![]() ![]() Wurzelbacher instantly became a media celebrity, fielding calls during the debate and facing reporters outside his home near Toledo on Thursday morning for an impromptu nationally televised news conference. ‘Joe the Plumber’ was referred to 26 times during the tense 90-minute TV debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.īut the real-life plumber they were talking about, 34-year-old Joe Wurzelbacher, is really called Sam, is not a licensed plumber and he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes.ĭemocrat Barack Obama did his best to woo 'Joe the Plumber' but Mr Wurzelbacher heavily hinted that his loyalties lie with Republican John McCain I want the borders protected, and I'm very adamant about that.He has become the unlikely hero of the US presidential campaign, the hard-working everyman who represents all Americans struggling to cope with the credit crisis.īut it turns out that 'Joe the Plumber' is not a plumber at all - and his name isn't even Joe. "I'm not going to hide it just because I'm running for office. "For years I've said, you know, put a damn fence on the border, going to Mexico and start shooting…that's how I feel," he said. When asked about his stance on undocumented immigrants at an event in Arizona later that summer, Wurzelbacher was, as usual, candid."In 1939 Germany established gun control from 1939 to 1945, 6 million Jews, 7 million others, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated," he continued, before turning to the camera and announcing "I love America." Two years later, Joe the Plumber decided to run for a congressional seat in Ohio, saying he was "not the kind of plumber who uses duct tape." During the campaign, he ran an ad that tied the Holocaust to-you guessed it-gun control.In 2010, Wurzelbacher bit the hand that beckoned him into the limelight, telling a radio host that McCain was "no public servant" and that Obama, while his ideology was "un-American," was one of the "more honest" politicians around.I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting." "Now everyone's got an opinion and wants to down soldiers, our American soldiers, Israeli soldiers. "I liked back in World War I and World War II, when you'd go to the theater and you'd see your troops on the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them," he said. Then Wurzelbacher actually went to Israel (as a reporter for a conservative company called "Pajamas Media"), declaring that he had "no agenda but the truth." During his two-week truth-telling tour, he decided that journalists had no business in war zones.McCain may have regretted elevating Joe the Plumber to campaign-trail celebrity when, touring through Ohio, Wurzelbacher enthusiastically endorsed a supporter's claim that a vote for Obama was a vote "for the death of Israel." But this is far from the last time that Wurzelbacher's big mouth has gotten him in hot water.Wurzelbacher's remarks appeared to be a response to an impassioned speech by one of the victims' fathers, who told reporters that his son died because of "craven, irresponsible politicians" and the NRA.Following last weekend's tragic shooting rampage on the campus of the University of California-Santa Barbara, Wurzelbacher took it upon himself to pen an open letter to the victims' families, sensitively informing them that "as harsh as this sounds-your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights." But he's moved way beyond protesting the president's tax plan. Six years later, Joe the Plumber is still in the headlines.When he coined the moniker, McCain inadvertently created a new GOP personality with a penchant for assault weapons. During the presidential campaign debatethat followed, John McCain latched on to Wurzelbacher's comments and held up "Joe the Plumber" as the American everyman, his livelihood threatened by Obama's tax plan. ![]() Remember Joe the Plumber? During the 2008 presidential race, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, vaulted himself into campaign history after telling then-candidate Barack Obama that his proposed tax plan would prevent him from buying a small business. ![]()
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