By Samuel Rubenfeld
Despite the torrent of media outlets at the University for the final presidential debate, little news was made during the debate itself, benefiting Barack Obama, who was already in the lead.
John McCain, whose campaign has been in the same tailspin the stock market has found itself in, needed a big night to regain some momentum. Despite a valiant effort-it was his best performance out of the three debates-he didn’t have the night he needed.
The candidates sat at a roundtable for 90 minutes, where they traded direct blows for the first time. “I am not President Bush,” McCain snapped. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
McCain launched a fusillade of attacks against Obama: for his ties to 60s radical William Ayers and to ACORN, a liberal group that organizes voter registration efforts, for rejecting public financing and for running negative ads. Obama spent most of the debate defending himself against the attacks, but he could be content with coasting along; he opened a commanding 14-point lead in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 53 percent to 39 percent.
But the star of the debate at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex wasn’t one of the candidates, nor was it the moderator, Bob Schieffer, anchor of CBS’ “Face The Nation.” It was a plumber from Ohio named Joe.
Early in the debate, Schieffer offered McCain the opportunity to ask Obama a question, which McCain declined. “I would like to mention that a couple days ago Senator Obama was out in Ohio and he had an encounter with a guy who’s a plumber, his name is Joe Wurzelbacher,” McCain said. Wurzelbacher was mentioned by his first name or as “Joe the plumber” about 25 times by the candidates, taking what was initially an interesting human side to a substantive issue, and making it into a joke. With every mention, the laughs in the media room would get louder.
The parody became a running joke in the spin room following the debate; the spokesmen for each candidate harped on the metaphor again and again. “The idea that the purpose of government is to spread the wealth around, to take money away from Joe the plumber and give it to other people more deserving, who is going to decide who is more deserving?” asked former Massachussets Gov. Mitt Romney, a McCain supporter.
Democrats got in on the plumbing joke as well. “Joe the plumber’s the most famous man in America today, but I think both candidates were trying to relate to [his] problems,” said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a key Obama supporter.
McCain’s campaign needed a game-changer Wednesday night here at the University, but by repeatedly invoking the plight of Joe the plumber, he simply clogged his toilet.