POLITICO - "McCain discovers plumber no ordinary Joe" - Re McCain's Erratic, Knee Jerk Decisions

[Median Democrat]

I almost feel sorry for McCain. He is a walking caricature. His campaign gets this bright idea to wrap the entire debate around Joe the Plumber. It was knee jerk reaction based on all accounts regarding McCain's decision making process for making Joe the focal point of his debate. You would think that after being burned with Palin regarding making a political pick without thinking of the consequences that McCain would do a little more research before he tried to turn Joe the Plumber into an American Everyman Hero...who has a criminal history, is a Republican, makes less than $250K, would do better under Obama's tax plan, and thinks social security is a joke.

I want Obama to win, but I would at least like to think that McCain would not be completely incompetent or dangerous as President. However, once again, McCain's gambling style of decision-making comes out again.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14652.html

McCain discovers plumber no ordinary Joe

/snip

A day after making Joseph Wurzelbacher famous, referencing him in the debate almost two dozen times as someone who would pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, McCain learned the fine print Thursday on the plumber’s not-so-tidy personal story: He owes back taxes. He is not a licensed plumber. And it turns out that Wurzelbacher makes less than $250,000 a year, which means he would receive a tax cut if Obama were elected president.

McCain likes to say that he isn’t George W. Bush – and in this case of bungled public relations, it is clear he is not. The famously-disciplined Bush campaign operation would likely have found the perfect anonymous citizen to illustrate a policy proposal, rather than spontaneously wrap itself around an unknown entity with so many asterisks.

While the arc of Wurzelbacher’s breakneck trip through the news cycle – from private citizen to insta-celebrity to political target – offers a curious insight into the political media culture, it also appears to offer a glimpse into the McCain campaign’s on-the-fly decisionmaking style.

/snip

[Cha]

1. mccain is a menace and has been building up to this

fall his whole life. The bigger they are the harder they fall and I couldn't be more satified that his latest fake entry into winning the presidency has fallen as flat as his cancelling the 2nd Debate with Obama and sneaking out on Dave Letterman.

[BattyDem]

2. McCain doesn't think anything through.

He doesn't consider the options or the consequences, he just gets an idea and runs with it. They say that makes him a maverick; I say it makes him an idiot. Either way, it's not a quality we want in a president.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Not only does it make him an idiot, but it makes him EXTREMELY risky

Can you imagine if he was President during the Cuban missile crisis? It would have been a nuclear holocaust.

[Median Democrat]

10. The Big Problem With McCain, He Does Not Understand, But Makes Decision Anyways

The bailout negotiations are the perfect example. McCain has no clue how the bailout works. He has never even tried to explain it even if he supported it. Yet, he runs back into Washington to try to swoop in on negotiations, which pissed off BOTH the GOP and the Democrats.

McCain's handling of Sarah Palin shows two things: (1) McCain's knee jerk reactions. (2) McCain is a micro-manager, because rather than letting Palin gain some practice with easy local interviews, they just holed her away with heavily scripted events.

The only thing worse than a President who makes knee jerk decisions, is a President who makes such decisions, and assumes that he is the most knowledgeable on most everything.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. He probably should've done some kind of anonymous "waitress and a lawyer" schtick

Like Bush did NOT based on REAL people. I actually thought that "Joe The Plumber" was a caricature, not a real person until post-debate. I thought that he was just illustrating the effect of his tax plan using a profile of a fictitious so-called "Joe Six-Pack" (WTF THAT IS) whose hearts, minds, and votes he and Palin are trying to win over. It sounds like, once again, he and his team simply didn't do enough vetting before using JTP to further their electoral goals.

This also reminds me of how the GOP attempted to attack the Democrats over the real family they profiled to help muster support for the CHIP expansion although, as it turns out, the GOP hadn't done their homework on that family and ended up looking more like a jackass than our party seal does.

Does anybody notice a pattern here? For crying out loud, if McCain and his people (like Bush) can't bother to do some BASIC research on a given subject then HTH can we expect them to do research on a problem/issue and come up with an intelligent and rational response to dealing with it?

:banghead:

[4lbs]

12. Meanwhile Obama scored with the Ohio pie store story.

:D

[FLyellowdog]

4. Won't it be a little sad...

if Joe loses his job because he isn't even apprenticed to do plumbing? His job loss would
be directly linked to the McCain campaign's little thought-out use of this man as just another election prop. Pathetic.

I'm glad Joe had the nerve to ask Obama questions but disappointed that he misrepresented his plans to purchase a small business. I guess he just got caught up in the moment. And too bad McCain jumped on the idea that it would be smart to exploit this barely middleclass guy who probably just wanted to meet the next president of the United States.

[Ryano42]

5. If he was this wreckless in his flying career...

Now wonder he stacked up so much equipment.

I bet he never read the reports or even did walkarounds pre takeoff! Just buckle up and go my FRIENDZZ! :eyes:

[TheKentuckian]

6. Fuck Joe

He is just a stupid ditto head that thought he was doing his Freeperly duty to take down Obama a peg.

I think Joe NEVER even considered that he was on the business end of the break, he was in the stupid zombie like tax hatred. Joe would have an orgasm if he took home 250k+ under Obama. It ain't happening under McHoover because the little man will be so close to the bone that a piece of gum would be a spurge.

[Quixote1818]

7. He didn't vett his VP and he didn't vett is plumber ringer

:rofl:

[Median Democrat]

8. Hey, Lets Be Fair. McCain Has Improved...

Afterall, Joe the Plumber has now conducted more press conferences than Sarah Palin.

[4lbs]

11. Being a "maverick" is a double-edged sword.

The McCain campaign seems to still be experiencing the edge that cuts and bloodies themselves whenever they swing it.

[Melinda]

13. Joe is a criminal too? Really? I haven't seen any coverage of that tidbit...

Details, please.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. He has a lien on his house for back-taxes!

:rofl:

[Bad Thoughts]

14. Bad title

Instead, it should be "McCain discovers how ordinary Joe lives." This "plumber" was more ordinary that McCain wanted him to be.