THE PLANK OCTOBER 17, 2008
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For the past couple of days, Team McCain and the Republicans have been whining that the Mean Ol' Left is going after poor Joe the (not-legally-licensed-but-still-handy-with-a-drain-snake) Plumber. This is, I supposed, a refreshing change from all of their whining about how the Mean Ol' Left had it in for poor Sarah Palin. Still, at this point the campaign should consider whether this compulsion to serially import new saviors is ultimately counterproductive.
Back in late summer, Senator McCain found himself languishing in Obama's shadow. What did he do? Tap the winking, nose-wrinkling, too-cute-for-color-TV Governor of Alaska to provide the electricity he and his team had failed to generate. Voila! Problem solved.
Or not. Palin's star soon dimmed (at least for those beyond the base), and going into Thursdays' debate, McCain once again found himself in need of a way to change the conversation. Enter Joe the Plumber. Whew!
Alas, like Palin, Joe could only take McCain so far, in part because (exactly like Palin) McCain wound up leaning too heavily on his savior-du-jour and in part because Joe (exactly like Palin) had been plucked from obscurity in such a rush that McCain's handlers had no time to vet him properly to determine if he was the perfect prop that he seemed. (Oops.)
And so once again, McCain and the Republicans find themselves with little more to do but whine about how another of their celebrated figures is being unfairly savaged. But it's not the Left that is being unfair to these people. It's Team McCain. In its desperate quest to find someone--anyone--able to divert attention from the fundamental vacuity and instability of McCain's candidacy, the campaign keeps thrusting unprepared bystanders into the spotlight and expecting them to deliver the entire enterprise from failure.
Not to disparage Joe, but that's not the job of an almost plumber. It's not even the job of a first-term governor, no matter how spunky. It is the job of the nominee. But less than three weeks out, McCain is still furiously contracting out that work.
--Michelle Cottle
11 comments
Perfect post.
- wgcreeley
October 17, 2008 at 3:01pm
Very interesting. This reminds me of Bush's little strategy of incorporating random citizens and telling the narrative of how they would benefit from his policy proposals; it would seem McCain has tried a similar tactic, but came up short on the execution. Just one more way in which J-Mac looks like Bush's third term, only worse.
- GSpinks
October 17, 2008 at 3:24pm
This is one of the best posts I have seen on this site, and this should be Obama's story about McCain for the next two weeks.
- anonevent
October 17, 2008 at 3:24pm
Joe I have some sympathy for. He went to a campaign event and had a nize dialog with a presidential candidate, and then gets dragged into the limelight. Didn't have to do those interviews later, but hey, why not?
Palin is a different story. Either she's smart enough to know that McCain's call was for the big game, and that she didn't have the chops to play, and she went ahead anyway, in which case I have no sympathy for her at all, or she's so clueless she really thought she was ready, in which case I pity her. Either way, Michelle is right that the real blame lies with McCain himself, who is supposedly the adult in charge.
- sdemuth
October 17, 2008 at 3:25pm
Great post.
Let's create a word!'
Cottle - the opposite of coddle.
Coddle, to treat someone with extreme kindess.
Cottle, to treat Republicans to the truth.
- fougasseu
October 17, 2008 at 3:50pm
Palin and Joe The Fake Plumber aren't the only two-dimensional cut-outs McCain has tried to pawn off on the voters. There's one here in my state that was even less convincing than the "Dumb and Dumber" duo of Palin and Joe. Not long after Obama winning the primary here by a 16 point margin, a member of the state party delegation, referring to herself as a "lifelong Democrat" and "strong Clinton supporter", bragged to the press that she intended to vote for McCain once she arrived at the convention in Denver. When called upon to explain her rationale for voicing her intent to act in violation of the pledge she signed to support the Democratic nominee, all she could say was that she felt Clinton and McCain had clearly demonstarted the experience and judgement to lead and were far more qualified than Obama could ever hope to be.
It took all of one meeting of the state delegation rules committee to revoke her delegate status on a vote of 23-0. Guess who showed up trying to dress her up as a recruiting ploy for all those supposed "angry" women voters? Old Mr. "Country First". McCain's campaign provided her a trip to Denver during the convention and she cut a campaign ad aimed right for the that whole PUMA angle. How did that whole stage play work out for her and McCain? Bad enough that McCain had to try again with an even bigger phony like Palin in an attempt to buy the female vote on the cheap.
And the "lifelong Democrat" with "strong pro-Hillary views"? Turns out that once more thoroughly "vetted", she also had made claims of being a tried-and-true "Pro-Life Independent". Uh Yeah, because if there's one thing that anybody who has followed Hillary Clinton's life, beliefs on women's reproductive rights, and votes on Supreme Court Justices in the Senate, it's the conclusion that she's for overturning Roe vs Wade?
Obama points to support from the likes of Paul Volker, Warren Buffett and Oprah Winfrey to demonstrate broad appeal, and McCain counters with Moe, Larry, Curly. Which would be fitting since something makes me think a McCain administration attempting to "fix" social security or our health care system would closely resemble the Stooges famous short called "A Plumbing We Will Go".
- fultimr
October 18, 2008 at 1:42am
McCain has been referred to as the best possible GOP candidate for 2008, the only one with any chance at all to defeat Obama. After watching the dismal performance of McCain this year it underscores just how far down the tubes the Republicans have fallen if McCain was to be their savior, and they have George Bush to thank for their misery. The long lasting damage Bush has done to America will doom the GOP for years to come.
- frilz1
October 18, 2008 at 5:29am
Excellent post. This campaign has been one tactic and gimmick after the next with the hope that they will find the one that will save the day. It a kind of twisted way I supose it follows his identity of being a maverick the problem is that a maverick if he is may not necessarily be a good thing. A maverick just goes against something what he fail to do is to take leadership to show why he is the better option. Thats what McCain has failed to do he has failed to articulate his ideas and show why this is the way to go. This comes from the fact that he has been so efficiently tied to the Bush administration he failed to extricate himself. What he needed to show its not the policies that Bush had that failed its the way he implemented them. Thats been his failure he cant get away from the current policies and he failed to show how he can implement them in a way that they might worked. All these months when the primary was over and he all this time thats what he should have been focused on a coherent vision for where he wants to take the country. Saying Obama is risky and going in the wrong direction is NOT a vision for where you want to go. I think McCain's problem too is that he undersestimates Obama. McCain seriously believed that at this moment in time when we are going through one of the worse economic crisis in a generation that he didnt have to have anything all he had to do was say somethinig is wrong with Obama and that would have been enough. Meanwhile Obama has visions plans ideas. It may not work but at least he had them the seriousness of the time warrant them and what does McCain have nothing. What alternative does he present? His ENTIRE camapign is premised on Obama being risky seirously and he chose Sarah Palin. There is a disconnect there. In new polls one of the most interesting thing I've seen though not shocking since I expected it. McCain has become the risky choice. Obama is seen as the safe choice by Americans thats like a 180 degree turnaround.
Carol
- harriscrl3
October 18, 2008 at 11:15am
Try to imagine explaining to someone from another country how we pick our presidents. The candiates spend millions and milllions of dollars over close to a hear and a half. One of the campaigns stalls three weeks from the end but finds a guy who misrepresents his situation at an Obama rally and bang! We're off on a tangent (while the economy is getting sucked into a vortex). It's like sports. Make up bunch of arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with anything (like throwing a ball through or hoop, hitting a puck in a net, or running across a goal line) and we will spend millions watching it. Waht a cahhhntree.
- Nusholtz
October 18, 2008 at 6:45pm
WOODBRIDGE, VA - It can’t be denied Joe the Plumber has ignited some serious infatuation among McCainiacs
- Anonymous
October 18, 2008 at 8:43pm
I don't understand how McCain has the nerve to say the all the TV cameras were outside Joe's house because he asked Obama a question. The TV cameras were outside Joe's house because McCain mentioned him repeatedly during the debate. Doesn't reality matter anymore?
- RepHo
October 18, 2008 at 9:41pm