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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Now Everybody’s Joe the Plumber

posted by on October 22 at 13:35 PM

At least according to this new McCain ad:

Via Ben Smith.

RSS icon Comments

1

People are stupid.

Posted by drunkel | October 22, 2008 1:45 PM
2

i'm a pc

Posted by kim | October 22, 2008 1:46 PM
3

I'm Tiger Woods.

Posted by DOUG. | October 22, 2008 1:47 PM
4

Thing is, unless all these people are making more than $250K, their taxes will go down more under Obama than under McCain.

FAIL.

Posted by David | October 22, 2008 1:49 PM
5

Did anyone else notice the weird gender split? All of the women are "Joe the plumber," whereas the men are "supposed to work harder." Was it clumsy scripting, or am I just not getting something?

Posted by Huh? | October 22, 2008 1:50 PM
6

How many jobs where you work up a sweat actually pay $250K, not including athletes?

Posted by Mike in Renton | October 22, 2008 1:59 PM
7

Still with the "Not Ready"? Yes sir, that's worked out for them real good. They better not ever give that one up.

Why can't it be November 5 right now?

Posted by whatevernevermind | October 22, 2008 2:02 PM
8

they're all delusional tax cheats who don't know how much money they make?

Posted by max solomon | October 22, 2008 2:24 PM
9

HE'S NOT READY! DON'T YOU GET IT, MY FRIENDS? HE'S UNEXPERIENCED, DOESN'T KNOW THE ROPES, WET BEHIND THE GREEN! WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?!

Posted by Chris in Tampa | October 22, 2008 2:38 PM
10

I just wanted to let everyone know that this Friday The Barack Obama campaign will be getting a very special endorsement: mine. I'm sick of letting radical leftists like Christopher Buckley, Susan Eisenhower and Colin Powell have all the fun. Don't even get me started on Joe the Plumber. Of course my endorsement alone is a tiny drop in a big bucket, but what if it was more like a thousand or ten thousand (or even more) endorsements all going out into the electronic ether (and wherever else we can put them) all on the same day - this Friday the 24th of October.

While Barack Obama is visiting his grandmother in Hawaii let's all see if what he's been saying all along is true - he won't change America, we will together. Once you've written your endorsement, in whatever form (bonus points for songs or poems), here are a few ideas where you can put it:

On the web- try craigslist, politico.com, Anywhere really. E-mail it to all of your friends (they'll get annoyed but it's for a good cause). Youtube videos featuring songs and/or interpretive dances are highly encouraged.

In papers- you can e-mail it to the editorial board of your local paper and I'm encouraging people to send them all to the Wall Street Journal (letter.editor@edit.wsj.com), New York Times (letters@nytimes.com) and USA Today (editor@usatoday.com) as well. A great resource for letters to the editor is http://pol.moveon.org/lte/ (scroll down and enter your zip code) or the similar tool on mybarackobama.com or you can use the addresses at http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm for an added bit of irony. Be sure to include your name address and phone number in all letter submissions.

On a t-shirt - you'd have to have a succinct endorsement or very small font.

On a telephone pole- Make sure postering is legal where you live.

I know very few people are persuadable at this point, but this might just remind us what is at stake and why we support someone (finally) who is much more than the lesser of two Evils. I'm keeping mine positive, as I'd rather vote for someone I like than against someone I don't, but a little civil criticism (particularly of the nasty campaigning) might show up as well. If you want to participate, please do, and if you like this idea then I urge you to send this idea far and wide. We've only got a couple of days, but I don't think we can afford not to take every opportunity (no matter how small) to help. Thanks.

p.s. I'm Andy the Fishmonger and I approved this message

Posted by andy | October 22, 2008 2:39 PM
11

I expect to see these ads in the coming weeks:

"Barack Obama eats arugula. Have you ever had arugula? Take it from me, John McCain: It's disgusting and only rich elitists eat it.

Barack Obama: Bad Taste. Rich Elitist. Not ready to lead"

--

"Barack Obama used to smoke cigarettes, until he started running for President. Regular people all around the country smoke cigarettes. Is Barack Obama too good to smoke with regular people?

Barack Obama: Not ready to lead"

Posted by Chris in Tampa | October 22, 2008 2:43 PM
12

Spread the wealth around will he!! 700Billion of tax payer dollars to Wall Street will he?! 250billion of tax payer dollars to the largest banks so they can loan it back to us with interest will he?! Why that nasty nasty man. All McCain wants to do is let the billion dollar corporations keep a little of their hard earned money, the money The Republicans just gave them. Is that so wrong?

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | October 22, 2008 3:08 PM
13

Where were these people when Bushie Wushie wanted another 4 years to keep fattening the wallets of Haliburton with their money?

Oh yeah, probably voting for him 'cuz he loves Jeebus so much.

Posted by iflurry | October 22, 2008 4:36 PM
14

I wonder if Joe the Plumber is related to Josephine the Plumber from those old Comet commercials...

Posted by RainMan | October 22, 2008 5:02 PM
15

Chris in Tampa ... and Bush was SO ready for the presidency.

Abraham Lincoln never served in the state senate. Nixon didn't serve THAT much time in the Senate.

At the end of the day, what determines if you are ready for the presidency is ... being president. And just because you really want to be president and paid your dues ... well doesn't mean you should be president. At this stage of the game. You kind of have to give it to Obama ... otherwise ... it will be another vetoathon with McCain ... and more partisan bull shit ... which of course the Democrats will be blamed for ...

And honestly I'm sick of it! The double speak slandering of socialism or capitalism neither of which have any real meaning in the modern world. Hell, even the election can be interpreted as an exercise in free market ... go figure.

What infuriates me ... is that I bust my ass working in a lab, for years upon years of education. I most likely will never see 250K a year. Even if I did, I wouldn't have my head too deep up my ass working too hard to even enjoy it.

ANd really, what the fuck is the point. Growing around old money, the only people who enjoy enjoy their bonanza wage ... well inherrited it.

Am I complaining ... not really. All the Joe the plumbers out there really really miss the point and are incredibly fucking naive about how much wealth is out there.

Fuck them.

Posted by former OR Matt | October 22, 2008 11:46 PM
16

"Did anyone else notice the weird gender split? All of the women are 'Joe the plumber,' whereas the men are 'supposed to work harder.' Was it clumsy scripting, or am I just not getting something?"

No, the women are "JO the plumber(s)." LOL! Guess that name for ladies has sorta gone out of style now.

To get the ad, you have to have some acquaintance with what's going on in the Republican echo chambers--i.e., counterparts to SLOG. (Yes, I check in on one or two of those, where I irritate them almost as much as I irritate SLOGgers.) The people who hang around there tend to be married, have children at home, and have strong desires for upward mobility economically.

In those places, the talking point has been that "Joe the Plumber" is shorthand for "anyone who wants to start a business and/or better themselves in life." Conservative women tend to be less sensitive about gender pronouns than liberal ones; perhaps it's so many re-readings of documents like the Bible and the Declaration of Independence, where "men" refers to humans generally. That is what the women in the ad are addressing, playing up that thought to women, especially married ones. Remember that many conservative married people file joint tax returns, on which two incomes are reported together. A teacher and a firefighter together could pass the $250K mark. On many of these joint returns, small business income is reported, meaning the income before taxes, overhead, deductions, etc.

The men in the ad are speaking to the male denizens, who are told that even minor efforts to better themselves will be costly, because while an annual income of $250K for an individual salary may sound like a lot for someone who takes it home in a cheque from Microsoft or Safeco, for a small business income--before payroll, taxes, insurance, and expenses--it's not unusual. A business can be a "small business" and report $1.5 million per year in income.

Given these facts, it's not surprising that they should be told--and that they should believe--that efforts to start and grow a business will wind up being for nought, because anything much above the "microbusiness" level--e.g., your local espresso cart--will find most, if not all, of its income potential destroyed by taxes which Mr Obama would raise on them. So that if they work harder, they'd only be doing it for Mr Obama.

Posted by Seajay | October 23, 2008 6:33 AM
17

Seajay

It's a logorithmic scale. It's ALWAYS been that way. Try working overtime and see how much your efforts have been for nothing. Time and a half, gone ....

But a joint income in the places that seem to bitch about the taxes the most comes to about 80 grand? 140 grand tops? 250K for a joint income? Usually because family isn't exactly their first priority and are most likely doing it because they love their work.

Blue states aren't bitching about this... why? Because they appreciate their infrastructure and their need for it.

Fuck them. So we can pay up the ass for our much needed infrastructure and pay off the god damn welfare and special programs for the dead weight of the "red states".

Posted by former OR Matt | October 23, 2008 9:58 AM

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