Let's not attack or try to discredit Joe the Plumber. I've seen the interviews with the guy and he seems decent enough. He's not a McCain plant. He's just a guy who sees things differently from us. That is no reason to smear him with tax evasion accusations. If we try to bring negative attention to him, we will only engender sympathy for him and make him into more of an issue than he deseves to be.
The underlying issue here is class warfare, and it is one that I argue democrats should stay away from.
Mr. Wurzelbacher doesn't make over $250,000 a year. However, he would like to make that much money someday. There are a lot of Americans who feel the same way. Think about it: wouldn't you like to make $250,000 per year (if you aren't already)? I know I would.
When I was in law school I ran for student body president on the platform of eliminating grades and class rankings, which I thought unfairly kept students who were not in the top 15% of the class from having the opportunity to find a prestigious job. I felt my position was a good strategy because although I turned off the top 15%, surely I would have the support of the bottom 85%.
I was wrong.
It turns out that people who are not in the top 15% (or 10%, or 1%) still believe that they have a chance to get there, and they don't want to be penalized for the hard work they've put in towards that goal.
This is why class warfare doesn't work in America: people are too ambitious. And that's one of the great aspects of this country.
So, stop attacking Joe the Plumber. He represents a lot of America.
UPDATE: A few of you argue that Joe the Plumber is fair game because he put himself out there. You are missing the point. We need to get off this topic and return to talking about how we are going to get out of the global economic crisis that affects rich people and poor people quite equally.
Furthermore, it is absolutely not fair to try to destroy Joe Wurzelwhatever just because he's advocating a different political viewpoint than we are. How would you feel if the same was done to you, just for, say, writing a diary on Daily Kos? It is comparable to people getting fired from their jobs for blogging.
UPDATE 2x: Please see an excellent diary making the same point (in a much more cogent way, I think) here.