"Joe the Plumber" Offers Final Snapshot for How McCain Presidential Bid will be Rembered

By Ryan Flores Murphy-
Woops, there it is, did you miss it? It was fast so don't feel bad if you missed it, but the final parting snap shot of the McCain campaign disolving into political history will be associated with one man and it is not John, but rather, Joe...Joe "The Plumber." Often, political junkies and pundits like to refer to "gaffes" (usually associated as a negative word), a comment made by a candidate that can completely change the face of an election, and if its a big gaffe, it usually transcends from political culture to that of popular and of historical significance.
Such gaffes have been Gerald Ford's '76 debate statement that "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe...and there never will be." you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8rg9c4pUrg

After this statement Ford lost his lead in the polls and then the election. Others? There was Democratic hopeful candidate Gary Hart who challenged the media to prove he was having an affair. Sure enough, Hart was found by photographers on a boat called "Monkey Business" with his young mistress Donna Rice. Hart, the front runner, dropped out of the race. There have been countless others, but the question is, do they live on and define the legacy or the character by which we remeber the candidate, or impact how presidential campaigns are analyzed?

This year's election has been ripe with gaffe fruit, however, the fruit turned out to be only a snack instead of a dinner party. As far as memories, I truely believe had Senator Clinton beat Barack Obama, we would be talking about the " 3:00 a.m. add." I still think this will be remebered for some time to come. Nonetheless, where you least suspect it, it finally happened--the 3rd presidential debate, and all thanks to a man named Joe, Joe the Plumber to be specific.

Joe identified himself to Barack Obama on the campaign trail. He told Obama that he was planning on buying a plumbing business that he works for, and went on to politely confront Obama, concerned that Obama was going to tax him because he would be making $250k a year as the owner of the business. Obama is calling for a tax cut for 95% of working Americans and an increase for those that make a quarter of a million dollars a year, which returns the tax bracket to what it was in the Clinton years, when the US economy experienced its most prosperous era in history. With that, Joe the Plumber was born, and then adopted by John McCain to raise as his own. The myth of Joe the Plumber will serve as McCain's defining campaign moment, his last chance to convince America that he is just one of us, that we can all identify with him, and that Joe was just one of us like McCain. And so, as the third 2008 Presidential debate progressed, Joe the Plumber was mentioed 25 times. The problem here? Joe is a fictitious character like Joe 6-pack.

It turns out that Joe is not who he lead Obama to believe, and furthermore, Joe is not even a licensed plumber. For that matter Joe is nowhere near ready to buy the business that he was concerned would affect his personal income if he made $250,000 per year (his business wouldn't be affected under Obama's plan). Instead, Joe actually owes $1,182.00 in taxes and has a lien placed on him by the state of Ohio since 2007. Don't worry Joe, thats all I'm going to say about you, but you made it interesting for 12 hours.

So, why does this matter? It may not, but I believe that it is a small detail that represents how the McCain campaign will be remebered...McCain was never able to identify with non-in the tank voters, that was the real problem for McCain. Even once John had Joe to call on, he turned out to be fictitious, just like a personal connection with American voter appears to be any time he attempts it. However, I don't blame McCain, rather, John ran at a time in history that was against him. Despite any one's political views, the times we are living would not allow John to make a convincing arguement as Reagan and the Bushes were all dressed up to do. America is smart now. We understand, that just because a wealthy, well connected white male acts like John Wayne, it doesn't mean that we should vote for him an convince ourselves that he is just like us. The Rove days may be over, we'll see. Instead, as a result of the Rio Bravo attitude passed on to Bush II and carried out for the last 8 years, people now know that wealthy republicans look out for the wealthy and everyone else just needs to "work harder" and act tougher. Well, we will probably all have to be much tougher real soon with a deep recession on the way. People want a Barack Obama, and the ebb of our time in history is calling for it, the pendulum of political reality has swung so far to the left it may last for the next 16 years like we saw after Hoover. We need a Barack Obama, an Obama that will lower the taxes for 95% of working Americans...Americans just like Joe and who are actually the real Joe the Plumber, the guy who is in that 95%.

Bush's Bailout for Wall Street; Places Blame On the Streets with No Name

Finally, after 5 days of an attempted totalitarian take over of the ENTIRE United States Economy (which is supposed to be all of us, just in case you were never informed) by the Executive Branch (Dick Cheney, Bush, and Wall Street), the subjects of the royal court appear not to be rushing in to a blind assult on freedom, democracy, and the Constitution of the United States. By the way, this is groundbreaking consisering that it only took seven years for congress to question the executive branch (pssst, this is what they are supposed to do, its called the whole "checks and balances" thing that was put in place to ensure that no branch of government becomes more powerful than the other, avoiding things like monarchies, dictatorships, and oligarchies, but thats old hat now, at least for said seven years). After 5 days, Bush now needs to address the nation because he is running out of time and tenure to pass his Wall Street Bailout plan (wonder what motivated him to take action, I mean you got to admit if you are not a muslim and not in the wealthiest 1% of America, the man has paid little attention to you; sorry displaced African-American New Orleans residents, if only you had oil..). So, on TV tonight and under the premise that Wall Street is going to sink and all of are going to die, we now all understand urgency is more important than the Constitution, and this bill must be passed, like if a foreign country that hated us had weapons of mass destruction or something, right? Well, not so fast, We need to look at few things here. Questions such as: what are the administration's real motivations? And others such as: what are the administration's real motivations? Answers to such questions are needed, because no one that we have put in congress is going to ask them. Also, lets face it, getting this administration to do anything to help people is like asking Sean Hannity to be a lecturer for a civil rights class; it is'nt going to happen, and if it did we would get an entirely different story than history would judge.

First: Let's look at section 8 of the two page proposal which you can read at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Hmmm...what does this mean. Well, lets just say for the sake of arguement that it is not illeagal and unconstitutional (which it is by the way). And, instead look at what it CAN mean. Well, what it CAN mean is anything that the Administration (Bush, Cheney, and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) WANTS it to mean. And, here is what it probably means: before Bush and Cheney leave office, they will work with Paulson to refine a plan that will not only bail out Wall Street, but also, give them enough time to figure out what they are going to do in the mean time to protect their OWN assets and the wealthiest 1% or at least their own networks of buddies on Wall Street who paid for them to get elected. Becuause... They have no plan other than the bailout of Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers which will only TEMPORARILY prevent the market from significantly dropping and earasing much of the top 1%'s assets, and in turn denying credit for further seeking of capital for the expansion of NOT SMALL BUSINESS, but MAJOR CORPORATIONS( This is who Bush and Cheney work for, remember?) They owe wall street one for getting them in office through soft money contributions, plus they are them! So bottom line: THIS BUYS TIME FOR THE ADMINISTRATION ONLY.

Next, in a follow-up to Section 8 and its meaning, what does this mean for the incomming president in January '09...Well, just what it says, THE NEW PRESIDENT WILL HAVE NO WAY TO EVEN LOOK AT WAS DONE IN THE DEAL...EVER, nor will anyone else, according to the section, not even a court can challenge it, its all done in secret and if passed will never be revealed (and if it ever is, even if it is in two years, the damage will have already been done). This means that if, Obama particularly, is elected he will be faced with a 53 trillion dollar deficit to start, it was 0.00 when Clinton left, and will have no means of fixing this for at least two years after Bush has left. Good bye healthcare, good bye Social Security, good bye, well, you name it. There will be absolutely NO WAY for the next president to save these programs, let alone create new ones to save the old ones, or do anything progressive or innovative to help the people in America that need it most.

Second: If you haven't heard, McCain requested that Bush request a special session of congress to talk about finalizing the deal tomorrow, Thurs, Sept. 25th, at 10:00am est. In Bush's address, he says just that. McCain requested this earlier today, before the address and George came through. What does this mean...well, McCain has dropped tons in the past week's polls, some by 10 pts now, the economy being the biggest issue, and by McCain's own admission his worst to debate. Low and Behold, there is a debate this Friday, which many feel can help Obama close the deal in the election because, well debating is a strong suit for Barack and can be shotty at best for McCain. So what does McCain do...he suspends his campiagn because he thinks there should be a special session for congress to work on the economy, and cancels his debate appearance. Obama, says no way, and a few hours later Bush calls the special session on national TV. Now, more than not, the debate will be cancelled, I'd be surprised if it wasn't. You may even see Barack show up alone at The University of Mississippi, and have McCain just not attend. could this get any more weird this year?

Finally, I don't know if you caught the speech by Bush, you can see it here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/24/sot.bush.economy.entire.cnn

But, if you listen, at no point does bush blame himself, the policies the administration put into place, or even mention things like deregulation. The closest he gets to that is saying a few (whoever that is) ruined it for the many. But, the many, which is all of us, Main street, not Wall Street, and Where the Streets Have No Name, were blamed for taking out mortgages that were more than we could afford. it is our fault that this happened, not those that preyed on the most vulnerable. So, after 7 years of when we started with a $0.00 deficit, low unemployment, $4,000 more income per family, and trust in the economy, .....its our fault, not the Bush administration, or greed on wall street. Yes folks, its our fault...just us folks that live- on the streets with no name.

Ryan Flores Murphy