Samuel Wurzelbacher, also known as "Joe The Plumber," recently visited the White House but couldn't get in.
Wurzelbacher, who served as a McCain surrogate during the 2008 presidential campaign, won the Republican nomination for Congress in Ohio's heavily democratic 9th district in March. He is running against longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
In a new campaign ad, Wurzelbacher is shown waiting at the White house gates, purportedly to get a chance to talk to President Obama. Eventually he retreats and gives the camera an exasperated sigh.
"Well, it's 3:00 and apparently no one's home," he says. "I'd like to come back and finish this conversation."
Wurzelbacher lashes out at the president in a blog post on his campaign site:
Your burdensome and punishing regulations made sure that job-creating small businesses suffer like never before. And yet, through it all, your friends, bundlers, and campaign contributors seem to be doing just fine. Thanks to your "spread the wealth" message, we’ve got people "occupying" legitimate businesses and industries, terrorizing the children of business leaders in their own homes, and calling for government control of everything and everybody. I thought you'd like to hear how all that is working out for us out here in the real world.
Mister President, I think it's time you and I continued our conversation.
I tried early and late, but you weren't home and I couldn't find anyone to take a message. Perhaps you had a good score at the golf course today? Any luck getting more campaign donations? I'm sure that's taking up a lot of your energy.
Wurzelbacher shot into the political spotlight when he asked Obama about his small business tax plan at a campaign event in 2008.
“I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Obama said.
The McCain campaign pounced on his remarks and continually resurfaced them to suggest Obama had a socialist agenda. "Joe the Plumber" was referenced in debates and soon McCain called Wurzelbacher to start making campaign appearances with him.