Two Joes Expose The Real Obama by Tim Siggia

Two Joes Expose The Real Obama

By Tim Siggia

October 24, 2008

Just about the time the "mainstream" media figured they had the election all wrapped up for their candidate, Barack Obama, along comes the October Surprise: not just one, but two, almost back to back -- and they both involve guys named Joe.

The first is a gentleman from Toledo, Ohio, named Joe Wurzelbacher, better known to nearly all of America now as "Joe The Plumber." When Obama made a campaign stop in Ohio, Joe had a question for him. This in itself is not normally the sort of thing that gets a fellow his 15 minutes of fame, and it is most likely that Joe himself was not looking for that. What made it momentous is that Joe asked the wrong question, one that Obama was unprepared for and for which he had no pre-scripted response.

"I'm getting ready to buy a company that makes about $250,000, $270,000. $280,000 a year," he told Obama. "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?"

Without a talking-point response at hand, Obama was forced to tell the truth. Yes it would, he told Joe, and then made a comment regarding how those who had more had a duty to their fellow citizens to "spread the wealth around." It was at that point that Obama apparently realized he'd stepped in it big time, and hastened to add, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too."

For anyone who understands the basic premise of capitalism, this statement makes no sense at all. First of all, punishing the success of Joe The Plumber and others like him is exactly what Obama would do as President. There's no other way to interpret it. As for how higher taxes and more government intrusion are supposed to ensure that more people have a chance at success is a mystery I personally cannot fathom. The United States is and always has been the country of opportunity, where there historically has been more upward mobility than anywhere else in the world. Obama's plan for higher taxes would stifle the very thing Joe The Plumber has worked for all his life. His ambition is to eventually buy the company of which he has been an employee up to now, and now along comes Barack Obama saying that if his company makes $250,000 or more a year, it's in for higher taxes. If that isn't punishing success, I'd sure like to know what Obama's definition of that concept is.

As previously stated, it was an unguarded moment, and as was Obama, so the "mainstream" media were equally unprepared. Had they known this was coming, they could have -- and would have -- prevented Joe The Plumber from asking his question or even getting to Obama. However, they too were blind-sided, and they reacted with predictable rage at the point scored against their anointed candidate. So it was that along with Sarah Palin, Joe The Plumber was now on the media hit list, and they began a campaign to destroy him. They delved into just about just about every aspect of Wurzelbacher's life, and, lo and behold, they found out Joe was an unlicensed plumber -- this bit of information being gleefully provided by the plumbers' union, whose bosses undoubtedly had their own reasons for wanting to get Joe. It wasn't just that he had asked the wrong question of a Democratic candidate -- an absolute no-no in union circles -- but the union hadn't gotten that slice of Joe's income, in the form of union dues, to which the bosses consider themselves entitled. But Joe's standing as a plumber is not the issue here. The issue is a candidate who, in an off-script moment, told both Joe The Plumber and the rest of America who he really is and what he really stands for. The fact also that Joe The Plumber, a lifelong workingman, is now under persecution by the political party that continuously has portrayed itself as the workingman's party, makes the hypocrisy of it all particularly odious.

Then there's that other Joe: the one who told us that if Barack Obama is elected he will be put to the test by the rest of the world in less than six months. Was this Joe a Republican? A radio talk show host, perhaps? No, he was none other then Senator Joe Biden, Obama's own running-mate, who uttered the remarks at a fundraising event in Seattle.

"Mark my words," Biden said, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Et tu, Brute?

Never mind that this is the fellow who thinks FDR went on national television to calm people's fears after the stock market crash of October, 1929. Never mind that he's also the U. S. senator who apparently either was ignorant of the fact that the Vice President is also president of the Senate or had a case of temporary amnesia during the vice-presidential debate. He is also the one who, during his own run for the Democratic presidential nomination, declared Barack Obama to be too inexperienced and unqualified to be president. He was right on the money then, and he is now as well. What he said, in effect, stands as a clear warning of what America can expect if it elects Barack Obama -- and, by inference, that we can also avoid a generated international crisis by simply electing John McCain. Isn't it amazing, when we think about it, how from time to time even Democrats occasionally tell the truth, just as Bill Clinton did as a college student when he said, in writing, that he loathed the military?

Even as this piece is being written, the Democrats and their allies in the "mainstream" news media are making frantic efforts at damage control. Now, in addition to hanging the "stupid" label on Sarah Palin, as they did our current president, and finding any and all ways to discredit Joe The Plumber, they also have to find a way to put the gag on Joe Biden. Barack Obama, in the meantime, has engaged his own version of damage control, saying he is not attacking Joe The Plumber and has no quarrel with him. Of course he isn't. He has no need to, with the news media and the unions doing the dirty work for him.

As Obama prepares his short list for cabinet members should he be elected, he might consider a first-name litmus test for those under consideration. Joe The Plumber exposed him once and for all as a socialist for all practical purposes. Joe Biden told the world what to expect if Obama is elected. Then let's not forget a former Democrat, Joe Lieberman, who not only endorsed Obama's opponent, but did so in a speech before the Republican convention.

Yes, it becomes more and more apparent that Barack Obama has a definite problem with guys named Joe.