Joe the Plumber=America
submitted by: slowfo

It all started with a simple game of football with his son in the front yard...or at least that's what Wikipedia tells me (and if you can't trust Wikipedia, who can you trust anyway?). On October 12, 2008, then-Presidential candidate, Barack Obama whizzed through an Ohio neighborhood to do a little meet-n-greet and stumbled upon Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka. "Joe the Plumber", and changed history in ways that we still haven't seen the end of yet.

To recap the major events since October 12th, here's Joe's meteoric rise in a nutshell:

• Joe was played like a pinball over the next 3 weeks as the two best options for President of the free world (or at least the best two who actually wanted to pursue the job) would use him in any way, shape, or form for their own selfish, political gain.
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• All major media groups picked up the Joe the Plumber story, swarming him for feedback and/or appearances. Fierce competition for ratings continued throughout the campaign and Joe was a major piece to that puzzle. Consequently, Joe became our newest celebrity-next-door.
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• Soon after Joe's thrust into stardom (if you can really call it that) Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, had for-her-eyes-only background checks being done to see if he owed unemployment compensation taxes, child support, or received welfare assistance from the state. Jones-Kelley was an Obama supporter who made 14 background checks within 48 hours after the final presidential debate. Now surely a state employee wouldn't immediately abuse their power to dig up dirt on a regular public citizen to hopefully discredit their opinions and assassinate their character for political gain (oops, that last part hasn't been proven yet...I'll bet Ms. Jones-Kelley was a McCain supporter all the way, dontcha think? ;-). Dishonest political powerplays with priveleged information....Joe, meet Big Brother. He's here to tell you a bedtime story that we like to call...Watergate.
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• Joe's no fool (altho' time will tell on that one) - he sees opportunity in all of this and so do a gathering crowd of others who are whispering into Joe's ear about how much big money he can make through all of this (don't worry, the whisperers will get their self-indulgent cut of the action too). Joe's planning on sueing the State of Ohio (by the way, isn't it great that the ACLU protects citizens like this?.....what? they haven't called for the lawsuits and firings? they've only admitted that the Jones-Kelley debacle "raises questions?"....geez, what's a white, middle-class male to do to get a little back-up here??). Joe's got a book coming out. Joe's started his own website, watchdog group, and has inquired into cutting a country music CD and has hired his own publicity management agent.
  

So what does this all mean? Political gain. Fierce competition. Stardom. Abuse of power. Character assassination. Dishonesty. Opportunity. Lawsuits. Big money. Call me a cynic but if you want to know what real-world, on the streets, and in the board room America is all about, here it is wrapped up in one big story: "Joe the Plumber."