Imagine you are sitting at home minding your own business. There is a knock at the door, a presidential candidate is there, asking for your vote. In return for this privilege you ask him a question that reveals, to many in the country, a new perspective on his candidacy. For this you are subject to myriad of investigations,insults, your livelihood is threatened,and your dreams are belittled. This is the story of Joe Wurzelbacher, a regular citizen whose attentive questioning brought into question the nature of Senator Obama's tax plan.
No he doesn't yet make 250,000 dollars, he hopes too. No he doesn't have a plumbing license, he does residential work so he doesn't need one. Yes has a tax lien, but so does Obama's treasurer, a fact which has never been trumpeted with such vigor by the media as all of the little pecadillos of poor Mr.Wurzelbacher, an ordinary citizen whose only crime was to question Orthodox political thought. Here is a man who hopes to work hard, save, and achieve, slandered.
p.s. the idea that McCain's campaign needs to vet people who ask Obama tough but illuminating questions strikes me as a trifle absurd.
Also, Another American paying the price for his Heterodoxy.
Update, Quotes from the Plumber in Question:
"Hopefully they'll have me to thank for it as far as telling people to get out and find their own answers," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "That's where I hope they go with it."
"It actually upsets me," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media's worried about whether I paid my taxes, they're worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don't. I asked a question. When you can't ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me."
1 comment:
I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure Joe came out of his house and approached Obama to talk to him.
I'm also pretty sure that McCain brought Joe up at the debate -- the first time, and 20 of the next 25 times his name was invoked.
I think the implication that he should have been vetted has nothing to do with asking Obama a question and everything to do with McCain trying to use him to strengthen his flagging populist chops. McCain's the one who keeps bringing him up at rallies, and it was his campaign that introduced Joe to a national audience. But I'm confused, is your post suggesting this is Obama's fault now, and if so, for what exactly?
And on a final note, are you sure you feel comfortable conceding Obama's tax proposal as the new orthodoxy? If so, what do you think about others who have questioned orthodoxy in the last eight years and who have had their worlds turned upside down (sometimes for much longer than we're bound to remember ole' Joe)? I'm thinking specifically of another Joe, Joe Wilson.
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