Extraordinary Observations

When the McCain campaign decided to use Joe "the plumber" Wurzelbacher as the spokesperson for average, hard-working, entrepreneurial Americans, they actually demonstrated that success in America isn't all about being dedicated and hard-working; that major success comes from being in the right place at the right time, and that sometimes you don't even need to work hard to get there. Joe the plumber could have theoretically been anybody: Sam the barber, Emily the nurse, Kevin the gas man, Carl the construction worker, or Rob the blogger. If Joe the plumber is supposed to be the quintessential representation of all these individuals, he stopped at the moment that his name was dragged into the campaign.

You see, Sam, Emily, Kevin, Carl, and Rob are all still regular, average people whose lives continue on as they did a month ago. They aren't holding press conferences or appearing on major news shows to share opinions; they aren't getting offers for book deals and they aren't clients of major public relations firms; certainly they certainly don't have Wikipedia pages longer than some actual politicians.

Unless the symbolic "everyman" is supposed to represent a celebrity, then Joe the plumber no longer exemplifies average people. The hypocrisy, of course, is that Joe is supposed to stand for a very specific ideal: that government shouldn't reward or punish people based on anything other than their hard work. If anything, Joe has become the target of his own criticism: someone who receives something unfairly, as a result of someone else's hard work! And of course, this all leaves Sam, Emily, Kevin, Carl and Rob wondering where their share of the fame and fortune is? What if Joe had gotten sick the day he asked Obama that questions? What if he had gotten a flat tire on the way over? What if Sam the barber had pushed Joe aside and asked the question first? We'll never know the answers to any of these questions; we can only watch to see how far Joe can ride his unearned glory.