The ubiquity of Joe the Plumber
Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:21 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
RICHMOND, Va. -- It seems that Joe the Plumber has earned a permanent spot in 2008 campaign lore. In the final weeks of the 2008 election both candidates are mentioning his name on the stump almost daily. Obama even invoked him during a press conference this morning and added a new quip to his speech at a rally here.
“I had a nice conversation the other day with Joe the Plumber,” he told an audience of nearly 20,000 people. “Joe's cool, I got no problems with Joe, all I want to do is give Joe a tax cut, but let's be clear who Sen. McCain's fighting for. He's not fighting for Joe to Plumber; he's fighting for Joe the hedge fund manager. John McCain likes to talk about Joe the Plumber but he's in cahoots with Joe the CEO.”
The rally took place in county-to-watch Henrico. Though it voted for George W. Bush in the last two elections, it has a 28% African-American population and Obama could cut into those margins. In 2004, it went for Bush 54%-46% and in 2000, 55%-43%. It marked Obama’s eighth trip to the state during the general election.
Here’s the McCain campaign’s response, from Spokesman Tucker Bounds: “Not only was he meeting with rich CEOs yesterday, it’s Barack Obama who has taken more campaign cash from ‘Joe Hedge Fund’ than any other candidate Barack Obama has taken more money from Big Oil, more money from Big Pharma, and more money from Wall Street than John McCain, and if he wins this election Obama is going to take more money from you.”
