Thst is America, with celebrity comes scrutiny. I worked at IBM for some time and was part of a hiring process for sensitive positions dealing with billing systems. We hire firms to do background checks, part of which is a media search / credit report / criminal background check/ reputation check. you wouldn't believe the number of people "disqualified" because of a stupid facebook/myspace posting or a late credit card payment. In a "fair" world, a late credit car payment shouldn't cause your auto insurance premiums to go up 50 %. it does Americans have as much fun propping you up as tearing you down. Joe the plumber gave interviews to all the morning shows. He should have known better.
Logically the only one to plant this story is Obama. He finds someone with a checkered past like Joe, pays him 10K to stand on the driveway. Obama just happens to stop at that location. Then Obama drops his "spread the wealth policy" cloked under the Joe the plumber. In typical Obama fashion, he ties two stories together, and against the issues of Joe the plumber his "spread the wealth policy looks clean and honest.
That's funny. I know quite a few people who received scholarships/grants and did very well academically. Most of them don't have two dimes to rub together. There are plenty of skilled tradesmen who became contractors and are now fairly wealthy. There are also plenty of wealthy floor traders in Chicago with below average IQs and 10-word vocabularies. Book smarts and making money are two different things I guess.
Lost? Did you mean lost his country? This is one of several reasons why you're going to the ignore list. Your hatred of whites. I'm not going to pray for you though. I'm not arrogant enough to think God gives a shit what I say.
A WHOLE NEW GAME: PLUMBER'S GIFT TO MCCAIN By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN "Ronald Reagan's most important contribution to the American political dialogue was his ability to move the tax issue from an economic-populist issue into a populist, blue-collar one. Under George W. Bush, however, the issue has switched back to one of class warfare, as increasing numbers of Americans have paid no taxes at all and the rates on those who did pay taxes fell. Now, a chance encounter with "Joe the Plumber" has afforded the Republicans the chance to use taxes as a blue-collar issue. The opening Joe provided and John McCain skillfully exploited in the third presidential debate gives the GOP ticket its first long shot at victory since McCain punted on the terrible, pork-laden, corporate-giveaway "rescue" bill Congress passed and Bush signed. Obama's tax plans and spending programs have emerged as the key point of difference between the campaigns. And the Democrat's comment to Joe that he saw his tax policy as a "way to spread the wealth around" underscores the motive behind his program: to redistribute income. Obama might as well have told Joe, "I want to take the hard earned money you make fixing pipes and give it to other people." If the Republican Party concentrates its fire on the tax issue and the redistributionist impulse behind Obama's plans, it can close the Democratic lead point by point, day by day, until the election. McCain's campaign must resist the temptation to take random shots on other issues and zero in on the tax-and-spend issue, stressing how taxes penalize those who work hard and live right. In fact, the rich are paying vastly more in taxes than they ever have. "Reality Check," by Dennis Keegan and David West, points out that the percentage of income-tax revenues paid by the top percent of the population has almost doubled in the last 20 years; it now pays 40 percent of all income tax. (The bottom half in income pays less than 3 percent.) Despite the lower rates, the rich are paying more in taxes because they are earning more and more. In the last eight years, real, after-inflation income growth for the top 10 percent of the population has been more than 45 percent. Essentially, the tax debate comes down to economic populism versus social populism. The Democratic economic populists rail against the rich and demand that they pay more in taxes. The Republican social populists decry the notion of income redistribution as rewarding failure and penalizing hard work. Until Joe, the economic-populist polarity dominated the presidential race to the detriment of the Republicans. But now Joe has brought the social-populist argument back to life. Because there always are, there will doubtless be those who see the social-populist approach as a code word for racism, especially because it is directed against the proposals of an African-American candidate. But the dichotomy that social populism exploits is one that separates the most productive members of our work force from the others, in the spirit of Joe the Plumber. Race is quite beside the point. The question is whether McCain has the discipline to pursue the tax issue doggedly for the rest of the campaign. The other targets - from Bill Ayers to ACORN - are so tempting but ultimately appeal to the Republican base and few others. But taxes hit us all. The core difference between the American working class and its European equivalents is that Europeans are inclined to vote based on their current condition while Americans base their decisions more on their goals and objectives for the future. Americans assume upward mobility while Europeans do not. Each nation's workers are correct in their assessments. Despite the widening gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest in the United States, the economic chart is constantly churning. People are always moving out of the bottom fifth and up the scale, their places at the bottom of the ladder yielding to new arrivals, usually from abroad. So Americans are right to vote their dreams. Obama's European socialist tendency to sabotage growth in the interests of "fairness" merely serves to convert an American model that works into a European one that does not."
Apparently, the Straight Talk Express has swerved another way and may have looked at the above cartoon as the reason for doing so: INCREDIBLY, instead of talking about plumber who aren't; visions of Russia as foreign policy; master of the Senate; 60s radicals; which teams are in the World Series; and other attempts at misinformation McCain has decided mayber there is something to this economy thing people are worried about by announcing: "We're focusing on the economy," the Arizona senator said in an interview aired Tuesday on "The Early Show" on CBS. "Listen to me. I'm the candidate, and this campaign is about the economy." McCain on 9/14: McCain's first reaction to the climactic events of Sunday, Sept. 14, when Lehman Brothers fell, Merrill Lynch was sold and AIG began to totter, was to repeat his longstanding sound bite that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." McCain campaign aide: âWe are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,â said Greg Strimple, one of McCainâs top advisers. âWe are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obamaâs aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.â There are more; but I think you get the point. Seneca
The Forgotten Man and Election 2008 By Newt Gingrich America met Joe the Plumber last week. But a pro-market economist writing over a hundred years ago was already familiar with Joe Wurzelbacher and Americans like him -- and understood how they are used and exploited by politicians. "They are always under the dominion of the superstition of government, and forgetting that a government produces nothing at all, they leave out of sight the first fact to be remembered in all social discussion -- that the state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man." These are the words of William Graham Sumner, brilliantly analyzed and applied to 21st century America by Amity Schlaes in her recent book, The Forgotten Man. "He Works, He Votes, Generally He Prays - But He Always Pays" Sumner wrote of the Forgotten Man: "He works, he votes, generally he prays -- but he always pays -- yes, above all, he pays." Joe the Plumber has struck a chord in the closing weeks of this election because he represents the Forgotten Man. When he confronted Sen. Barack Obama on the campaign trail with the question of what would happen to his taxes under an Obama Administration should he realize his dream of owning his own business, Joe cast the decision that faces us in this election in stark relief: Which will be better for our economy: Politicians redistributing our wealth or growing more wealth?"
From NewsMax ""Joe the plumber" has a secret plan to destroy Barack Obama. If you believe the media, Joe is a sinister, McCain-supporting Republican of the Reagan type â he is a true threat to the "Anointed One" â Barack Obama â and his chances of becoming president of the United States. This sounds almost like a make-believe story, but it's true. The media has been seeking to decapitate Joe the plumber. Why? Because he's an ordinary American who has a dream of business success for himself and his family. One day, Joe woke up and suddenly realized that Barack Obama is going to punish him with brutal taxes. Just by coincidence â and I know Chris Matthews and Katie Couric will never believe it was simply a coincidence â Joe met Barack Obama as Obama passed through his Ohio neighborhood. When Joe challenged Obama with a tough question â something the press has not done during the past two years â the Anointed One wilted. How dare Joe want to make and keep his own money? The nerve of this man to want to be a success in a small business! As Obama put it, shouldn't Joe want to help him "spread the wealth around?" With that one remark, Obama's disguise as a moderate crumbled."