Fox's Rosen falsely accused Obama of "go[ing] to work on ... working stiff" Joe the Plumber
SUMMARY: On Special Report, James Rosen stated of Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher, "Even [Sen. Barack] Obama himself has gone to work on this working stiff," and aired a cropped quote of Obama saying, "How many plumbers you know making a quarter-million dollars a year?" In fact, the context of that remark makes clear that Obama was actually criticizing Sen. John McCain, not Wurzelbacher.
On the October 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report, guest host Bret Baier introduced a segment "on the Swift Boating of Joe Wurzelbacher," or "Joe the Plumber," who was mentioned by Sen. John McCain numerous times during the October 15 presidential debate as an example of someone whose taxes would purportedly increase under Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan. (According to Wurzelbacher, his would not.) During the report, Washington correspondent James Rosen stated of Wurzelbacher, "Now, he's all over the TV news, talk radio, and most intensively, the blogosphere, where Slate questioned his very identity, CBS News reality-checked him and flushed out his puny tax debts, and Politco.com Roto-Rooted through Wurzelbacher's 'not-so-tidy personal story' and faulted the McCain campaign for having 'never vetted' this 'unknown entity with so many asterisks.' " Rosen then said, "Even Obama himself has gone to work on this working stiff," and aired a cropped quote of Obama saying, "How many plumbers you know making a quarter-million dollars a year?" In fact, the context of that remark makes clear that Obama was actually criticizing McCain, not Wurzelbacher, as Rosen falsely claimed.
From Obama's October 16 speech in Londonderry, New Hampshire, with the portion Rosen played in bold:
And by the way, in the debate last night, he [McCain] didn't deny those facts. He just kept on saying, "Well, I don't want to tax anybody, I don't want to tax anybody. But I want to -- I'm gonna do this. I'm can do it. I know how." Now, the fact of the matter is, is that he is blowing a hole through the budget on tax breaks that are the exact same kinds of tax cuts that [President] George Bush offered. Same argument, same philosophy -- that we give more and more to millionaires and billionaires -- that they're all going to some -- that prosperity will trickle down on all of us somehow. And then he's trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he's fighting for. How many plumbers you know making a quarter-million dollars a year?
I have a different set of priorities. I'll give a middle-class tax cut to 95 percent of all workers. And let me be clear. Let me just see a show of hands. How many people are making more than a quarter-million dollars a year? How many people are making less than a quarter-million dollars a year? Raise your hand.
If you make less than a quarter-million dollars a year, which includes 98 percent of small-business owners, you won't see your taxes increase one single dime. Not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes, nothing. In an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class. And that's why I'm providing tax cuts to 95 percent of working families.
Obama has proposed cutting taxes for low- and middle-income taxpayers and raising taxes only on single people earning more than $200,000 a year and on families earning more than $250,000 a year. According to an October 16 report by The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, "Court records from a divorce show Mr. Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006." In an October 16 blog post, ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper wrote that according to ABC News' Chris Bury, Wurzelbacher "acknowledged that he wants to purchase the plumbing business for $250-280,000, not that he would net that much in profits. He would make much less, he said." Tapper also noted that "Wurzelbacher this morning told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he was talking about, in Diane's words, the prospect, the hope that someday he would make $250,000." Further, in an October 17 article, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company Wurzelbacher has expressed interest in purchasing "reported sales this year of $100,000":
The company, A.W. Newell Inc., with two employees, Al Newell and Mr. Wurzelbacher, reported sales this year of $100,000. On sales of that volume, a firm that size could expect to earn about a 6% profit, or $6,000, after salaries and costs are taken out, according to Lee Smither, managing director of FMI Corp., a Raleigh, N.C., management-consulting firm for construction contractors.
The average income of plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters in 2006 was $48,002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With income and profits, Mr. Wurzelbacher would be nowhere close to the threshold of $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples for Sen. Obama's proposed tax increase. To reach that level, Mr. Smither said, a mom-and-pop plumbing company like Newell would have to clear $5 million in annual sales.
But if Mr. Wurzelbacher reaped taxable income from his business of $280,000 a year, he'd pay about $900 more a year in taxes under Sen. Obama's plan, which would raise the tax rate on the income between $250,000 and $280,000 to 36% from 33%.
From the October 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
BAIER: Joe the Plumber fans can go online and sign the petition encouraging him to run for Congress, believe it or not. The website, JoeWurzelbacher2010.com, says the plumber is just what Washington needs, using different wording. But as we are learning, this weeklong cup of Joe is not everybody's cup of tea. Correspondent James Rosen reports on the Swift Boating of Joe Wurzelbacher.
[begin video clip]
PALIN: People like Joe the Plumber and --
CROWD: [cheers] Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe.
ROSEN: His name has literally become a rallying cry. But that's just the Q-tip of the iceberg for baldheaded Joe the Plumber, a.k.a. Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, now famous as the ordinary Ohioian who, in Toledo on Sunday, pointedly queried Barack Obama about his plan to raise taxes on people earning over $250,000 a year and elicited the candidate's controversial comment about wanting to spread the wealth around.
McCAIN: I want Joe the Plumber to spread that wealth around.
ROSEN: Now, he's all over the TV news, talk radio, and most intensively, the blogosphere, where Slate questioned his very identity, CBS News reality-checked him and flushed out his puny tax debts, and Politco.com Roto-Rooted through Wurzelbacher's "not-so-tidy personal story" and faulted the McCain campaign for having "never vetted" this "unknown entity with so many asterisks." Even Obama himself has gone to work on this working stiff.
OBAMA: How many plumbers you know making a quarter-million dollars a year?
ROSEN: Did Joe the Plumber, by engaging a political candidate, effectively transform himself into a public figure? Three views.
MICHAEL MEDVED (radio host): And it demonstrates the way that the media acolytes of "the one" of Barack Obama will absolutely go after like a pack of howling dogs anyone who dares to question or challenge any of the premises of his candidacy.
ROBERT THOMPSON (professor, Syracuse University): The journalistic-industrial complex kicks in and starts doing the due diligence on who this guy is, and they're starting to find all kinds of interesting things.
WURZELBACHER: You know, Joe the Plumber, it's gonna be fun for a couple of days and then it's going to go away.
[end video clip]
ROSEN: If Andy Warhol was correct when he predicted that in the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes, then here is my addendum: that everybody will then also find themselves at the center of a scandal with all the trimmings -- a televised crucifixion, investigating committees, a special prosecutor, a front lawn filled with camera crews, tax audits and 10 years of civil litigation. All of which suggest that it might be high time that Joe the Plumber get in touch with Joe the lawyer. In Washington, James Rosen the Fox News reporter.
This is America. If you can make $250,000 a year working as a plumber.
STFU and pay your God damned taxes.
End of story.
When is the media going to figure out that there's no such person as Joe the Plumber? No such guy, no such problem, no such worry.
What will it take? And why aren;t they paying attention to the plight of Jose the carpenter, or the mechanic?
McCain just announced his new campaign slogan:
COUNTRY SECOND
(Joe the Plumber first)
Did you see that McCain wants Joe the Plumber to head out on the trail and campaign with him? If this isn't one of the best examples of voting against your own best interests, I'm not sure what would be.
Oh, and I forgot, what WK said about as well.
Look, seriously folks, if you're making $250k / year, a small amount of extra money from your paycheck ain't gonna hurt, and it's not like it's being doled out to people on the street. No indeed. It's going towards making your country better.
No government agency makes such a determination. Congress does. It's called representative government. It's called a republic. It's called the sixteenth amendment which has been around since 1913. Read the Constitution, all of it, and when you're done with that, read the Internal Revenue Code, all of it. The first is the supreme law of the land; the second is made up of acts passed by Congress. No agency needs to be created. Furthermore, under our Constitution, only Congress would be authorized to create such an agency. The executive department, even one headed by Barack Obama, does not create agencies.
Report back when you're finished with your assigned reading.
hello? this is a guy who put himself into the public arena, and now he's untouchable? no one is supposed to point out he's a fake and a fraud? this is just like the same nonsense about palin. she accepts the nomination, putting her all american family out front, and no one is allowed to ask what's up with the unmarried pregnant teenager? i get the feeling she's going to be spending the next four years on the "woe is me" circuit. that darn press, they kept censoring me, even if i never did talk to them. the truth would be "self censored".
Yeah, pretty much. Though its coming from the same folks who said that the 9/11 widows should just pose for Playboy before they are too old.
'this is a guy who put himself into the public arena, and now he's untouchable? no one is supposed to point out he's a fake and a fraud? "
Sounds like you're talking about Obama, actually with that remark. I should point out that "Joe the Plumber", unlike Obama, didn't plut himself in the public arena. Obama was wandering around Joe's neighborhood, looking to impress peopel with his "comman man" impersonation, and Joe asked him a question. THe problem comes from the fact that Obama, knowingly or not,tipped his hand in his answer, and put his socialist agenda on the table. In classic liberal methodology of reward of the unworthy and punishment of the innocent, MSNBC went after Joe like a terrier after a rat. So what happens folks, when your "messiah" <spit ..ptooo!> gets elected? Is there going to be a concentration camp for dissenting plumbers to dig outhouses? LOL
Think about it. Your arguments in going after Sarah Palin were weak at best in light of the hypocrisy applied to your own top of the ticket. Sending the leftist media dogs after Joe is dispicable, but expected.
missy dogpoo,
Your post has errors in every paragraph except the first one. "sounds like" proves that you've swallowed some very stupid framing about Obama. Saying Joe the plumber was put into the public eye by Obama is really stupid. McGrampy and his campaign did that.
The press isn't "liberal" by any stretch of the imagination. But you have a logic filter on so thick that the sewage you consume backs up and that's all you see....which is why you have to tell "jokes" and laugh at them yourself.
Actually John McCain put him in the public arena. "Joe the Plumber" (not real name) asked Obama a question while he was campaigning. McCain THEN brought up the encounter numerous times during the third debate. Joe's media scrutiny is directly attributable to John McCain.
Miss UnvirginMary- I suggest you stop drinking the kool-aid and start using your brain for something other than left wing absorption of drivel and paranoia. You only prove that "jokes" work for the left if they're obscene and directed at the conservative element of society.
Don't suggest anything in my direction dearie. You've already proven yourself to be a paranoid right wing hack. You think having an intellect gives you license to abuse it; a brain with no heart doesn't work properly and leads to delusional perceptions.
Joe the "plumber" however, just wants to dream of one day being rich enough to avoid taxes. You both share the libertarian dream of extreme selfishness.
Great argument, MissDee! You've convinced me that Barack Obama is a Nazi, and that we should spit on him.
If he gets elected, I will be exercising my 2nd Amendment rights!
Joe's complaint is absurd and dishonest. The man is not hindered from doing anything because he would have to pay a little more taxes if he made a lot more money. Joe is, as has been pointed out, a moron. McCain was chomping at the bit to make him the centerpiece of his most important performance, and the truth behind the matter makes McCain look like a fool.
The public should know the facts, period. Joe would get a tax cut under Obama, while McCain is pretending otherwise. "Spreading the wealth around" helps people like Joe.
It says that Pearlene has insights into working class people that people like you and John McCain could never understand.
And she didn't say that Joe was a moron. Joe showed us how weak minded he must be by arguring and voting against his own interests.
Joe (real name Samuel) the Plumber (the laborer in reality) allowed himself to be used by the Republicans, to promote his and their agenda. He presented himself as an independent, he isn't. He says he undecided, but admits that Obama seems like a socialist.
He was worried about taxes on his imaginary future. In reality, he hasn't paid the taxes he owes the state of Ohio.
Before he threw himself into this mess, he should have expected a little blowback.
Instead of hastily casting "Joe the Plumber" as Every Man, the McCain camp should have checked him out. Especially his hopes of someday making money enough to complain about onerous taxes.
It's like saying, "If I had ham, I could have a sandwich, if I had bread." Some
little-guy microcosm that guy is!
I doubt many prospective voters will be moved by an aspiring contractor whose first name isn't Joe and who really isn't a plumber. Well, the title isn't all wrong. At least the "the" part seems to be right.
Jerry Elsea
Joe the Plumber asked Barack Obama an economic question--that Obama, in the middle of shaking hands, totally impromptu, gave him a comprehensive, detailed, and substantive answer, both about what he was going to do and why he thought it was right. He didn't give him a catchprase or a slogan. That should have been that.
Then John McCain turned him into an icon, misrepresented Joe's position, and attacked Obama with a bunch of vaporous indignation.
It wasn't the question that made him a celebrity--it was the McCain spin. And spin is always worth countering.
Joe the Plumber got his answer, and he can make of it what he will
Joe the Clown is a cartoon character created by the Republicans.
The Plumber's reality is, unless he buys a company that makes more than $250,000 a year PROFIT, he's going to get a tax cut. If he doesbuy that company, his taxes will be where they were under Clinton: a whopping 3% higher than they are now.
Joe the Clown is being driven out of business by confiscatory Democrat taxes, which will cause his little ol' plumbing business to go under! America lies in ruins!
Obama will help Joe the Plumber. John MCain is interested in Joe the Clown.
Ruth Rosen asks, what about Josephine, the waitress?
"For months, women's groups across the country have been petitioning--practically begging--the moderators of the presidential debates to include questions that addressed, specifically, the problems that women face at work and in their families.
As early as August 14, 2008, The Women's Media Center in New York launched "Show Me the Women," an email petition campaign reminding all three moderators that women are part of the "diversity" of this country. Bob Shieffer even invited the WMC to offer questions. MomsRising.com, which emerged out of MoveOn.com, also launched an email campaign to persuade the moderators to include women's and family's issues in the debates.
Did it work? Not really.
I would argue that any discussion of universal health care is of course a "women's or family issue." As is the collapse of the economy, which according to recent studies, has hurt women workers the worst. Energy independence also falls into this category, as does our national security policies. All of these--and more--affect women and men, children and families.
But there are specific issues that affect women's lives differently. And if people ignorantly view half the population as a "special interest group" or as part of "identity politics," they have yet to embrace the gender revolution that has upended our culture and society during the last thirty years.
Some examples. Sen. Joe Biden practically skipped over his historic role in legislation the Violence against Women Act. To his credit, Sen. Barack Obama mentioned the importance of women's earning the same as men, their right to control their own reproductive health, and his support for early education. But he didn't discuss the desperate Care Crisis experienced by working mothers--women who are expected to take care of the young, the elderly and the disabled while they provide for their families. Nor did he discuss policies such as paid family leave or twenty other family friendly policies that women's groups have advocated for decades.
I've worked as a waitress. In fact, that's how I got through my undergraduate education. I met many Josephines and none of them imagined, like Joe the plumber, that they would ever earn $250,000. If they're lucky, they earn just barely enough to provide for their families.
As Obama has insisted, they are the ones who need his proposed tax cuts. So why did he and Sen. McCain continually talk to Joe the Plumber, who was a Republican and had already made up his mind? Why didn't Obama change the subject and talk about Josephine the waitress? Or Jane, the single mom, who has just lost her home? Or Joanna, who has just lost her job and has no health care?
When all the examples are of men's travails, guess who feels excluded, indeed invisible.
And what a politically foolish move on both their parts. Both political parties know that women are the ones who are going to swing this election. Fortunately, from my point of view, Obama is enjoying a rather generous gender gap, with far more women supporting him than McCain.
But don't take women for granted. Court us; don't ignore us. Woo us with things that really matter; don't insult us. We have very, very long memories."
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
Honestly, I could not care less about the Powell endorsement. Powell is a major reason why we are mired in Iraq.
Yes, but if he still supported our presence in Iraq he would back McCain for President, don't you think? No matter how awful his involvement was in the buildup to the war, this is a significant endorsement. What are conservatives going to say, that Powell made the endorsement just because Obama is black? Can you imagine the blowback that would result from that? And it's not like you can accuse the man of being a liberal, especially after he praised Ted Stevens' credibility. So whether you like Powell or not, I think it's very damaging to McCain's already-weak chances.
"Yes, but if he still supported our presence in Iraq he would back McCain for President, don't you think? "
Now that is a good point. One that, in my haste, I hadn't considered. He could come out in opposition to continuation of the occupation, but I'll take the baby steps for what they are.
Thanks, brab.
Then again you have guys like this,
"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race... OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."
And this,
"And I think this adds to my calculation -- this is very hard to measure -- but it seems to me if we had the tools to measure we'd find that Barack Obama gets two votes because he's black for every one he loses because he's black because so much of this country is so eager, a, to feel good about itself by doing this, but more than that to put paid to the whole Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson game of political rhetoric."
Expect every wingnut jerk to follow suit. They have no shame and will stop at nothing to keep selling the Republican brand.
Now Roundhouse, everyone knows that those people could not have made those statements. Sean Hannity has reassured us that republicans have not brought race into this election.
Oh, man. How could I forget? But that was then, this is today. It is politically expedient for the hacks to play the race card no.
But tomorrow is another day and we can look forward to these same folks magnanimously telling us that it's the left who started all this muck about race.
Expect every wingnut jerk to follow suit. They have no shame and will stop at nothing to keep selling the Republican brand.
Roundhouse, they've started to follow suit.
Pat Buchanan was on Hardball today saying how wrong Powell was to hit McCain when he's down, how ungrateful Powell was to the Republican party and all they've done for him and how petty his criticism of McCain were. Buchanan finally closed with Powell's main reason for endorsing Obama was race.
I wonder if Powell realized that with that endorsement he just became another Black supporting Obama.
I wonder if Powell realized that with that endorsement he just became another Black supporting Obama.
I think he probably understands well enough the high premium the Republican Party places on blind loyalty to know how the thugs like Buchanon would trash his character
If people are going to claim that Powell is not paying attention to the issue and is voting on racial bias alone, let's consider the McCain camp's rebuttal:"John McCain has been endorsed by more than 300 retired generals and admirals. That's over 10 times more than what Senator Obama has received."
Obama has no military experience. McCain was a POW and both his father and grandfather were Navy admirals. If Powell is voting based on bias, then why aren't all these military personnell voting based on a pro-military bias when they support McCain?
True, I wasn't really thinking about the likes of Limbaugh when I said that, but that sort certainly has no shame. I was more thinking about McCain flacks and political allies who have to worry about ticking off people who aren't loyal rushbots.
This is the sort of thing that could create division within conservative ranks, which would certainly be a good thing in the long run. They need to marginalize the sort of person that would make comments like this, and maybe defending someone like Powell will help them do that. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic.
You might just be a little optimistic, but it's refreshing.
That second quote in the post you're responding to is by George Will, no Rushbot he. In fact, he's maybe no less extreme than Rush, however, he is more well regarded by many non-partisan and moderate voters.
I'm not so sure this won't have the affect of closing the conservative ranks instead of dividing them. I hope I'm wrong. It's just that every Republican campaign since 1968 has been predicated on dividing the country into us and them anyway. Throwing Powell under the bus, telling the story that he was a victim of his own DNA is thoroughly consistent with the Republican way. And you have George Will out there giving legitimacy to Rush Limbaugh.
Now I can't deny that some voters may be put off the Republican Party by this tactic, after all, most people are not overt racists as it socially unacceptable to be a racist. In that way, society has moved past the sixties, but because of generations of negative stereotyping the black man even good, forward thinking progressives have degrees of negative subconscious reactions to black men. So I see a real chance that this kind of garbage could have some success for the GOP, not enough to swing the election for McCain, but down the road after Obama is president, when the wingers need to delegitimize Barack on issues like healthcare.
At this point in the campaign I know Barack is content to play defense and drain the clock on McCain, I just think it is important for Obama to take control of this narrative like he did in Philadelphia when he talked about race. In that speech he reassured people that he shared their values, that he would exercise balance because he understood their concerns and he asserted that we are fundamentally one people.
Before this theme of racial preference takes hold, when the Republicans make this campaign about them, I think for long term control of the narrative Obama needs to make the story about us, all of us.
Then again I predicted Palin would beat Biden in the VP debate, so what do I know?
I sort of scanned over the fact that it was George Will, not having a lot of time to post. That's very interesting. Will previously slammed Palin, so it's not like he is 100% in the tank for McCain. And at the same time, one of Powell's major reasons for shunning McCain was the abominable choice of Palin.
So why is it that they have this rather significant criticism of McCain in common, yet Will doesn't conclude that Powell's criticisms were genuine? Again, Will's not a full-time apologist for McCain, so that's probably not the reason, and the only alternative I'm imagining makes Will look like a bit of a racist jackass.
You might be right about the long-term effects. It might weaken them in some respect, because they've held up Powell as a symbol of their "big tent" for quite some time. The more hostile they are about his endorsement, the less they'll be able to do that. Considering the state of the race, they probably should have just dismissed it in some other way and then tried to shut up about it as much as humanly possible.
I meant to say "But it might weaken them...", since obviously it's not along the same lines as your point. No matter what happens, I'm expecting the next four years to be pretty rough waters.
Unfortunately, I think that McCain's extensive use of 'Joe the Plumber' is another example of lack of judgement - either his or his campaign's. (in either case, it is HIS responsibility)
Before I would have made Joe a major point in a critical debate, I would have had my staff do some checking to see if there was any validity to Joe's claims.
Apparently, McCain (& his folks) vetted Joe about as well as they did Palin.
but obama did make fun of him