Clarence Page: What The Plumber Doesn't Know.
What the plumber doesn't know
Clarence Page
With Election Day closing in, Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has been lurching along like an old car that can't get out of first gear. He desperately needs to gain ground with undecided suburban independent voters. Instead, he's been coming up with moves that appeal to true-blue conservatives, but hardly anyone else.
In his final debate with Sen. Barack Obama, he gave his best performance of the three face-offs, but couldn't come up with the game changer he needed. He was so far behind in the polls that he needed more than a knockout performance to help him win. Obama , in some way, also would have to lose. As it turned out, Obama didn't.
McCain's woes were embodied in his biggest surprise of the evening: Joe the Plumber.
That's Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, who confronted Obama recently at a campaign stop in Joe's Holland, Ohio neighborhood. Joe didn't like the idea that Obama's tax plan might raise his taxes, if he bought the plumbing company on which he had his eye.
Obama's conversation with Joe predictably hit the Internet and the conservative talk show circuit. This is, after all, the YouTube era. What we used to call privacy is now only footage that has not yet been broadcast.
McCain brought up Joe during the debate as an example of an American who supposedly would be hurt by Obama's tax plan, "class warfare" and "socialist" ideas, in McCain's view. Those are exciting issues for the most conservative wing of Republicans, where "socialist" and "class warfare" have become the epithets that "pinko commie" was in the 1950s. McCain usually sounds more moderate than this when he's not running for president. I expect he will again after his release on Election Day by the spin-doctors who appear to be holding him hostage.
For now, with much of Wall Street now bought up by the federal government under the Bush administration, McCain's political vocabulary seems to be painfully out of synch with the times. As a recent British newspaper headline read, "We're all socialists now."
If Joe was not quite the game changer McCain needed, he was a debate changer. The two candidates dropped his name more than 20 times in direct appeals for Joe's vote.
Alas, platoons of journalists landed on Joe's lawn and uncovered a new spin to McCain's presumed icon of working-class heroism.
It turned out that the man whom McCain put at the center of his tax debate was delinquent on his taxes. He wasn't quite an independent swing voter, either, having voted Republican in this year's primary. Even his plumber status was questioned. He was not licensed, although the company for which he plumbed was licensed. Still, according to reports, the local plumbers union was mad at him.
Most important to the presidential debate, a host of experts said Joe's taxes probably would not be increased under the Obama tax plan. In fact, if Obama's health care proposal and tax breaks went into effect, Joe's new business might fare better than they would under McCain's tax plans.
All of which led to new questions as to whether anyone in McCain's campaign bothered to check Joe's background before McCain used him as a debate foil -- and whether Joe might have been vetted by the same genius who vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be McCain's running mate.
The comparison between Joe and Palin is revealing. Each offers Republicans a new, exciting small-town working-class face at a time when the party's brand is badly damaged. For McCain, who won nomination in spite of his party's conservative base more than because of it, Joe and Palin help firm up the base support he needs.
But now Palin appears also to have done Obama a big favor by galvanizing his party's liberal base behind him, in spite of his overlooking Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. And once Joe unleashed his own ultra-libertarian views to reporters, he, too, may have damaged McCain. For example, he casually bashed such popular long-established programs as Social Security, Washington's perennial "third rail" among old political hands: Touch it and you die.
"Social Security is a joke," Wurzelbacher told CNN. "I have parents; I don't need another set of parents called the government. You know, let me take my money and invest it how I please." That's fine for Joe. What Joe doesn't know -- or care -- about politics won't hurt him. He's not running for office. But McCain probably winced. Now is a bad time for the McCain campaign to be offending the senior vote.
Clarence Page is a columnist for The Chicago Tribune. His e-mail address is cpage@tribune.com.
Editor's comment: You are "right on" with this piece, Mr. Page, and John McCain's "hostage takers" -- the spin masters -- need to let him be -- once again -- a Maverick.
Clarence Page
With Election Day closing in, Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has been lurching along like an old car that can't get out of first gear. He desperately needs to gain ground with undecided suburban independent voters. Instead, he's been coming up with moves that appeal to true-blue conservatives, but hardly anyone else.
In his final debate with Sen. Barack Obama, he gave his best performance of the three face-offs, but couldn't come up with the game changer he needed. He was so far behind in the polls that he needed more than a knockout performance to help him win. Obama , in some way, also would have to lose. As it turned out, Obama didn't.
McCain's woes were embodied in his biggest surprise of the evening: Joe the Plumber.
That's Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, who confronted Obama recently at a campaign stop in Joe's Holland, Ohio neighborhood. Joe didn't like the idea that Obama's tax plan might raise his taxes, if he bought the plumbing company on which he had his eye.
Obama's conversation with Joe predictably hit the Internet and the conservative talk show circuit. This is, after all, the YouTube era. What we used to call privacy is now only footage that has not yet been broadcast.
McCain brought up Joe during the debate as an example of an American who supposedly would be hurt by Obama's tax plan, "class warfare" and "socialist" ideas, in McCain's view. Those are exciting issues for the most conservative wing of Republicans, where "socialist" and "class warfare" have become the epithets that "pinko commie" was in the 1950s. McCain usually sounds more moderate than this when he's not running for president. I expect he will again after his release on Election Day by the spin-doctors who appear to be holding him hostage.
For now, with much of Wall Street now bought up by the federal government under the Bush administration, McCain's political vocabulary seems to be painfully out of synch with the times. As a recent British newspaper headline read, "We're all socialists now."
If Joe was not quite the game changer McCain needed, he was a debate changer. The two candidates dropped his name more than 20 times in direct appeals for Joe's vote.
Alas, platoons of journalists landed on Joe's lawn and uncovered a new spin to McCain's presumed icon of working-class heroism.
It turned out that the man whom McCain put at the center of his tax debate was delinquent on his taxes. He wasn't quite an independent swing voter, either, having voted Republican in this year's primary. Even his plumber status was questioned. He was not licensed, although the company for which he plumbed was licensed. Still, according to reports, the local plumbers union was mad at him.
Most important to the presidential debate, a host of experts said Joe's taxes probably would not be increased under the Obama tax plan. In fact, if Obama's health care proposal and tax breaks went into effect, Joe's new business might fare better than they would under McCain's tax plans.
All of which led to new questions as to whether anyone in McCain's campaign bothered to check Joe's background before McCain used him as a debate foil -- and whether Joe might have been vetted by the same genius who vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be McCain's running mate.
The comparison between Joe and Palin is revealing. Each offers Republicans a new, exciting small-town working-class face at a time when the party's brand is badly damaged. For McCain, who won nomination in spite of his party's conservative base more than because of it, Joe and Palin help firm up the base support he needs.
But now Palin appears also to have done Obama a big favor by galvanizing his party's liberal base behind him, in spite of his overlooking Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. And once Joe unleashed his own ultra-libertarian views to reporters, he, too, may have damaged McCain. For example, he casually bashed such popular long-established programs as Social Security, Washington's perennial "third rail" among old political hands: Touch it and you die.
"Social Security is a joke," Wurzelbacher told CNN. "I have parents; I don't need another set of parents called the government. You know, let me take my money and invest it how I please." That's fine for Joe. What Joe doesn't know -- or care -- about politics won't hurt him. He's not running for office. But McCain probably winced. Now is a bad time for the McCain campaign to be offending the senior vote.
Clarence Page is a columnist for The Chicago Tribune. His e-mail address is cpage@tribune.com.
Editor's comment: You are "right on" with this piece, Mr. Page, and John McCain's "hostage takers" -- the spin masters -- need to let him be -- once again -- a Maverick.
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