An Army of Joes
Turns out there’s a lot of them out there. They’re Joes, they’re plumbers, they speak their minds. Not all on the same page about how to unclog that drain, though. Uh oh, Joe the Plumber from Framingham, Mass., better watch out … doesn’t he know mocking Obama is racism? Boston Herald:
Ohio’s “Joe the Plumber” found himself at the center of the tug-of-war between John McCain and Barack Obama in Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
In Boston yesterday, plumbers named Joe were divided over which candidate they were pulling for.
Joe Aucoin, a plumber in Framingham, said after the debate, he put a toilet bowl in his front yard - “and a sign that read, ‘Joe the plumber thinks this about Obama.’ ”
“My wife was so angry,” Aucoin told the Herald yesterday.
“Obama has no experience, and McCain paid the price for our country. He can do the job,” Aucoin added, explaining the idea behind his impromptu political sculpture.
But Joe Wood, owner of Boston Standard Plumbing and Heating Inc. in Dorchester, wasn’t in a hurry to pull the chain on the Democrat. On the contrary, Wood said, “I’m going for Obama.”
And not for pocketbook reasons, either.
“A lot of people just let money decide. I don’t,” said Wood. “My reason for Obama has more to do with social issues.”
Still Wood said he was flattered that someone named Joe the Plumber got so much attention from the two candidates.
“My fiancee started laughing as soon as they said ‘Joe the Plumber,”’ said Wood.
Then there’s Joe Walsh, of Joe Walsh Plumbing and Heating in Foxboro - he’s still undecided.
“I’m not in favor of either one of them, it’s a tough call” said Wood.
Ditto Joe Barrell of Barrell Joseph Plumbing and Heating in Cambridge.
“Both candidates have some terrific qualities,” Barrell said. “This economy is in a struggle. These issues are hitting home and it’s not just Joe the Plumber who’s in trouble.”
“But to hear the two of them talk back and forth about ‘Joe the Plumber’ felt like they were talking to me,” Barrell added.
So many Joes. Those Joes are all over the place politically, but finally someone’s listening to them.
Here’s Instapundit with more Joes:
Joe Schwark, owner of JMS Plumbing in Spring Hill, said he has a general distrust of politicians, but appreciated the recognition of his craft.
“Personally, I don’t think either of them is what the country needs,” he said. “But it is what it is.”
Schwark said he agrees with the original Joe the plumber’s problem with raising taxes for people who earn more than $250,000 a year. Taxes are the plight of the small-business owner, he said.
“I work for every penny,” he said. “Taxes are what kills me, and if either of them raise taxes, it hurts people like me. You know, we jump though hoops as business owners. There is liability and vehicle insurance, and there are gas prices. For every dollar that comes in, it’s going out.”
Welcome, Punditeers, always good to see you. So is there a Joe Effect? I dunno, but goods news is bad news for Obama, who is … if we apply the measure the Obamist press applied to McCain … crashing and burning in the polls.
In other Joe developments:
Ha! I’m going into business with McCain.
Malkin: Operation Destroy Joe. She’s even got a nifty lojoe:
Malkin also has the Joe 1-Keating 5 connection … Make that a claim. Or an allegation. No, let’s make it a smear.
Hotair: Lessons of Joe. Yesterday, Hotair exulted that the Obamist media was finally investigating an Obama acquaintance. They missed one. Guess who else has tax liens. Anyway, no wonder Joe hates taxes.
Pethokoukis at USNews & World Report: In Joe veritas. Did Obama really say what Obama just really said? “Share the wealth.”
Here’s all the news that’s fit to print. NYT: JTP, pplumbing scofflaw not down with Obamist union. Sammy Davis Jr. line nonsequitorially thrown in as kicker in a backgrounder almost entirely devoid of Joe quotes. I wonder why. Well, there’s that “britney with a headache” quotes. Maybe they want people to know he’s hip re celebs.
Fox’s Joe Panel, via RCP: Great minds Hume, Kondracke, Easton, Krauthammer examine the simple mind of Joe, and his Joeness.
Ace: An Ayers-Obama palship witness sees the savaging of Joe, gets cold feet.
Poligazette: Left’s evolution into totalitarianism complete. MVDG’s a little behind the curve on that one. It didn’t evolve there, it started there. Let me tell you a story about a man named Marx. There’s a Joe in it. Joe Stalin.
Just ask Joe. Joe the Plumber, via Gateway: “Obama’s answer was right out of Karl Marx’s mouth.”
Hemingway at The Corner with some reader reax to the Pillorying of Joe. Here’s the gist:
I could care less about Joe’s background, whether he’s legit, or whether he is a McCain operative. What I do care about is that I could be attacked like a public figure simply for asking a question, like Joe. I am chilled. No longer undecided either.
Joe is emerging as an everyman uber-Palin, tapping into the fundamental Joeness of America … an innocent trap Obama set for himself, when he went out to talk to regular Americans, and was caught telling them how he really feels. “Share the wealth.” Joe, a living, breathing Norman Rockwell painting in our own time, then is set upon by the Obamist press.
The Joes of America aren’t going to like that. Obama better watch out. He may find he’s stirred up an army of them.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:24 am on Friday, October 17, 2008
8 Responses to “An Army of Joes”
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October 17th, 2008 at 11:29 am
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 10/17/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:53 am
[...] any homeowner (or businessman/woman)knows, it’s just not smart to piss-off contractors. Whether they be carpenters, roofers, concrete guys, electricians or plumbers. Somehow I [...]
October 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
[...] And the Joe movement grows Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)McCain vows to restrain executive payJoe the [...]
October 17th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
A plumber’s thoughts on Joe the Plumber
http://dumbplumber.blogspot.com/2008/10/joe-plumber-life-outside-dc-cesspool.html
October 17th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
All of the Joe stories demonstrate the deadly pitfall that is socialism.
Suppose I have an idea for a business of my own. Why should I quit my cozy 9-to-5 job and undergo the risk of starting my own business, and suffer through 80-hour weeks to produce something, if the government is going to take half of what I’ve earned to ’spread the wealth’?
Or even better, why should I stay at my current job? Perhaps I should just quit, hop on the dole, and wait for some of that sweet, sweet spread wealth to come my way.
Think of these facts while you’re in the soup line waiting for a handout because your job has been outsourced to another country where doing business is more cost-effective, or because your employer’s business failed due to excessive tax burdens.
If people are not allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labor, then they will not work. It’s as simple as that.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I agree with Mark Hemingway’s readers. What’s so disgusting about this is that Joe America (heh) didn’t seek out Obama. He wasn’t a plant, he wasn’t waiting around for hours so he could ask a gotcha question of the candidate. He didn’t have a hidden agenda, he wasn’t trying to get support for a cause by pretending to be somebody he wasn’t. He was just a guy tossing a ball in his yard with his son, who asked an honest question (and got a surpisingly honest answer) when Obama approached him, media entourage in tow.
It’s pretty sad when an ordinary citizen can come under such attack simply for asking a question. I hope people remember this the next time they hear a lefty going on about how liberals speak truth to power.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Also, more required reading on the subject from the esteemed Michael Barone. Remember, he wrote this article before the “Joe the Plumber” incident.
The Coming Obama Thugocracy
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjUwZWIwZTNhY2Y0YTFkYzFmZTIyZWUwZWNkYjk4ZGM=
October 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I am spitting angry about the Obamaniacs efforts to destroy an ordinary working guy for the sin of having the temerity to ask a simple question of The One. I thought they could sink no lower and stupider than questioning the parentage of Trig Palin. I was wrong.