So Why Do We Care About Joe the Plumber?

Honestly, I really don't care about Joe the Plumber. You know why? He doesn't care about me, and he is not the emblem of the American public. America is diverse, remember? We've got ALL KINDS of jobs, and variations on the name "Joe," and beliefs and incomes and needs, and if he deserves this much media attention than those news stations should be calling me, too, dammit. He's a symbol of how the conversation about what America is and how her needs have changed from what they were in the past. He's rhetoric. A bad metaphor.

As Daily Intel can tell us, the symbolism isn't entirely accurate, either:

Our plumbers are not beefy dudes who chase the American dream in between games of catch with their sons on the front lawn. They're too busy going to law school and black-tie events at the New York Public Library. They quote Einstein. They are ironic (“If you don’t go to high school, guess what you become?”) and media-savvy (“Joe the Plumber here," one answered the Times call, totally unbidden). They are, in short, as fey and liberal and candy-ass as everything else in this epicenter of blue-state liberal values. Which begs the question: If John McCain does win the election thanks to his populist pap, will he take care of them, as he promised to take care of Joe? No plumbers left behind, John.

I don't know if John McCain or Barack Obama were pretending to be unaware of the savage media storm this Plumber guy would create, but my bet is HELL NO. McCain is really good at creating temporary media storms. He knows how to play the media to get where he needs to be, even though it's not always successful; he knows how to capture their attention, even when he's trying to get them to stay the hell away. By putting up the "no cameras allowed" sign, he knows those cameras will be there to take pictures of it. Touche, Johnny. The problem is, the media doesn't like you much. That's partially your fault.

Obama, however, is the media's friend and also is too cool for them. He goes straight to the people, gets in my inbox, on my cell phone, on my TV, in my video games. Obama is harnessing the power of new media and technology to play the game in a whole different way, and I have to give him props, even though the only reason he CAN do it is that he has a LOT OF MONEY. Money pays people to think for you and it pays for their ideas to come to fruition. Touche, Barack. It's a little evil, it reeks of PR genius, but you've pulled it off and you're dignified throughout.

McCain may be able to create media storms, but he loses control of them just as quickly, and this Joe-thing is a perfect example. John, you haven't exactly been a friend to the newsroom, so the second you start whipping up attention about some guy you talked to for about 5 minutes (or some girl you vetted days before you chose her to be your running mate *COUGH*), the media will start Googling. And Googling. And making phone calls. And finding out who these people really are. And it might not reflect well on you or your intentions. Maybe it's time to start hiring some better PR.

-Katie