Joe the Plumber
On October 11, 2008, Barack Obama was walking and talking through a quiet Ohio neighborhood, answering questions from the passersby and trying to sway their vote. One of the people who happened to be there that day was Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who later on became known as Joe the Plumber. He expressed his worry that under Obama's proposed tax regime he would not be able to afford his own plumbing business. To this Obama replied with by now four notorious words, that Joe should "spread the wealth around." These words were quickly picked up by conservative commentators, and Joe McCain had made Joe the Plumber one of the central topic of this year's last presidential debate. Consequently, poor Joe has not been able to avoid the spotlight for the past couple of weeks, and unwittingly became a fixation of all talk shows and pundits of one stripe or another.
Unfortunately, this sort of instant celebrity has its dark side. People willing to undermine the questions and ideals that Joe highlighted have rummaged through his past in attempts to dig up dirt on him and thus "discredit" him. Since when raising a simple, straightforward question has become a cause for discrediting? Furthermore, any expression of sympathy and affection for Joe has become a source of ridicule. Here is a no-nonsense all-American guy who is just trying to live the American dream, and people are getting all hung up on him. The sorts of responses that I've seen would make you think that he is serial killer or worse. And then there are those people who think that anyone who looks, lives and thinks like Joe is probably a racist. Some people really need to grow up.