It just ain’t so, Joe

Joe the Plumber chats with Sen. Obama

During the last 2 presidential campaigns, as George W. Bush racked up inexplicable victories, I had often wondered how certain voters across the U.S. could/would vote against their interests in backing the GOP plank of policies. I think the now infamous Joe the Plumber offers a bit of a glympse into the mind of those voters.

In his first exchange with Sen. Obama, Joe — aka Joseph Wurzelbacher of Toledo, OH — took Obama to task over his tax policy. He explained, before a throng of cameras and media, that he was getting ready to buy a company that makes $250,000 – $270,000 a year and stated “your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”

Now there are a couple of things wrong with this scenario:

1. Joe the plumber is not actually a plumber. He is not licensed even though he lives in a county that requires him to be.
2. Joe is not “getting ready to buy a company”, or anything else for that matter, since it has come out that he owes $1,182.98 on a January 2007 tax lien.

So tell me, how is it that an unlicensed handyman who hasn’t paid his taxes feels empathy for the soon to increase taxes of those in the $250,000+ income range, which he’s clearly not within striking distance of? And for that matter, how stupid do you have to be to question a potential presidential candidate — ON CAMERA — when you know you haven’t paid your taxes yourself?