Roger’s Rules

October 31st, 2008 9:08 am

“Evaporative economics”

Joe the Plumber has become a household name, and for at least two reasons. First, he accidentally elicited an important truth from Barack Obama–a truth that has become a slogan: “spread the wealth around.” That, in a nutshell, is Obama’s economic philosophy: take money from person A and give it to person B. Second, Joe is a household name because, having elicited that embarrassing moment of candor, he has become an object of Democratic contempt and fury thus illustrating what can happen to ordinary citizens who have the temerity to ask a pointed question of Obama.

John McCain has made good use of Joe the plumber. I hope that his handlers figure out some way to make good use of another chap who is a fund of home truths about Obama and the Democrats, including the home that Obama’s economic polices are not so much “trickle up” economics but “evaporative economics.” I’m not even sure what this fellow’s name is, but he certainly gives a powerful performance. It’s the most refreshing political talk I’ve seen since Sarah Plain’s convention speech. Watch it here.

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9 Comments

1. heather:

Completely excellent.

If the Conservative US wants a real future, gather this fella in, along with Joe the Plumber, Tito the Builder and Sarah Palin.

Pish Posh for “Hope and Change.”

As per abortion, has anyone thought about the contradiction between Obama’s stance, and the reality that African Americans are the prime clients for this procedure?? That most Population control organizations (in the great tradition of Margaret Sanger) focus on the poor African American woman?

Oct 31, 2008 - 12:32 pm 2. Gaffe Prices:

Trickle up (!) ecobomics evaporates the economy because its parasitic, and threatens to devour its host, its sustenence, its provider.

Parasitic national socialism.

Thank you, Joe for suffering the slings and arrows. I can assure you, we don’t take to kindly to this.

We will be there for you election day.

Oct 31, 2008 - 2:04 pm 3. Andre' Jones:

Let me see….Joe sixpack (not abb’s) was Palin’s term. “Joe the Plumber” just so happened to be planted at Obama’s handshaking line. Who are the Joe’s in America? Joe? I am guessing, they don’t have enough money in the stock market, because if they did, they wouldn’t agree that social security ought to be making a future there? And Joe, who has gone to public school has suffered a terrible education with higher demands from the Federal level, but not enough money to support it’s funding, on the state level. Joe has seen a his son go to war. A war that most would disagree has helped eliminate terror and has put our country into debt. The Project for the New American Century made it’s argument against former {resident Bill Clinton that Iraq was a rouge state and needed to be brought down-failed regime, take their resources! signed by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Jeb Bush, and Wolfowitz. Joe lost his son.
Joe, is one of those guys that feels he does everything right; goes to church, scrapes, borrows and pays back, has his little plot of the American dream, his home. What Joe does not realize is that we have inccured a debt that each and every one of us owes $32,000.00 to the federal government. Our future is to pay that money back. Joe will be looking very harshly at the people making more than $250,000.00 and not getting taxed as much as him. And On the state level, Joe is getting taxed unfairly. The federal government is leaving most of the burdens on state tax payers. Most states are in an economic crisis.
Joe votes rebublican because there is a stigmatism that republicans are rightious citizens. We want to uphold the 2nd amendment, and we also hate to see abortion. This is the strong hold over Joe, to keep the wealthy republicans in power..to take advantage of poor old Joe…Joe and medical crisis, Joe and lack of opportunity, Joe and down turn in construction, Joe the teacher, Joe the nurse? Okay where is the Jane in all of this?
Taking “Joe American” is a very big mistake for the republican party at this point in time, when we have already experienced Joe’s struggle for his future. Hey Studd Terkle just past away….he was for the average Joe. Hear, hear, may Joe’s all over America, get a better break!
Should get a subscription to the New Criterion for the next four years, when times will recover, and we will regain our surlpus for ol’e Joe.

Oct 31, 2008 - 4:37 pm 4. Andre' Jones:

Studs Trerkel.

Oct 31, 2008 - 4:53 pm 5. Mary Jackson:

Sarah Plain’s convention speech.

Plain speaking, yes, but otherwise not.

Oct 31, 2008 - 5:35 pm 6. Andre' Jones:

One more punch. Punch! Obama’s guy would be who? McCain took Joe the Plumber. Sarah took Joe the six-pack, (how nice) Obama might pick, Joe the middle class. Not one of the republican’s strong points is the middle class. Middle class is the backbone of America. It is the majority, hello? Homer Simpson? The middle class is Homer Simpson. Middle Class has been castrated. I really think that with a lack of representation, any class will diminish and fall into oblivion. The wealthy can always call a lawyer, and for anyone with everything to loose, it is up to powers of the government to regulate. But the middle class is a “stand up for you kind of people”! This past American business making more than $250,000.00 has taken its business elsewhere to make a profit. If we had National health care (which most other developed countries have) we would be able to compete on a world market. And if we didn’t have corporate welfare we would have a handle on competition in a world market, and better management. Just as people that sit on their couch and eat potato chips without a care in the world, which we despise, corporations are status quo in American capitalistic ideologies, and are lax. Wow, poor Homer Simpson.
Let’s get back to middle class. Lost and forgotten, abused and forsaken. The middle class has lost it’s income and it’s opportunity, but not without a fight. Obama will get the vote of the middle class. It is not about color. It is not about moral obligation. It is about regaining their status.

Nov 2, 2008 - 6:29 pm 7. Steve Skubinna:

Except, Andre, that Joe didn’t barge into a question line, Obama approached him as he passed through his neighborhood.

When your talking points are exposed as fraudulent, don’t you even have the shame to quietly drop them? Doesn’t it ever bopther you that your entire platform is based upon egregious lies?

And in any event, your mistake is in attacking this guy who only asked a question, which your candidate was careless enough to give a frank answer to. Joe isn’t the issue, Obama’s “spread the wealth” response is.

Nov 3, 2008 - 4:15 am 8. Andre' Jones:

Reaganonmics is evaporation economics. Bush has had trickle down economics with tax breaks for the people making over $250,000.00 and it hasn’t been very convincing to me that it trickles down. Now, take Bill Clinton’s economics….now that was superb! America saw debt reduction and a surplus budget. As we speak, the stock market and our country’s growth are based on huge amounts of debt. Evaporation economics, he,he, for what it’s worth.
Our government has had no problem redistributing the wealth to banks or corporations. The only reason we couldn’t let them fail is because it would have repeated the Great Depression. This exurbanite amount is not being directed to the greater good such as education, infrastructure or advancement in green energy. Not only has our wealth been redistributed but also there is very little to show for every thing the Bush administration has spent.
Steve, how do you know Joe wasn’t put there for a reason? I am guessing he was, due the leverage to prove a point, that resulted in being pointless!

Nov 5, 2008 - 11:26 am 9. Scott:

Okay, this is a bit off topic, but what do we have to look at in the last month or so? Well, for one thing we finally an incarnate proof of a mathematical proof. We all know that in mathematics when you combine a negative with a negative you get a postive; in big business when you combine malinvestment with malinvestment, what do you get? A BAILOUT. Incidentally, I’m grateful I don’t need a bailout as I’m rather certain I wouldn’t “qualify” for one anyway.

A bit back on topic, I haven’t seen an improvement with either Democrats or Republicans in office since the beginning of the Clinton administration. Virtually all politicians come from some stream of money (at least all the one’s I know of do);therfore, it stands to reason that they want to keep and increase what they have. Translation: they really don’t care what happens to “us” you know, “We the People…”

Dec 1, 2008 - 11:56 pm