One can picture Queen Victoria huffily declaring, "We are not amused," when reading this Margaret Carlson column about Joe the Barber in Bloomberg. Carlson appears to be upset that a "mere" plumber is steering the campaign away from the direction she wants it to follow (emphasis mine):
The most dispiriting thing to come out of the debate was the morning after. I woke to see Joe Wurzelbacher's street in Holland, Ohio, lit up like Times Square with network and cable satellite trucks clogging the place.
I thought the press was beyond 23 mentions of Joe the Plumber by one candidate and three by the other, while Asian markets were dropping 10 percent and the Dow has been diving.
Unless he starts making courtesy calls to fix the running toilets of the journalists making him famous, let's relegate Joe the Plumber back to the playroom with Bob the Builder or the 15- minute hall of fame with Harry and Louise and Ross Perot's crazy aunt in the attic.
The message from Carlson here is please pay no attention to that plumber who caused Barack Obama to inadvertently reveal his socialistic share the wealth plan. Margaret then sets up an incorrect premise about taxes:
Here's the reason for Joe: McCain has no argument left except that no one should have to pay taxes, and that Obama isn't one of us.
Um, no, Margaret. The argument is that we shouldn't increase our taxes in order to "spread the wealth." Carlson is upset that McCain has found a new pal in Joe the Plumber and goes on to defend Obama's old pal, Bill the Bomber:
Ayers, who committed his violent acts when Obama was a boy, is not and never has been involved in his campaign. Obama condemned his ``despicable acts'' and pointed out that he once served on a board with Ayers that was filled with Republican luminaries and funded by another one, Walter Annenberg. Thanks to McCain, Obama got to explain that before 30 million people.
Obama only conveniently "condemned" Ayers when it was necessary to do so. Before this campaign no such condemnation was ever recorded from The One. Carlson, so anxious to defend Obama, even stepped up to the defense of ACORN:
McCain also gave Obama a chance to answer another charge. McCain is trying to make an oak out of Acorn, a community- organizing group that runs voter-registration drives. McCain said Acorn was about to perpetrate the biggest voter fraud in history, ``destroying the fabric of democracy.''
Acorn doesn't register voters; only state officials can do that. The false names collected are easy to spot. It's an urban myth that Donald Duck and Harry Potter end up voting. The ones that slip through are infinitesimal.
If the false names, such as "Mickey Mouse," are so easy to spot then why does Acorn submit them other than to jam up the verification process? Carlson wants us to overlook the antics of ACORN and Bill the Bomber while dismissing Joe the Plumber. Sorry, but the public does not seem to be following the directives of Queen Margaret nowadays.
