Why McCain's story of Joe the Plumber backfired (Newsday)

[struggle4progress]

Ellis Henican
October 19, 2008

... Joe the Plumber .... kept talking. And he talked some more. Before he was done, the whole world knew:

Joe doesn't have a plumber's license (his employer has one, so he can work as a plumber). No one really calls him Joe. He owes back taxes. He has no plan to buy the business he said he was buying. It grosses less than half of what he claimed it does. And the boss hadn't agreed to sell.

Plus, the whole idea that Joe was an undecided middle-minded voter? That got harder to sustain once he started calling Obama a socialist and explaining how evil he thought Social Security was.

Uh, that's enough, Joe. Or Sam. Or whatever your name is. Thank you very much for participating here ...

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyhen195890107oct19,0,5194699.column