Joe the Plumber - In the Blink in a Moment

Mention the name Samuel J. Wurzelobacher to most folks in Washington and you will find they draw a blank in return.  At best someone’s eyes may flicker with recognition with that mention of “I can’t place the name but the name does sound familiar.  But Joe the Plumber now there is one that heck yeah nearly everyone remembers that guy.

For a few crazy days late in the 2008 presidential campaign, Joe the Plumber was a comet shooting across the horizon of the Republican polical campaign landscape.  A flash of heat and energy which was destined to burn out as fast as it flashed in. 

Within an October afternoon in Toledo, Joe challenged Barack Obama about his pledge to end Bush era tax cuts for the high income Americans.  “I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 to $ 280,000 dollars a year,” said Joe.  “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”  Caught off guard, Obama then just a senator from Illinois running for the presidency uttered a line that cemented conservative perceptions which came across as an ultra socialist, as Barack said, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s a good thing for everybody.”  Spread the wealth.  Within hours, this term of Obama’s of spreading the wealth were ever so quickly to be used as campaigning weaponry by John McCain, Within an instant, Joe the Plumber became the symbol of every striving American dreamer – a working stiff certain to get ahead if only Washington got out of the way.  Later on in one debate of 2008, McCain mentioned and referenced ‘Joe the Plumber’ for half an hour.  It wasn’t nearly enough to help the GOP nominee survive collateral damage done to the Republicans by the epic crisis on Wall Street.  Yet Joe the Plumber, in that one testy Toledo exchange with Obama, foreshadowed the hyper partisan fight which in turn brought about near intractable gridlock in Washington.  On one side, a presidents ambitions of wealth being redistributed.  On the other side, congressional Republicans who considered revenue raising a cardinal sin.  Yes, Joe the Plumber was the Tea Party before the Tea Party had that name.  So maybe its poetic justice that, just as Obama embarks on another campaign against over subsidized oil companies and under taxed millionaires. 

On Super Tuesday, while Mitt Romney was winning small in Ohio, Samuel J. Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber won the republican primary for Ohio’s 9^th Congressional District.  As Joe said, “I want to show Ohioans that a regular working class guy can run for Congress and win without compromising his integrity.”  Joe hasn’t mellowed with age, he is still Sarah Palin in boots and coveralls with that combative, cranky and charming all in one.

Joe’s first post primary interview, on CNN, turned choppy the moment Joe was asked what qualified him for Congress.  “What qualifies me?  I've worked all my life, I mean see these hands right here, there ‘s callouses on the, “he responded and went on to say, I worked the last 25 years having to make a results to feed my family, pay my bills.  Politicians, you know, they live off the backs of broke taxpayers.”  Now this is a heartland sentiment that makes Obama more vulnerable than Democrats think.  Yes, it’s possible that 2010 midterms marked the highest point for the Tea party Republicans.  A recent Associated Press poll showed 65% of American voters thought it would be just fine for millionaires to pay a minimum 30 percent tax rate.  Yet even as the Democrats see the GOP’s soul savvy presidential reaps as a blessing a simmer of anti Obama sentiment within the Republican base is ready again to be stoke.  Ironic as it may be, Joe the Plumber embodies all of it.  If he was a novelty in 2008, in 2012 he is a reflection of the GOP in all its manifestations.  Economically hard lined taxes, harsh on foreign policy and intensely conservative on social issues.  As flat tax advocate at the time he debated Obama, Joe the Plumber has endorsed Herman Cain’s 999 taxation plan for nine percent sales tax, income tax and corporate tax.  As well there are bits of Joe the Plumber’s foreign policy views in Mitt Romney. 

Four years ago, Joe agreed a vote for Obama was considered a vote for the death of Israel.  Last week, Romney said Obama’s re-election would ensure “Iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change.”  On social issues, there are echoes of Joe the Plumber in rick Santorum.  In 2009, Joe said he had some gay friends but “wouldn’t have them anywere near my children.” 

Santorum has taken a like to gay marriage to “man and dog” unions and placed traditional family values to the fore front.  The ideological stew that nourishes Joe the Plumber isn’t likely to get him elected in Ohio’s 9^th Congressional district seat in Ohioan.  He is running against a 30 year veteran by the name of Marcy Kaptur within that 9^th Democratic district.  Yes his name is a catchy nickname, his folksy status on the right, and hours of cable TV time to fill before November.

Joe the Plumber has resurfaced if only for a blink of a moment …Again.