Joe the Plumber- Does he relate to you?

By now, Joe the Plumber is probably wondering when his fifteen minutes of fame will be over. Who knew that a plumber from Ohio named Joe would be such an important talking point at the last presidential debate of the 2008 Election season.

Who is Joe the Plumber you ask?
Joe the Plumber, real name Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher of Toledo, Ohio. While Obama was campaigning in the area, Joe asked him a question about taxes which was caught on camera. The McCain campaign used this little story to say that Joe asked Obama a tough question on taxes and that he ruined a photo op with Obama. McCain used this story to represent the common working man, most famously in the past debate. Now the McCain campaign is saying that Obama is attacking "Joe" and millions of small businesses by raising their taxes and not having their best interest in mind. I think that maybe this campaign tactic could have worked in the campaign back a couple of months ago, but with so little time left in the election, stories and attacks like this turn off the voting public instead of make them want to give McCain their vote. During the debate, CNN has independent voters who have clickers who while watching the debate rank whether or not what the candidates are saying makes them react positively or negatively. Interestingly enough, whenever Joe the Plumber came into the conversation, the independent viewers reacted more negatively than positively. Whether or not Americans feel an attachment and association to joe, I think that the entire Joe the Plumber story in the debate was extremely over used and it may have seemed like a good tactic, but it may have backfired. I know that personally it annoyed me more than made me think, ok he is trying to reach out to the average small business owner. I do not personally have any ties to a joe plumber type in my life nor do I know any joe the plumbers, but I am also just one voter in a sea of many.

So I guess we have to wonder, will all the Joe the Plumbers and Joe Six Packs in American go and vote on election day and pull out a victory for the McCain campaign? I guess we will have to wait and see if this is a success...