joe the plumber annoying-action figure

Joe the Plumber – unclogs drains *and* offers snippy non-sequiturs about economic policy!

 

Government-trashing sayings and tax lien playkit sold separately.

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nate silver: mid-october battleground states

Truly astonishing how much the numbers have shifted in the past month. That North Carolina, Missouri, and West Virginia are in contention right now–wild. Click here to see Nate’s analysis and McCain’s “penumbra” states.

 

  

                                Obama Penumbra States:

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mccain on women’s “health”

McCain surely got his rabid little base all happy last night with his snide, dismissive remarks about women’s health. On yet one more issue, he amply demonstrated that he’s unable to be a grown-up who respects opposing viewpoints or who can acknowledge (presuming he even understands) the complexity of certain issues. John McCain may have been making digs at the pro-choice movement (which he insisted upon referring to as “pro-abortion”) but he insulted women everywhere by so glibly airquoting the matter of our “health.” You might say this was strictly a reference to the abortion issue, but his attitude last night is indicative of his atrocious voting record where women are concerned.

 

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Thanks to Cecile Richards over at HuffPo for succinctly itemizing the horror that is McCain’s record on women’s health and rights, and for her excellent parting shot at article’s end.

 

*He’s voted 125 times against women’s health.
*He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade.
*He opposes funding to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies.
*He opposes requiring health care plans to cover birth control.
*He opposes equal pay legislation, saying it wouldn’t do “anything to help the rights of women.”
*He’s proposed a health care plan that will be worse for women.

 

. . . I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Women voting for John McCain is like chickens voting for Col. Sanders.

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final word on joe the plumber, so we never, ever have to talk about him again.

Most of us thought we’d have to steel ourselves for another barrage of “my friends,” but no–we got “Joe the Plumber” in almost equal measure instead. It was obvious at the time that McCain was lying about how Obama’s policies would affect Joe; now I’m glad we have the hard data out. The excellent Jed Lewison has compiled a handy dandy list, some of which is featured here. My favourites are the points that demonstrate Joe’s a fire-engine-red Republican. Undecided, my ass. Jed also featured a short clip of the man telling Katie Couric post-debate last night that he was happy with McCain’s tax and healthcare policies. Wow, the guy’s either completely stupid or just so in the tank for McCain he’ll say anything, given that McCain’s policies would be worse for him than Obama’s.

 

This will hopefully be the last I have to say about Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumber occupying way too much of our national mindspace this morning, and I’ll do it in bullet point format.

 

• Yes, his taxes would go down under Obama. (He makes less than $250k.)
• No, his taxes would not go up under Obama. (The cost of the firm he’s seeking to buy is $250K, not its annual revenues. Nobody earning less than $250K will have their taxes hiked.)
• No, he’s not undecided, and he never was.
• He is a registered Republican and voted in the GOP primary in March.
• His first registration was with the right-wing Natural Law Party (according to a press conference he held earlier this morning).
• Also at his press conference he said that he was sad when he found out he was born in Toledo because it meant he was a “Yankee.”
• He’s fond of calling Obama a socialist.

Neat! Shades of bigotry, too. Once again, McCain only manages to highlight his ignorance and penchant for distorting the truth. Naturally, they’ll be best buds. Jonathan Martin over at Politico adds this to the pretty picture: 

 

“I’m probably going to call him this morning,” McCain said. “I thought he would probably be up late. I heard that his — that his phone lines were pretty well flooded. But I think we’re going to be spending some time together.”

The Toledo Blade is reporting that Joe the Plumber is actually not licensed. But that, combined with his apparent tax lien, isn’t lessening McCain’s ardor. He said in an interview with Fox’s Carl Cameron today that he hoped to hook up with the instantly famous Ohioan soon.

Not even a licensed plumber! So I guess we should start referring to him as Joe the “Plummer.”* Sounds like that little matter of the tax lien might get more attention than Joe likes. But then again, he’ll probably get some bullshit deal out of this and make himself some money. Sigh.

Ok, one update, because this is so rich–TPM video features Joe saying he thinks Social Security “is a joke.” As in, not that it’s broken and needs fixing, but that it should be abolished altogether. Lovely. Just lovely. McCain’s managed to embrace an “average Joe” that is anything but–most Americans like their Social Security, thank you very much, and know that McCain’s healthcare plan would be an unmitigated disaster. Keep it up, Johnny, and you’re guaranteed to lose this election.

 

*Or, more accurately, “Joe” the “Plummer,” since his actual name, I just found out, is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

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