Friday, October 17, 2008 Seares: Joe the plumber By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THE final debate between US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain yesterday popularized one Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber of Ohio, U.S.A.
Joe the plumber was mentioned more than 20 times by Obama and more than nine times by McCain.
Earlier, Joe told Obama the Democrats' tax plan would keep him from buying a plumbing business. McCain seized that to push the Republican argument.
Joe symbolizes middle-class voters that both candidates have been wooing.
McCain, 14 poll points behind, wanted a face on many Americans who are hurting and angry over the US economic crisis. Joe provided that face.
A debate prop, which Obama used too. The tax break, Obama said, should have been given much earlier. "There are choices to make," he said, without being clear how Joe could still buy his plumbing firm.
Amused
If Joe is confused, so must be other middle-class Americans.
Filipinos and the rest of the world watching can only be amused at devices of American politicians pushing their agenda.
Then president Fidel Ramos used in his performance report "Mang Pandoy," a jobless man plucked out from the slums. President Gloria Arroyo, in her Sona, used Pasig children who wanted to finish schooling.
Pandoy and his kind never got rich. And the Pasig kids must be thinking how absurd that was, sending mail to the Palace on paper boat.
But they served a purpose as Joe the plumber did. "Pretty surreal," Joe said.
Will the use of Joe the plumber as a symbol help Obama or McCain get elected? Too early to call but fixing a faulty campaign is much tougher than fixing a leaky faucet.
