McCain: Obama Turned Heat on Joe the Plumber
MIAMI — The strange tale of Joe the Plumber unfolded a bit more on the campaign trail Friday when Senator John McCain used a rally here to defend the Ohio man he made a national star of by focusing on him in Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
The man, Joe Wurzelbacher, gained fame after he met Senator Barack Obama recently and expressed concerns that Mr. Obama’s tax plans would hurt him if he ever became wealthy enough to buy his own plumbing business. Mr. McCain seized on the encounter at the debate to highlight the fact that Mr. Obama’s tax plan — which would cut taxes on 95 percent of Americans — would raise the taxes on small businesses. The Obama campaign countered that Mr. Wurzelbacher in fact stood to get a bigger cut under their plan.
But under the glare of the ensuing media spotlight, reporters found that Mr. Wurzelbacher did not actually have a plumbing license, and that he actually owed some back taxes. Mr. McCain leapt to his defense here Friday in a rally at Florida International University — and main another leap by suggesting that the Obama campaign was somehow maligning the plumber whose vote Mr. Obama has sought at a campaign stop in Ohio.
“The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe,” Mr. McCain said. “People are digging through his personal life, and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn’t recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.”
Mr. McCain brought his campaign to Florida on Friday, a state that he must win but where he has been losing ground to Mr. Obama in recent polls. Campaigning with him was Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who tried to appeal to Cuban-Americans in the audience by trying to say “Joe the Plumber” in Spanish.
Mr. McCain also tailored some of his message to Cuban-Americans, criticizing Mr. Obama’s call for more diplomacy by saying that of he were elected president, “I won’t meet unconditionally with the Castro brothers.”
The crowd cheered.
His main thrust, however, was directed at Mr. Obama’s remarks to Mr. Wurzelbacher that he hoped to spread the wealth around — but he used tougher language, suggesting that Mr. Obama was planning a new form of “welfare.”
“Senator Obama says that he wanted to spread your wealth around,” he said. “When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you’d better hold onto your wallet. Senator Obama claims that wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don’t pay taxes. That’s not a tax cut, that’s welfare.”
Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in an e-mailed statement that “John McCain again distorted Senator Obama’s tax proposal today, labeling as ‘welfare’ the tax relief Barack Obama wants to give millions of line workers, teachers, plumbers and other middle-class Americans who pay payroll taxes on every dollar they earn.”
And he noted that Mr. McCain was also proposing a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families — for health care that would be sent as a check to people, even those that do not pay income taxes.
Mr. Obama also entered the in-your-face portion of his election-year bell lap. He took his campaign into Virginia, a state the Democrats have not won since 1964, but which polls suggest could be within the grasp of the Democrats.
He gave a speech before about 8000 people at the Roanoke Civic Center, and thumped loudly on the bass drum of the nation’s dismal economy.
“Roanoke, I know these are difficult times,” he said, citing a litany of declining wages, jobs pared, stock prices falling.
Then he launched a frontal assault on Mr. McCain, with little of the complimentary throat clearing he used a few months ago. He yoked his opponent to President George Bush — “I’m not running against President Bush but I am running against his policies” — and then turned on Mr. McCain.
“A few weeks back, John McCain said the fundamentals are strong,” he said. “Well, where I come from, a job is pretty fundamental.”
That Mr. Obama is competitive in Virginia is a surprise, even to some on his own campaign staff. He has done very well in polls in the northern suburbs and exurbs radiating from Washington, and he seems to have connected further south with black and student voters, and middle-class voters who have seen unemployment rise in this state.
And in Virginia, as in other states, he has made in-roads into the female vote that seemed improbable after the bitterness of his primary fight with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
“I was a Hillary supporter but I’m all his now,” said Amy Carter of Bedford, Va., who runs a daycare center. “We can feel him on the verge here in Virginia.”
Perhaps, but on Friday afternoon Mr. Obama did not fill the arena. Before he started speaking, campaign workers climbed into the top of the bleachers behind the stage and covered the top rows in black sheets.
Mr. Obama offered relatively little poetry in this speech, concentrating more on the sweaty urgency of a campaign’s final days, as he tried to inoculate his supporters—and perhaps himself—against over-confidence.
“For those people who are getting a little cocky and who are reading the polls, I got just two words for you: New Hampshire,” she said. “We were up in Texas and in Ohio in the polls—we ended up losing. You can’t pay attention to the polls.”
Michael Cooper contributed reporting from Miami, and Michael Powell from Roanoke, Va.
By MICHAEL COOPER and MICHAEL POWELL
The man, Joe Wurzelbacher, gained fame after he met Senator Barack Obama recently and expressed concerns that Mr. Obama’s tax plans would hurt him if he ever became wealthy enough to buy his own plumbing business. Mr. McCain seized on the encounter at the debate to highlight the fact that Mr. Obama’s tax plan — which would cut taxes on 95 percent of Americans — would raise the taxes on small businesses. The Obama campaign countered that Mr. Wurzelbacher in fact stood to get a bigger cut under their plan.
But under the glare of the ensuing media spotlight, reporters found that Mr. Wurzelbacher did not actually have a plumbing license, and that he actually owed some back taxes. Mr. McCain leapt to his defense here Friday in a rally at Florida International University — and main another leap by suggesting that the Obama campaign was somehow maligning the plumber whose vote Mr. Obama has sought at a campaign stop in Ohio.
“The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe,” Mr. McCain said. “People are digging through his personal life, and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn’t recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.”
Mr. McCain brought his campaign to Florida on Friday, a state that he must win but where he has been losing ground to Mr. Obama in recent polls. Campaigning with him was Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who tried to appeal to Cuban-Americans in the audience by trying to say “Joe the Plumber” in Spanish.
Mr. McCain also tailored some of his message to Cuban-Americans, criticizing Mr. Obama’s call for more diplomacy by saying that of he were elected president, “I won’t meet unconditionally with the Castro brothers.”
The crowd cheered.
His main thrust, however, was directed at Mr. Obama’s remarks to Mr. Wurzelbacher that he hoped to spread the wealth around — but he used tougher language, suggesting that Mr. Obama was planning a new form of “welfare.”
“Senator Obama says that he wanted to spread your wealth around,” he said. “When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you’d better hold onto your wallet. Senator Obama claims that wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don’t pay taxes. That’s not a tax cut, that’s welfare.”
Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in an e-mailed statement that “John McCain again distorted Senator Obama’s tax proposal today, labeling as ‘welfare’ the tax relief Barack Obama wants to give millions of line workers, teachers, plumbers and other middle-class Americans who pay payroll taxes on every dollar they earn.”
And he noted that Mr. McCain was also proposing a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families — for health care that would be sent as a check to people, even those that do not pay income taxes.
Mr. Obama also entered the in-your-face portion of his election-year bell lap. He took his campaign into Virginia, a state the Democrats have not won since 1964, but which polls suggest could be within the grasp of the Democrats.
He gave a speech before about 8000 people at the Roanoke Civic Center, and thumped loudly on the bass drum of the nation’s dismal economy.
“Roanoke, I know these are difficult times,” he said, citing a litany of declining wages, jobs pared, stock prices falling.
Then he launched a frontal assault on Mr. McCain, with little of the complimentary throat clearing he used a few months ago. He yoked his opponent to President George Bush — “I’m not running against President Bush but I am running against his policies” — and then turned on Mr. McCain.
“A few weeks back, John McCain said the fundamentals are strong,” he said. “Well, where I come from, a job is pretty fundamental.”
That Mr. Obama is competitive in Virginia is a surprise, even to some on his own campaign staff. He has done very well in polls in the northern suburbs and exurbs radiating from Washington, and he seems to have connected further south with black and student voters, and middle-class voters who have seen unemployment rise in this state.
And in Virginia, as in other states, he has made in-roads into the female vote that seemed improbable after the bitterness of his primary fight with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
“I was a Hillary supporter but I’m all his now,” said Amy Carter of Bedford, Va., who runs a daycare center. “We can feel him on the verge here in Virginia.”
Perhaps, but on Friday afternoon Mr. Obama did not fill the arena. Before he started speaking, campaign workers climbed into the top of the bleachers behind the stage and covered the top rows in black sheets.
Mr. Obama offered relatively little poetry in this speech, concentrating more on the sweaty urgency of a campaign’s final days, as he tried to inoculate his supporters—and perhaps himself—against over-confidence.
“For those people who are getting a little cocky and who are reading the polls, I got just two words for you: New Hampshire,” she said. “We were up in Texas and in Ohio in the polls—we ended up losing. You can’t pay attention to the polls.”
Michael Cooper contributed reporting from Miami, and Michael Powell from Roanoke, Va.
By MICHAEL COOPER and MICHAEL POWELL
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