashed all over the pages of the #1 liberal website in America, and then “Who knows, maybe they’re not even related…”
Pardon me for my stupidity (which many on the right and left have been noticing lately) but shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t you like, sorta first, ascertain the truth and THEN print the smear?
Just asking…
At any rate, there has been a lot of pixelated poison being dished out by our good friends on the left. Some of it is even true, although the relevance of anything relating to Joe the Plumber’s personal and professional life escapes me. Last time I looked, all Joe did was ask Obama a question. And no matter what they dig up about poor Joe (they have only scratched the surface of his sex life – I assume that stuff will be out before long), it doesn’t change what Obama said about “spreading the wealth” one iota.
They can smear Joe from now until the 2012 election but it doesn’t change the underlying reason that they need to smear him: Obama revealed just a little bit too much of his real philosophy.
For more than a year, Obama has survived largely by uttering the most banal, the least offensive pablum that, falling on the ears of the young and less sophisticated voters, has proved to be as soothing a balm as has ever been applied to the American electorate. But in that one moment, after many months of obfuscation, obtuseness, and just plain lying about his positions on the issues, Obama let slip the concept of redistributing the wealth. Every taxpayer regardless of their education or sophistication knows full well what “redistribution” means to them – higher taxes. Obama can swear on a stack of Korans between now and election day that he will only tax the rich. But that single phrase – “spread the wealth” – has damaged if not destroyed his credibility on taxes.
So in essence, this entire smear campaign by the Obamabots on the left is really for naught. They might kill Joe the Plumber’s iconic status. But they will never be able to whitewash what Obama said.
There are some who take this smearing of Joe to be an example of what America under Obama will be like – dissent stifled, opponents destroyed. I’ve got news for my friends on the right – we’d be doing the same thing in their shoes.
I don’t know what information the righty blogs and media would be digging up and plastering all over the net if McCain had responded to a question by Joe on the economy and made some stupid statement in response. All I am certain of is that we would be doing it. I know I would. I have no doubt I would be republishing all the stuff the rightysphere dug up on poor Joe and do it with a clear conscience. “He asked for it by getting himself involved…” would be my rationalization. And those honest enough to ask themselves whether they would participate in such a campaign – to switch places mentally with the left -should think long and hard before they answer in the negative.
I would hasten to add that such an attack by the right on Joe would no doubt have s lot less resonance than smears against Joe by the left now, given the mainstream media’s curious inability to get off their knees and take a respite from their Obama worship long enough to play this little media scenario exactly the same way they are playing it today. Joe would be trumpeted to the skies as an “Everyman,” anything negative in his past would be buried, while McCain’s dumb comment would be highlighted continuously.
If life were fair, this is the way it would be today only it would be Obama’s comment on “spreading the wealth” that would be shown over and over again on every cable TV news channel and become the subject of long, thoughtful pieces in the New York Times. But life isn’t fair and conservatives, more than anyone else, know this. It’s written on the first page of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Handbook: “Life in a world dominated by a liberal media, liberal intelligentsia, liberal culture, and a liberal educational system will never be fair for members of the VRWC. GET USED TO IT.”
Joe might not be “fair” game. But he is game nonetheless. It is a fact in this age of polarized and poisonous politics that it hardly matters who gets caught in the crossfire. What matters is that anyone who gets in the way or who inserts themselves into this great, gaping maw of political media that can build you up, lionize you, and destroy you in less time than it takes to digest your breakfast, is by definition, part of the story.
I’m sorry for Joe. I admire his ambition and the fact that he works hard all day and comes home at night, taking care of his 13 year old son on his own.I agree that he is an iconic figure. He wants a better life for his kid and himself. And he has the right idea of what government’s role in America should be.
And he doesn’t deserve the disapprobation and calumny being heaped upon him by the rabid dog left, the Obama campaign, and the media. But in this case, as well as other cases like Joe’s, “deserve” has got nothing to do with it.
8:24 am
I wonder if Obama was plotting the character assassinatin of Joe the Plumber over his dinner of lobster and Iranian caviar at the Waldorf Astoria last night.
What a guy.
8:48 am
YES WE CAN!
...lie through our teeth
YES WE CAN!
...stifle dissent
YES WE CAN!
...dig into anyone’s personal life with the intent of destroying them through smear
YES WE CAN!
...do whatever the hell our conscience-less black souls feel like in order to get ‘our guy’ elected.
YES WE ARE!
the new Democratic Party.
Most of the Democrats around me are the pseudo-hippyish granola types who self-righteously enjoy rooting for the underdog. And I’m having no end of fun in pointing out to them the complete and total abandonment of any sense of fairness and decency coming from their party’s campaign.
It is everything (and more) that they’ve spent the last umpteen years accusing the Republicans of being.
I would think that more than a few are embarassed by the spectacle. We’ll see.
9:12 am
I don’t think the problem for Joe the Plumber is his connection to Charles Keating. I think a far bigger problem is his starring role in any number of porno films.* I think we all know why Joe doesn’t actually make $250,000. It’s because he takes so much of his income “in kind.”**
I don’t blame Joe for all of that—after all, the lonely, budget-conscious housewife is certainly guilty as well—but still, if Joe is going to run for Vice President like this he has to expect to take some heat for his past.
*That’s what I hear, anyway.
** Note my principled refusal to use the term, “laying pipe.”
9:20 am
It is a sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in today. Now we have to vet people in a rope line. More and more people are being disuaded from participating in the politic process. But it seems the left likes it that way, they want us stupid and passive and disenrolled in the whole decision making aparatus. They know whats best for us and they will care for us, like the mindless little hicks they believe us to be. If you step out of line…well…look at what they did to “Joe the Plumber”. Who needs a Dept of Truth or Though Police when you have the MSM and leftwing blogoshpere.
9:22 am
“Get that? All of this smear by association, ”
Wow Rick, I don’t imagine you actually wrote that with a straight face. Wait, no, you probably did.
9:26 am
For one person’s perspective on how you can make a decision to support Obama AND vote for John McCain, see the YouTube video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpsdKUQ1nKA
Feel free to forward this to any “undecided” voters you know of. This will be a VERY close election and we need every single vote we can get. Demonizing Obama will get us a few votes (and also lose us at least a few votes) but I hope that a rational, positive thought process will persuade a few people who are still on the fence.
Regards, Dan
9:40 am
I have two little words for you, Rick:
Graeme Frost.
Oh, make that three:
Hypocrite
Link:
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2007/10/11/what-is-a-smear-what-is-an-attack-and-what-constitutes-debate/
Are you saying because I didn’t name Frost specifically that I am guilty of hypocrisy.
I say that the right would be doing exactly the same thing if the shoe were on the other foot and this doesn’t penetrate your thick skull?
Maybe I should draw pictures for you lefties next time. Would that help?
ed.
btw – I hardly think that someone who goes on ad infinitum about Republican lawlessness and then admits to harboring a domestic terrorist in his home is hardly someone who can toss around the word “hypocrite” with any authority.
9:40 am
“I don’t know what information the righty blogs and media would be digging up and plastering all over the net if McCain had responded to a question by Joe on the economy and made some stupid statement in response”...really? I seem to remember the right having no issue with digging into (harassing) the Schiavo family or the family of Graeme Frost.
Can’t you people ever – just once – take yes for an answer? Or is it that what I am trying to say just flies over your head with the greatest of ease?
And why did you cut off the quote right before I got to the part admitting that the right would be doing the same thing? Even with the copy in front of you, you try to take my words out of context.
Sheesh!
ed.
9:48 am
shaun, aric,
so you are admitting it is a smear? how does it feel? to go after the common man? eh? keep it up, helps solidify the base, keep stacking up the bricks, we will gladly keep climbing them above you. you two are TOOLS.
hoorah for tools…
11:01 am
I am still recovering from my rage yesterday on all these Joe the Plumber hit pieces. It’s amazing what can happen in 12 hours; I was in class all day yesterday and not online, but I instinctively felt Joe the Plumber had done something important and, quite frankly, I was inspired! After class I came and posted on your site about Joe as being the “October surprise”, and perhaps being the reason why McCain may still have a small chance in hell of winning. Then, shortly after posting on your site, I discovered the myriad of hit pieces on Joe all over the internet, including one done by the AP which used some rather deceptive phrasing to make it sound like Obama had answered Joe differently than he did, and there was no mention of redistribution of wealth anywhere. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/ap_on_re_us/joe_the_plumber ).
This makes me furious. Joe is a citizen who dared to ask a candidate an honest question! Why is the focus on him and not what Obama said? What happened to “getting back to the issues”?? It’s really depressing to watch them do this to him. Will they ruin his career? I hope not. But if they do, I think we should all do something about it. I think we should run with this and support him and use it as an example of the media’s lack of objectivity. This is America and a citizen should not be silenced through smears because he does not have the majority opinion. The mainstream media seems like it’s becoming more of a follower of leftist blogs than an objective news source, and the leftist blogs tried to smear Joe the minute he started opening his mouth.
It’s obvious ordinary citizens should have one role and one role alone in this election: sit down, shut up, do nothing to improve their economic hardship, and wait for the Savior to arrive. Don’t dare argue with anything Obama believes in. He is the One we have been waiting for, and if you don’t agree with that, you don’t fit the storyline of this election, and you must be tossed out.
Would we on the right do the same? Honestly, it is so hard for me to imagine an alternative universe at the moment where the roles would be reversed and Republicans would be trying to smear a leftist citizen hero who opened his mouth. But, looking back, I remember how much of a laugh I used to get out of that anti-war mom parading around spewing anti-American crap(Cindy?? forget her last name). But she was an ordinary American and had an opinion. So I hope that this situation helps me recognize unfair smears in the future and not engage in them.
11:18 am
My 2 cents on this issue:
Are the attacks on Joe the Plumber unfair? Yes.
Is this anything different than what the media would do if the situation were reversed? No.
So why is this a big deal?
11:30 am
SS,
it is a big deal, because all y’all keep doing is solidifying the base with your smears and cheapshots… so keep it up
11:58 am
jambrowski,
I’m not smearing Joe the Plumber. Wasn’t that obvious? If the base wants to play the victim card in order to be “solidified”, then so be it. Just don’t expect any sympathy for the other side of the aisle or from the political moderates. (I recall when the “other base” used to play the victim card every week, and it sickened me.) Like I said before, this is simply not a big deal in my opinion. If that is all the base has to keep its hopes up, then I really don’t know what to say.
1:13 pm
Watch Obama mocking Joe the Plumber. This is presidential material?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSHqxosjyLY&NR=1
1:19 pm
Giving liberals a millimeter of slack is self-defeating.
You will never be repaid in kind for courtesy shown to liberals.
You will never see facts acknowledged, or differing viewpoints accepted, by a liberal.
You will never see boundaries respected or rules followed by a liberal.
Conservatives can coddle them if they choose. They have been warned about how liberals behave. When the liberals break their heart, my shoulder will not be available to cry on.
1:38 pm
You are hard, but fair Hyman. We must be ever vigilant.
3:28 pm
Would the right wing really do it? I seem to remember when unfair questions were asked by “independent” voters in the primaries that the right wing dug up that those people had Democrat party or other left wing ties.
That seems to be fair game.
However, I don’t remember the right wing publishing personal addresses, misdemeanor arrest records or anything not related to the question.
So, I take issue with your premise.
3:30 pm
Graeme Frost. Remember him? 12-year-old kid, testified about the S-CHIP program, got Swift-boated as a result? Turned out almost everything used to attack him and his family was fabricated?
Here’s the problem with politics of personal destruction: it ensures that the country is NEVER properly led, by anyone. You go into office with 49.5% of the country despising you and convinced that your election was illegitimate.
It’s not right to pick on stupid Joe W. and it wasn’t right to pick on Graeme Frost. You know why it happens? Because it sells ads. Let’s face it, if we didn’t lap it up, it wouldn’t get bounced around the blogosphere and into the press. You want to end these sorts of pointless attacks, don’t perpetrate them youself, and more importantly, ignore them whenever someone tries to get the ball rolling again. After awhile, the tactic will subside.
(The McCain campaign’s attempt to substitute a message of “why to vote for McCain” with a message of “why Obama is the (Moslem) Anti-Christ” seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect, driving down McCain’s numbers far more than it drove down Obama’s. Maybe Obama’s polls will be damaged by Joe-bashing, and thus both sides will start thinking twice about the politics of personal destruction.)
3:35 pm
We are we Republicans always the first to berate and flog ourselves for crimes we haven’t committed?
Are you seriously trying to convince me that, if McCain made some telling gaff in answering a question from a citizen, after purposely soliciting that question in the first place, that we ourselves would then ignore the facts and try to assassinate the character of the citizen who asked the question?
I don’t buy it for a second. The same introspection that leads you to ask that question is the same introspection that would shame us from harassing a citizen who asked an honest if not difficult question.
Here is the enemy, he is us.
3:40 pm
The right wing blogs would certainly go after a Joe the Plumber if McCain had been the one tripped.
However, it would only be to make sure the Joe was not an operative for a Left organization or a Left activist. I’ve seen this happen before (go check the pedigree of the person). Usually, the person is just an ordinary person and the right turns on themselves and would attack McCain.
Only the Left gleefully goes after folks. Tomorrow they’ll likely report that Larry Flint has offered $1million dollars to anyone, especially a male, that can say they had sex or thought they might have had sex with Joe the Plumber.
Having said all this, Joe the Plumber could have shut the press off. I’ve seen photos of him answering questions in his yard circled by at least a dozen news people. And his appearances on TV shows? Since he chose celebrity, then that’s what they do to celebrities. I would suspect he’s heard of Paris Hilton? He may have even watched things like Extra!, etc. Thus, I think he chose to be chased and could have avoided most of it. Having stepped into the limelight many times, he’s now just another celebrity.
4:15 pm
The idea put forward by some commenters here that the politics of personal destruction are a left-wing phenomenon is absolutely bizarre.
How about Rush Limbaugh referring to Chelsea Clinton as “the White House dog?” How about Congressman Burton shooting watermelons in his back yard in an attempt to prove that Bill Clinton murdered Vince Foster? How about Swift Boating? How about John McCain’s illegitimate black baby? How about a multiple amputee war hero who is slandered by being connected with Osama Bin Laden? And none of you seem to want to answer the point that has been repeated here: Graeme Frost.
This entire campaign as carried on most right-wing blogs has been a campaign of personal destruction. It’s all you’ve got. Muslim Obama, foreigner Obama, terrorist Obama, corrupt Obama, America-hating Obama. I will happily bet any of you that there are more attacks on Obama online than there are on McCain.
Limbaugh, Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, O’Reilly and you clowns are going to sit there wallowing in sanctimony about personal attacks?
Are you imbeciles or liars?
4:32 pm
I think Joe the plumbers real problems will really begin if the annointed one is actually elected. The left will use all sorts of IRS, etc., etc to take this man down.
4:45 pm
Michael Reynolds: Are you imbeciles or liars?
Of the two, I’d pick imbecile since it’s a term we both could share.
Take two aspirin and blog again in the morning. Things might be clearer then. You might be able to see past the red rage welling up.
5:26 pm
Graeme Frost ring a bell? We have a saying in NY- “If ya don’t want it don’t ask for it” He knew he’d be thrown to the proverbial wolves the second he opened his mouth. I don’t think it’s fair to attack the guys personal life- only issues relevant to his inquiry- you know, “putting his money where his mouth is.” Maybe he can get a gig on Ghost Hunters…