Joe the Shit-Talking Plumber with Barack Obama
Just 24 hours ago I had never heard of Joe the Plumber, all I knew was his name was repeated 25 times or so in last night's presidential debate. Now I know that Joe the Plumber is a largely full of shit guy from Toledo, and Bill Maher just explained him perfectly on Larry King Live.

It turns out that Joe the Plumber, even if he really bought his boss' plumbing business, would benefit under Barack Obama's tax plan. Secondly, Joe should really think about paying up on the taxes he owes already rather than buying out his boss, because he owes over a thousand dollars in property taxes on his house in Toledo. Third, Joe's not a plumber but a plumber's assistant, who hasn't even had the proper training according to his state's plumbing guild...which backs Barack Obama.

Joe is a registered Republican who saw Obama campaigning in his neighborhood and was annoyed with how his neighbors "fawned" over him, and that's what moved him to approach the candidate with the B.S. story about what would happen to a big, successful businessman such as himself under Obama's tax plan.

Bill Maher just summed it up perfectly. If you missed it, he said Joe really does represent a lot of blue collar Republicans such as himself. He has probably bought into the crock that Barack Obama is a Socialist, a Communist, a Muslim and maybe even Arab. One thing we know for certain -- he's black! So we sure can't vote for him, no sir, even if a closer analysis reveals we would benefit from his presidency. After all, as Maher points out, Joe and others like him thrive on the fantasy that one day they, too, will make over $250,000, buy out their boss, and fire him. But the facts of reality prove otherwise, and so maybe Joe and everyone else should wake up and vote in their own best interests.

* NY Times piece on Joe the Plumber.

* Another good, succinct story on Joe the Plumber here.