Sorry -- I Didn't Catch the Last Name

The world now knows Joe the Plumber -- at this point, a bit more than Joe might have liked. As the Daily Show's John Stewart put it: "Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. What they don't tell you is, the first seven minutes of it is a rectal exam."

But the one thing few people know about Joe The Plumber is that he has a last name. For the record: it's Wurzelbacher. You would not have picked that up from the debates. By my count, it was only mentioned once. Joe the Plumber; 20 times.

Maybe Wurzelbacher is hard to pronounce. More likely, it's another symptom of how badly out of touch politicians are with the lives of those who elect them. The media later filled in the details on Joe Wurzelbacher, whose first name is actually Sam, who isn't licensed, and who is a single father with some tax issues. For the candidates, details don't matter. Symbols do. What if Joe had been a pharmacist, or an electrician, or a machinist? My guess is he would be living happily and quietly beyond the media vortex.

Part of that social cluelessness is where you find yourself in life. John McCain doesn't know how many houses he has, keeps a fleet of cars on the road and believes you have to have $5 million to be rich. As we used to say, he "married well."

There is nothing wrong with that. Cindy McCain's dad worked a lot of years for that money. If it finances his daughter's and son-in-law's lifestyle, so be it. But it does create a bit of a divide between McCain and the average voter.

Crossing that divide can even be tough for the candidate who is "just one of us." Sarah Palin says she represents "Joe Six Pack." Who, exactly, is that? Is he carpenter, steel worker, small business owner? Is he a teacher? Is he a cop? All we seem to know about him is that he has enough beer in his hand to put you over the legal limit.

It seems to me that most of us would rather have a demographic profile based on something other than how much we drink.

By working so hard to prove their connection to the lives of the so-called "common man," candidates are really showing how easily they can slip from concern to caricature.

Sure they've learned their lines a little better. At least Hillary Clinton knew enough to order a shot and a beer in her obligatory outing to a working man's bar in Pennsylvania. In 1972, campaigning in Ohio, Dem candidate and Kennedy blue blood Sergeant Shriver bought a round of beers for local steelworkers - and famously shouted "Make mine a Courvoisier."

You don't order cognac at a shot and a beer bar. You don't try to capture the hopes and fears of average Americans in a stupid nick name. And you don't categorize a swath of America by what and how much they drink.

McCain, Obama and any other candidate must understand that pandering might work in a three-network world -- where it was a one and done. In a 24-7 media world, words and actions are patched into an endless loop of repetition. And with each repetition it becomes more obvious that you have no idea who you talking about.

Tuning people into punch lines is no way to connect.

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

maybe John didn't mention the last name lest anyone put 2 and 2 together and connect the dots to the KeatingFamily

[neckozihp]

In the past week, with the help of the mass media and the Obama campaign, we have learned more about Joe the Plumber than anyone else.

That "anyone else" would be Obama. The liberal media has dug up everything they can on Gov. Palin, yet they refuse to do the same for Obama.

Americans deserves to know "who Obama is" in the same way!!

I think the Democrats and the media already know but are afraid to tell. It might upset the ALMIGHTY APPLE CART and Obama would loose the election.

[apuneet]

Not to sound presumptuous but have you considered the possibility that there is nothing incriminating against BO unless there is interest in his personal life such as smoking. Joe the Plumber was a creation of Mccain who should be the one getting the flak of throwing a citizen under the media spotlight. It's amazing the amount of cynicism about the politicians displayed in some of the posts. To think positive, what if he is who he says he is? What if he really wants to unite the country rather than divide? What if he really wants to help the middle class to remove the income disparity? What if he really wants to find the middle ground on issues such as abortion? Does anyone have any evidence on some mysterious dark truths about BO? Twenty months of campaigning and going against Hillary has vetted his life to a great extent. Lincoln, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela all were viewed with similar skepticism but they all made the world a better place.

It's always easier to go negative than positive but change as a word is always associated with a positive outlook. The challenge in this election is the absence of any positive message from the Mccain campaign. This leads to making a choice between the scare tactics on the one hand and a message for change with specific policies on the other hand. Tough sell !!!

[Glenn1441]

Indeed, Ms. Drexler... What is so shocking about the general election campaign, particularly McCain's, is a seemingly astonishing obliviousness to the power of the Internet.

Within days of Palin's arrival to the national 'stage,' many of us knew more about her than, it would seem, McCain's own aides. And even the most intellectually average among us can quickly discern fact from fiction, considering the dubious origins of many 'facts' pinned to candidates or public figures. Thus, I was more than willing to give Palin a fair chance. Yet, in seven weeks, as it turns out, she has, for the most part, given life to the many rumors surrounding her philosophical beliefs, governing style and personal life.

Going forward, beyond 2008, something's got to give.