Joe the Plumber is Clogging up the Air Waves

The third and final presidential debate was Senator John McCain’s final chance to get the support of the undecided voters in America. With Senator Barrack Obama leading the Gallup polls, McCain really needed to stir things up. During the debate, while discussing policies, both candidates interjected the words “Joe the Plumber” into their arguments concerning taxation. This caused the news of the following day to focus more on those three words than any other portion of the important debate.

The issue of taxes along with education, foreign policy, negative advertisements, health care, and how McCain is not Bush, are just some of the things the two nominees for president discussed in the final 2008 debate. Due to the current state of the economy, many people are concerned about the money they have and how the new president will approach taxing their income. When discussing this important issue, both candidates made reference to “Joe the plumber.”

Joe Wurzelbacher is a plumber from Ohio who is interested in purchasing the plumbing business that he works for. Wurzelbacher approached Sen. Obama on the campaign trail and had a conversation with him about his proposed tax plan. Sen. Obama explained to Wurzelbacher that he believes it is a smart choice to tax the wealthy individuals who can afford it and cut taxes for Americans who need a break.

Under his tax plan, Obama says 95 percent of workers and their families who earn less than $250,000 annually, will be receiving some sort of tax break and low income people who are looking to save money and allow their savings account to grow will also receive tax cuts. The portion of Obama’s tax plan Wurzelbacher is most concerned with is Obama’s plan to “ask the wealthiest 2% of families to give back a portion of the tax cuts they have received over the past eight years to ensure [the restoration of] fairness and… fiscal responsibility.”

The business “Joe the plumber” wants to purchase brings in an average income greater than $250,000 each year. Wurzelbacher is worried that by buying this pluming business, he will incur heavy taxation under Senator Obama’s plan and he is right.

The main idea behind Senator Obama’s plan is that people at the top of the income bracket who are making a lot of money can afford to be taxed a bit more so their wealth can be redistributed to those who are having a harder time financially. The argument on the other side, one that Senator McCain stands behind, is that if people are being taxed more, it makes the next dollar they earn worth less, which would then make people not want to grow their businesses or put in more time at work.

During the debate, for those watching, it became a game to figure out which of the two candidates would utter the, now famous words, “Joe the plumber,” next. At the end of the hour and a half long debate, the “Joe the plumber,” was said more than 24 times between the Obama and McCain. All Wurzelbacher was trying to do when he asked Sen. Obama a question in Ohio, was further educate himself of the candidates policy.

Now that the debate is over, “Joe the plumber” is getting more media attention than the policies themselves, something he most likely did not want to happen. While pundits and national news stations like CNN, CNBC, and FOX News just to name a few, are taking time to discuss the actual issues and policies brought up in the debate, one could argue that far too much attention has been given to Joe and more so, the candidates use of “Joe the plumber.”

Being as close to the election as we are, political pundits and analysts should be focusing a bit more on both candidates strengths and weaknesses, giving the public an objective analysis, addressing key moments that allow the public to know more about what each candidate stands for. Instead of the media analyst focusing on things like this, they decided to put a lot of emphasis on “Joe the plumber” and played a large part in swaying public reaction for the next day.

While the use of the term “Joe the plumber” is not necessarily a gaffe, one could argue that it brings about a weak side of debating. The fact that the media latches on to unimportant things brought about by the debate and over emphasizes them, causes the public to focus on those moments rather than analyzing the policies of either candidate. It could be said that “Joe the plumber” helped stress the importance on the tax policies of either candidate, but the incessant media coverage of this man has clearly over shined the good that the use of his name could have brought about.

Twenty four hour media groups are aiming for entertainment and wasting precious air time with stories about Wurzelbacher. The American people are being bombarded with meaningless information, news segments, and portions of the debate edited so they depict the candidates only making reference to “Joe the plumber.” Air time this close to the election should focus on an increased amount of fact checks, clips of the debate in their entirety, and opinions of well informed, objective pundits. The media still chooses to entertain instead of educate and I just do not understand it. I want to know about the candidates’ issues when I watch the news, not hear one line from a debate mentioned countless times.