“Joe (the plumber), you’re rich! Congratulations!”

How did that sit with Joe and Jane Middle Class? Probably as well as McCain's scoffing at the idea of "spreading the wealth." Or his blithe promise that Americans will be able to take the measly $5.000 his administration will allow for health care credits and fly anywhere in the country for their health care.

Does John McCain not know that there are a lot more people in households than earn less than Joe the plumber earns by himself whose hearts aren't particularly set to bleed for the star of last night's debate?

Last night John McCain went on record: His campaign will do nothing to "spread the wealth arround."


http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/debates/transcripts/third-presidential-debate.html


MCCAIN: You know, when Senator Obama ended up his conversation with Joe the plumber -- we need to spread the wealth around. In other words, we're going to take Joe's money, give it to Senator Obama, and let him spread the wealth around.

I want Joe the plumber to spread that wealth around. You told him you wanted to spread the wealth around.

The whole premise behind Senator Obama's plans are class warfare, let's spread the wealth around. I want small businesses -- and by the way, the small businesses that we're talking about would receive an increase in their taxes right now.

Who -- why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that, anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time, when these small business people, like Joe the plumber, are going to create jobs, unless you take that money from him and spread the wealth around.

I'm not going to...

OBAMA: OK. Can I...

MCCAIN: We're not going to do that in my administration.

~

provided the scaffold that allowed Joe to become a prosperous plumber. It's time for some pay back Joe!

"Who cares!"

That's how it struck me.

It's RW code, and he was back to playing to his base--the folks he doesn't need to woo to win.

McCain is the one playing class warfare--he wants to concentrate the wealth in the hands of a few. At least, that's what he was saying last night.

He's a member of the Plutocrat Party.

He was clearly trying to pin Obama down as some sort of socialist...
Considering how much money people lost in the stock market yesterday and the weeks prior...I don't think it was well received. He just came across as an out of touch rich man who doesn't get it...

One rich pig reaching out over the heads of the masses to another: "Welcome to the club, my friend."

He's usually so elegant - but on this he seems to get hooked up just a little. I know Obama has the right idea, but he's not articulating well on this and it's a Democratic PR weakpoint. It's not that hard to explain that people over $250 grand a year are the upper 5% of American. The one's who've benefitted the most from this system. We've tried for 20 plus years cutting the wages of the bottom 95% so the upper 5% could "keep more of their money" - when in fact a goodly portion of that money was in stolen labor from the bottom 95%. Instead of "spread the wealth" I wish Obama would come up with some sort of phrase that denoted "equitable pay through the entire chain of labor." - because the bottom 95% got trickled on not trickled down.

If raising the taxes on the top 5% by a measily 2-3% to pay for the very infrastructure that keeps them rich is a problem for John McCain, one has to ask WHY John expects the 95% of Americans left behind to keep supporting the upper 5%.

Anyways, I thought it was a missed opportunity to pain McCain as a selfish POS.

if you watch the entire video he did great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFC9jv9jfoA

people about how our progressive income tax structure works in this country. I don't think it would've been condescending, since a lot of people just don't understand how it works. The Republicans are constantly capitalizing on that ignorance (what's new?). Joe should be more worried about inflation or the ability of his customers to pay for his services than the extra 4% of taxes that he'll be paying on his wages above $250k.

This guy just throws shit out there for the sake of throwing it out, doesn't matter if it true or even if it will end up hurting his own cause. He's erratic, that's for damn sure.

... and therefore he changed the scenario in order to save his bullshit argument. Fail.