I wrote a brief midday piece about the trashing of Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher earlier today, but what has happened since is really pretty sickening. This gloating article from National Journal is pretty typical of the whirlwind that this guy has been reaping ever since his question to Barack Obama got airplay.
Obama showed his class by piling on, as this video shows. Click the link before it disappears and listen to the contempt in Obama's voice as he says "plumber."
The invaluable Ed Morrissey pretty much sums it up over at Hot Air:
Now, we have people crawling over his tax records, his voter registration, his professional licensing, and whatever else they can find in the public record. Someone has linked him to the long-deceased Charles Keating, suggesting that somehow Obama managed to pick a McCain plant out of a ropeline full of people by accident. How much longer before a certain blogger at The Atlantic demands a paternity test to see if Joe the Plumber fathered Sarah Palin’s baby — or Bristol’s, for that matter?
The guy just asked Obama a question, for goodness sakes. He surely didn't expect that Obama's answer would be as controversial as it was. He didn't ask for his situation to come up in the debate. He is just a guy who works in the plumbing business in Ohio. Whether he's a fully credentialed plumber is beside the point. What matters is that he asked the leading presidential candidate a pretty simple question. If you watch the video, you'll see that he wasn't combative. He wasn't rude, nor was he threatening to Obama in any way. He's just a face in the crowd.
The good news is that the shabby treatment he's received today will probably mean that some wealthy conservative will hook him up with a better gig than what he has now. In a way, it's about as good as winning the lotto. So in the end he'll be fine.
But the question remains -- why would so many people fall on a guy like Joe Wurzelbacher like jackals? There is something uniquely disturbing about this incident, something far more disturbing than what happened to Sarah Palin and her family after she was nominated for the Vice Presidency. Sarah Palin willingly stepped into the arena. Whether she and her family deserved the beating they took, they had reason to know it would happen. Joe the Plumber didn't ask for this. He just asked a question and now he gets to stand naked in the public square for his troubles.
I'm not sure what is worse -- that Obama doesn't seem to have any sympathy for this guy, or that so many people were so eager to rid him of this troublesome plumber. There's a real moral sickness on display here and Senator Obama would do well to address it. And if he won't, I sincerely hope the voters will address it for him on November 4.
5 comments:
Obama obviously learned Saul Alinsky's principles well and passed them along to his disciples. Michael Barone was pretty prescient when he warned of the coming Obama thugocracy.
Is this a sample of what conservative talk radio commentators and bloggers have to look forward to? And liberals have the nerve to whine about the "chilling effect" of conservative policies!
- D
"Pretty sickening" has become par for the course. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your modern left, devoid of all shame and lacking a shred of decency.
This is off subject, but does anyone think that there is any chance that some wealthy Obama allies such as Soros, Buffett, and others have been selling short to contribute to overall market instability during this month? During the debate, Buffett was specifically mentioned as a person that Obama goes to for advice. Would it be possible for he and a few other chosen wealthy institutional buyers to contribute to this mess, and more than likely make money at the same time? Maybe I'm paranoid, but it appears that they'll stop at nothing (as evidenced by the tearing down of Joe the Plumber) to win.
Daria and Ben,
Yes. Exactly.
Anonymous,
I don't know - Soros and Buffett are big players but I wonder if any one individual can move a market in that way. If Soros could do something like that, I don't doubt that he would. Buffett is a different matter - I think he's wrong about his politics, but he's clearly a patriot and it would be totally out of character for him to do something like that. Then again, I used to think highly of Tom Petters....
Also, I believe it was John McCain who firrst introduced Warren Buffet into the debates. Is McCain in on this too?
Rich
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