What is "Joe" the "plumber" supposed to symbolize?

[ColbertWatcher]

Poll question: What is "Joe" the "plumber" supposed to symbolize?

We all know who "Joe" the "plumber" is (after Tuesday, let's hope he will go back to being anonymous), unfortunately.

But it took a while before we really found out who he is.

The business he's not going to buy doesn't make anywhere near $250k and he's not a plumber!

We thought he'd have the dignity to go away, but he's still on the teevee (possibly on the radio too) and apparently may run for public office.

So, someone is pushing this character "Joe" the "plumber." It doesn't matter which Machiavellian wannabe it is, what I want to know is: why the GOP-controlled media is keeping this guy around? I'm certain the GOP will be pushing this character as some kind of symbol for something, I'm just not sure what he's supposed to symbolize.

What do you think "Joe" the "plumber" symbolizes for the GOP?

A. he's the GOP's attempt to identify with workers

B. he's a way to return to the old-fashioned definition of what an American Man is, and an escape from the liberal "man" (metrosexual)

C. Christian, American whiteness

D. A, B & C

E. just B & C

F. he doesn't symbolize anything--he's an opportunist and whoever is pushing him is taking advantage of his blatant attention whoreness

G. I don't care, I just want him to go away

H. Other, see my guess in reply

[seasat]

1. The public symbol of their Nixonian politics

He's just one in the long line of famous Repub plumbers.

[gravity]

2. Joe Sixpack

[APL Productions]

3. "G".

Although I fear his country music career might double his quarter-hour of fame...

[The Shadow]

4. I Voted H And Here's Why

If you are lazy and shiftless you will fit right in with the republican party. Don't worry Joe, the party will do all of your thinking for you, so don't you fret about it one bit.

[LiberalHeart]

5. He symbolizes delusional greed. First, he doesn't want to pay taxes on money he doesn't have....

And then, as Bill Maher pointed out, at the same time he's complaining about having to pay 3% more on all that money above $250,000 that he doesn't even have, he hires an agent who'll take 15% off the top of whatever his fame brings in.

[Why Syzygy]

6. G.

A. They don't care about no workers. In their tiny heads, he portrays The American Dream.

B. In some circles, a shaved head IS metrosexual.

C. Close. Everybody's rich b-i-l who they ask for money.

F. He was rigged from the beginning. He is a celebrity seeker and he found the celebrity suckers.

[Jed Dilligan]

7. Other

The thwarted, stunted character of incompetent, uneducated white males who think they deserve something just for being white men and are confused by the post-Civil Rights world in which they have to compete on a more level field. In other words, the GOP base.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Damn that's a good one. n/t

[Historic NY]

8. butt crackhead

[dubeskin]

9. I think "Joe the Plumber" could have worked for McCain IF he had used him

properly. I think if McCain had actually vetted him correctly, which apparently he still doesn't understand how to do, then Joe could have become a symbol for that American worker who is afraid of Obama's plans. If McCain had used him right, it could have given McCain a nice boost. Instead, Joe became the laughing stock of Ohio, and turned McCain's campaign into a joke, although it was one to begin with anyway.

Similarly, Obama could have done something like it as well, and found a caricature which represents his policy and ideas.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. So, true, I think the watchword for this election will be "vetting." n/t

[Raschel]

27. That's what Joe the Plumber stands for. McCain's ineptitude.

[Alcibiades]

10. A skinhead

and a moran.

[NNadir]

11. Fraud and misrepresentation. I am thrilled that these asses are promoting this guy.

It just points up what total assholes they are.

[ColbertWatcher]

16. "Fraud and misrepresentation." I think the GOP has plenty of symbols for that! LOL! n/t

[orleans]

12. ...

[bridgit]

14. He symbolizes the contemporaneous embodiment of Donald Segretti & Lee Atwater...

Same shit, different election cycle :puke:

[vixengrl]

17. He's the answer to "eight houses." (An Analysis.)

Although we like to peek into the lives of "The Rich and Famous" and Robin Leach and MTV's "Cribs" have revealed over the years, most Americans don't live in that kind of reality. Eight houses and thirteen cars and a wife with the checkbook looked like maybe McCain didn't understand where people were coming from.

On the face of it, John McCain and his story isn't very relatable to American experience, and the revelation of exactly how wealthy and out of touch he is was threatening to resonate with the "Joe Six-Packs" of the country. When some eagle-eyed staffer (I don't think Joe was a plant) caught the clip of a "average Joe" (Named "JOE"!!!! How AWESUM!) who fairly lucidly asked a question which really did come off like people would be taxed under Obama's plan--they decided they would counter McCain's money & Washington influence and lobbying reality with an unreal cartoon, while reinforcing the "tax & spend" meme that has worked for the GOP for the last two decades+.

The "Joe the Plumber" clip, while "Youtubed" here in the Political Videos forum even before that debate, as showing Obama's attention to detail in the time he took to candidly and thoughtfully explain his policy to a regular citizen, would have passed into obscurity but for it's having a "hook".

(The hook, as John Popper would tell you, brings you back. I ain't telling you no lie.)

McCain went on to mention him in the debate *ten times*. In other words, having nothing really better, he decided that a chance "man in the street" was the foundation for policies and philosophies he's held for a long time. Joe the Plumber was simply a symbol--I don't think they bothered reasoning that he also was a private individual who was not a two-dimensional cartoon of Ohioan Republican normal. Although it was nice he was in a swing state, no?

McCain's campaign slams people for getting all up in Sam the Sham Plumber's personal unlicensed, tax-lien business, but it should be noted that:

a) He brought him up--and WE KNEW HIS NAME AND HE WAS MADE FAMOUS--echoing words we, um, heard from somewhere. Nice going, in using a real person to be your mascot.

and

b) Post-Palin, "vetting by Internet" is an instinct with us left/bloggy/Googley people. What else is there to make of a story that doesn't jibe with the collective personal experience of thousands--a plumbing business worth $250,000 a year--NET? Post expenses? Say what?

He waved a haddock and people smelled fish.

And when he turned out to REALLY be an Obama Tax Cut poster child, actually undoing McCain's point, he should've been left alone. But nooooooo. He was already a SUPAHSTAR! So we get to be regaled with the average dude's opinions on economics and foreign policy, and stupid or not, the esteemed senior Senator from the state of AZ has to grin like a maniac and love it, for fear of looking like a user.

Heh, heh.

His hero. His role model.

I don't know that white and Christian are points at all--Tito the Builder? That threw me. I dunno. I don't expect them to use Rasheed the Gas Station-owner or Kim Pak the produce man, though. Or Vijay the IT specialist. Norm the recently let-go Auto Worker? Not especially. Tanya the Hairstylist? And most definitely not Marcia the Union Rep.

And they do not have my permission to use "Jen the Customer Service Person" (er, little old middle-class PA-resident me). "She's" all about Obama.

(Edit: I type poorly but typo gud.)

[LiberalHeart]

24. Good analysis.

[ColbertWatcher]

28. I have to agree with LiberalHeart, well done. Thank you for posting this. n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

18. just another part of generation "look at me"

Joe the Plumber is just a life-long loser who saw his opportunity and took it. Not a great deal different than a woman who gets famous by posting a video of herself giving head on MySpace. I sure in a couple of years there will be a whatever happened to Joe segment on one of those awful VH1 shows but he will otherwise go back to whatever the hell he does that isn't plumbing and be forgotten.

[vixengrl]

19. A cultural footnote like Tonya Harding or

someone like Willian HUng (who also got a recording contract!)

[RagAss]

20. Fucking Skinhead !....that's not obvious?

[enuegii]

21. I think their new poster boy does...

does symbolize something, and in fact he is a very powerful symbol-- though probably not one that the GOP crew should really want to promote.

Basically, you've got a forty-something fetch-and-carry knave who has drifted around the country, has a couple of failed marriages, and is still waiting for his ship to come in. And I'm sure he thinks it will, because he's scarfed down the Reagan kool-ade. He's free, white, conservative and over 21, and by God, the world is his oyster... but there's no pearl in it for him. He's just another casualty in the quest for the American Dream who hasn't realized that the game is rigged against him and that he is now shilling for the crooked bunch that run it.

He's the quintessential American Sucker.

[Swamp Rat]

22. He symbolizes bottom-feeding slime suckers

:D

[Oregone]

23. American stupidity.

[biglefthander]

25. He symbolizes wife-beating, tax-dodging, non-union tradesmen...n/t

[Initech]

26. Joe symbolizes the egocentric American attention whore of douchebagginess..

[Hubert Flottz]

29. Joe is a sly diversion, meant to divert America's attention away ...

from, Chris the SEC Chairman or Alan the FED Chaiman or Phil the Deregulator or Franklin the Fannie Mae CEO or Rick the Fannie Mae Lobbyist or George the Terrible...

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Good point. I guess that makes him Joe the tool. n/t

[last_texas_dem]

31. The classic Republican dumbass voter

Angry white male whose economic interests have been, are, and will continue to be hurt by Repug policies but votes for them out of either cultural conservatism or, in Joe's case, the belief that he's richer than he is or is destined to become much richer than he is and, because he cares only about himself and no one else, must vote Repug to keep the guv'mint off his back and away from the "redistribution" of his (fictional) high income.

Basically, since the Repugs aren't making inroads with any other "groups" this year, they've dragged out "Joe" since he's from one of the few demographics they never lose (the delusional angry white male). I guess their hope is that somehow, someway the majority of Americans will be able to relate to him? (Yeah, that doesn't seem like a particularly intelligent strategy to me, either, but smart strategy hasn't been coming from the Repug side too often this election year.

[workinclasszero]

32. Dumb white blue collar voter that votes against his own best interests (nt)

[JI7]

33. C and F