Ah, yes, we all love Joe, the undecided (and allegedly unregistered) voter from Ohio. Through our friend Joe, the two presidential candidates were finally able to nail down their pie-in-the-sky, lacking-in-detail policies. Finally we heard the talk of real Americans! Too bad that talk ended up being more racist drivel...
In Couric's interview with America's Plumber during the webcast following the debate, Joe tried to explain his positions on the candidates. He laudably exercised his right keep secret his voting choices, but the intimations of his answers nonetheless made his preferences starkly clear. Let me begin with Joe's final comment:
You know, I've always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question of--for once instead of tap dancing around it. And unfortunately I asked the question but I still got a tap dance. Do you - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.
Taken out of context, we might be able to excuse this comment as referring to both candidates in an unsavory fashion. Unfortunately for America's Plumber, the only candidate he actually was able to question was Barack Obama. Thus, that final comment can only be interpreted as referring to Obama.
Thus, John's Friend Joe was equating Barack Obama to Sammy Davis Jr.
"Why Sammy Davis Jr.?" we might ask. "Why not Fred Astaire?" Certainly both are famous dancer-entertainers. The difference obviously comes down to race. John's Friend Joe could not find a different way to characterize Barack Obama than with another black man. Joe-Joe didn't need to make any more concrete his tap dance metaphor; we all got it. We all know how politicians tap dance around issues. But Joe-Joe felt the need to emphasize Obama's race with this comparison.
Noting Joe-Joe's interest in racial identity, we can return to some of his other post-debate comments with wiser eyes:
[Obama is] going to [raise taxes] now for people who make $250,000 a year. When's he going to decide that $100,000 is too much, you know? I mean, you're on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you're rich? And $100,000 and you're rich? I mean, where does it end? You know, that's - people got to ask that question.
Why question Obama's trustworthiness on this point? Joe-Joe claims that he can review McCain's record and see that McCain is a man of his word. Why don't Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Wrench see the flip-flops there? Torture? Tax Cuts? Immigration? Re-De-Re-De-Regulation? Massive spending to bail out banks while instituting a spending freeze? There are many topics on which one might question McCain's veracity and trustworthiness.
This again comes down to racial identity. McCain can be trusted; Obama cannot. The white man can be trusted, even when his words and deeds show otherwise; the black man is clearly a Manchurian Candidate waiting to ambush this country and its poor plumbers. Joe the Plumber may not want to think this way; he may not even realize that he thinks this way. Nonetheless, Joe has chosen to believe the white man and suspect the black man without any verifying evidence of real worth. That, my actual friends, is called racism.
And therefore, for all the nicknames we can find for Joe Wurzelbacher, the only one I truly prefer is "Joe the Racist Plumber."