McCain's fake Plumber

A few days ago a previously unknown man approached Senator Barack Obama while he was out campaigning in Toledo, in the crucial 'swing' state of Ohio.

This man introduced himself as "Joe Wurzelbacher" (now this is some name to remember, coming second probably only to Arnold Schwarzenegger), told Obama that he was a local plumber and not happy with the proposed taxation policies of the Democratic candidate for the US presidency. Like any man who wants to win votes, the Illinois Senator listened for a while and argued with the man who had a shaven head and looked very 'Germanic' in a threatening kind of way.

While the conversation went on, "Joe the Plumber" - as he is apparently known to his friends - told Senator Obama that he was planning to buy the business for which he currently works, but if the Democrats would pass Obama's proposed changes to the tax system, he would not be able to do that.

As Barack Obama proposes to reduce the tax burden for the vast majority of US citizens - except the super-rich - this was a strange line of argument and no-one remembered much of it after a few minutes.

But then a strange succession of events began to make "Joe Wurzelbacher" a famous man in the USA, at least famous for fifteen minutes.
First he appeared in the campaign reports of Fox News, the most odious right-wing propaganda TV channel in the USA, which is owned by the Australian-born US citizen Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul and sleaze merchant who also owns many UK newspapers (including The Times, the Sun and the News of the World) and has the controlling stake in Sky TV.

And then - surprise, surprise - John McCain brought "Joe the Plumber" up towards the end of his third live TV debate with Barack Obama. How did he know about him? Or did he actually know him? That looked fishy even to the most gullible people, and soon some journalists were on their way to find out more about the Ohio plumber with the strange Austrian name. They soon found a lot about him, but - surprise, surprise - it does not in any way tally with the story he told about himself.

1. His name is not "Joe" but "Sam" - short for Samuel Wurzelbacher.
2. He is not a plumber. At least he does not have a licence, which all qualified plumbers in his area are required to have. So either he is no plumber at all, or not a qualified one.
3. The firm he says he is working for - and which he wanted to buy and take over - does not have a plumbing licence either. So either they are fly-by-night cowboy plumbers, working illegally, or not in that line of business at all.
4. According to his tax returns, Mr. Wurzelbacher earns about $ 40,000 per annum. On that basis he would not be in a financial position to buy his employer's business, which is currently valued at around $ 250,000.
5. And - again according to tax records - Mr. Wurzelbacher still has an unpaid tax bill of $ 1200 outstanding. So he is already in trouble with his taxes now, after nearly eight years under the Republican Bush administration.

So it appears that Mr. Wurzelbacher, whom John McCain publically hailed as "an ordinary Joe" and "the typical middle-class American", is either a fantasist, a liar, or a mix of both. He might also be working illegally, without qualifications, and be employed by an unlicenced company.

But there is another possibility. He could simply be a stooge, a Republican propagandist, who was deliberately planted into the meeting with Obama to stir up trouble. Why else was he - of all the people present - filmed and interviewed by the right-wing Fox News? And why was McCain so quick to use him as an example?
The whole affair looks to me very much like the handwriting of Karl Rove (real name Karl Röver and named after his grandfather, a senior official in Hitler's Nazi party) who was George W. Bush closest adviser and campaign manager. He organised several stunts like this during the 2004 presidential election campaign, especially in the 'swing' state Ohio, which Bush narrowly won eventually.
Officially Rove is now in the background, but he still controls the strings of the Republican party propaganda machine. And one of his closest associates - a man called Steve Schmidt - is John McCain's chief campaign manager. The links are obvious, and "Joe the Plumber" is as bogus as the whole hate and smear campaign Karl Rove, Steve Schmidt, Sarah Palin and John McCain are running against Barack Obama. Let's hope that the Americans as a whole are not as stpuid as the Republicans think they are...