Joe the Dagger?

Anyone else starting to wonder about all the Joes popping up in this campaign?

If Joe-sixpack wanted to play a drinking game during the last debate he would have heard "spread the wealth" seven times out of McCain's mouth, referencing Obama's comment to Joe the Plumber (mentioned 9 times). The McCain campaign has seized on the personality of Joe the Plumber -- with good reason -- releasing a recent "We are all Joe the Plumber" campaign ad. If anyone can unclog the McCain campaign now, Joe's the man to do it.

Despite our immense affluence according to world standards, the US has held tightly to its middle-class ideals. America, in a sense, is all middle class -- all but those at the margins are self-proclaimed average middle class Joes. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, about 65 percent of American families earn between $35 thousand and $150 thousand dollars a year, a huge spread which, we nonetheless lump together in our heads as one big "middle class." Honestly, I think it makes us feel better. If Joe the Plumber stands for the middle class, in a sense we all are Joe the Plumber (and we kind of like it).

"Middle class" Americans generally have little resistance to "spreading the wealth" of the upper-class -- its a Robin Hood ideal that is reflected in the general abhorrence for oil tycoons and the "greed" and "avarice" on Wall Street. After all, didn't we fight a war to get away from all those Prince Johns and Sheriffs of Nottingham in England? But Robin Hood never stole from the middle class; not from Joe the Plumber! That sounds a lot like the "S" word --- socialism. What is this Obama guy up to?

This race hinges on the middle, both the middle class and the political moderates. In an attempt to alienate the middle from Obama, the McCain campaign has adamantly tried to paint Obama as a radical leftist, from touting the label "most liberal Senator" to associating him with the likes of Wright and Ayers. I think most Americans were able to see through those attacks -- they were about third parties -- but Obama's recent comment played right into McCain's hands.

Forget the facts -- that Obama will only raise taxes on those making over $250,000 a year -- Obama said he's going to spread Joe the Plumber's wealth around. Does that mean my wealth too?

Obama should learn two lessons form this experience. First, don't ever say "spread the wealth" in the heat of a campaign. Even a small-town mayor can put a better gloss than that on the "T" word than that. After all, taxes aren't exactly spreading the wealth either -- overall, they're a means of pooling resources to accomplish public aims which wouldn't otherwise be met. You could just as easily call the bailout "spreading the wealth," but no right-minded politician would do that; they call it butter.

Second, the middle class is king-maker, and to them Robin Hood economics appeal more than Marxist innuendos. Spin this issue around and show that Joe's still fronting the bill while big oil and the economic elite get the break. We're "spreading" Joe's wealth around on Wall Street. If Americans are as afraid of socialism as they think they are, they've just witnessed the biggest socialist investment in American history and John McCain raced back to Washington to push it through. Sorry, John, we're all socialists now.

Lets face it, we've just authorized a $700,000,000,000 soup kitchen that may or may not pay itself off when America gets back on its feet. I recently saw a man outside a real soup kitchen in DC shouting to a friend "I want a bailout, a million dollar bailout -- just like the one the white people (I suggest interpreting in terms of class, not race) got." Given the price tag for that project, the people at the DC soup kitchen won't be seeing much of Joe's money at all, no matter who's in the Oval Office. Joe the plumber is always going to pay something, its the "price of civilization," but let's at least make Prince John earn his keep too.