Thursday, October 16, 2008

Joe the Schlep

They say that in a monarchy you have to kiss up to the rich and powerful; in a democracy, to the vulgar and unwashed. Sounds like John McCain's Joe the Plumber could have used a bit more vetting. By the emerging evidence (which has the rudiments of a fair-to-middling straight-to-video movie) Joe is (a) ignorant; (b) angry; (c) self-important; (d) self-absorbed. The one thing he is not, by all appearance, is a plumber. The one thing he seems sure of is that he likes Sarah Palin, and who can blame him? From the look of things, he'd be a natural running mate for Sarah in 2012.

Afterthought: Boy, I must have been in a testy mood when I wrote that. I ought to have some compassion for a single papa who plays football with his son. And it was hardly his fault that he got sucked up into the vortex (though it will be interesting to see how he plays out over the rest of his 15 minutes of fame). And I have to admit that "If I made $250,000, I wouldn't want to pay taxes on it" is hardly incoherent. Still, I'd be just as happy not taking policy advice from Joe.

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