The Damn Plumber
The smearing by the left of Joe the Plumber is amazing and disgusting to behold. Here you have a guy who was out on his lawn playing with his kids when Obama decided to go door-to-door. Obama approached him, not vice-versa, and the two had an exchange.
There’s nothing in that exchange that is telling when it comes to Joe the Plumber. It doesn’t matter whether he’s a licensed plumber (residential plumbers in Ohio do not have to be licensed), nor does it matter that he has a tax lien. Such political anal probes are irrelevant.
What’s telling, and what is relevant, Barack Obama’s response to Joe the Plumber.
It says everything you need to know:
It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance at success, too. And I think that when we spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.
(Read more after the leap)
Prosperity is not a zero-sum game. When one guy–be they plumbers in Ohio aspiring to own their own business or career politicians who got millions for book deals–prospers, others follow. The successful invest in more success. They hire people. They buy things, things that are made by other people.
They spread their own wealth around; they don’t need That One to do it for them, or to choose who will get some and who won’t.
Geraghty says it all:
After Targeting Joe the Plumber, Obamabots Pledge To Expose Scandals of Guy in Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ Painting
Thank God we live in a free country, where you can speak your mind on public issues, without fear that those who disagree will respond by exposing anything you’ve ever done that you regret or that could embarrass your family.
Oh, wait, never mind. We have to know, according to some, about Joe the Plumber’s tax lien, and how he doesn’t have a license - which, if the smear artists bothered to check the law, he only needs for commercial work, not residential work.
This is the way our opponents operate now. Destroy anyone who stands in your way. Humiliate them. Make sure that anyone else who ever wants to skeptically question Barack Obama knows that every last bit of their dirty laundry will be aired for all the world to see. Bristol Palin, Trig Palin, — hey, it’s all fair game. They’ve got to make an example of them. Show them that this sort of dangerous speech won’t be allowed in the New America.
Remember the man in the plaid shirt, standing at the town meeting in one of Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” paintings? He wouldn’t recognize this country anymore.
Anyone that gets in the way–be they governor of Alaska, family of said governor, boyfriend of the daughter of said governor, or plumbers that dare ask questions that are stupidly answered by That One–then they have to be destroyed.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
“Joe the Plumber is my best friend.” — John McCain during Wednesday night’s debate
October 17th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Adam, are you really basing a comment attributed to Senator McCain from a Saturday Night Live sketch? C’mon. If this is how our nation gets it’s news then we’re screwed.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Obama approached him, not vice-versa, and the two had an exchange.
That’s not what he told Katie Couric.
It doesn’t matter whether he’s a licensed plumber (residential plumbers in Ohio do not have to be licensed)
The state doesn’t require a license for residential work, but Toledo does.
Prosperity is not a zero-sum game.
If you don’t pay your fair share of taxes, I end up paying more. That’s why tax liens aren’t immaterial.
The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the States gives him. - Teddy Roosevelt, founder of political conservativism, in 1906.
Our financial crisis wasn’t caused by high leverage ratios and loaning to poor people. It was caused by people being unable to make their mortgage payments. And why weren’t they able to make their mortgage payments? Because the price of gas spiked. And why did the price of gas spike? Because running a huge deficit caused the dollar to lose 37% of its value since 2001. If not for inflation, gas would have only risen to $2.50/gallon instead of $4.00/gallon.
And when government spends money it doesn’t have, because Congress lacks the stones to pay the bills they run up, then you have rampant inflation. Honest conservatives have always supported a balanced budget. It’s the neo-con whore who vote for lower and lower taxes, despite massive deficits, that are have caused all this pain.
Deadbeats like Joe need to face a sheriff’s auction.