Every now and again, Adorable Child (AC) decides she wants to be “famous” when she grows up — but then she’ll recall some example or another (there are many) of the nightmares that come, part and parcel, with the intense focus of the public eye.
I’m thinking Joe the Plumber qualifies for AC’s list of “good reasons to keep your name out of the limelight”. Just take a look at memeorandum, two mornings after the debate, where “the right” is outraged that “the left” has attacked. Before everybody self-combusts about how Joe’s life is being peeled like an onion, though, I think it’s useful to recall that full-on attacks are a bipartisan affair.
The hypocrisy is killing me.
In fact, some of those who are incensed on Joe’s behalf right now might consider a visit to their own archives. Or have they already forgotten the right’s rabid desire to destroy a 12-year-old boy and his family?
Give me a break. If you’re upset that Joe might lose his job now, then focus your ire where it belongs — on John McCain.
People ask questions of candidates all the time, but we don’t end up knowing their names, much less every possible personal detail about them. Why is that? Folks, the only reason Joe the Plumber matters to anybody this morning is because John McCain used him. He more than used him; by making him the unvetted central point of his debate narrative Wednesday night (and following it up with an ad), he set Joe the Plumber up.
Frankly, I see Joe Wurzelbacher as a pretty ordinary guy. I’ve known hundreds of folks just like him in my lifetime. The only difference is that in Joe’s case, a politician decided to throw him to the wolves, where he’s being savaged.
Just as a 12-year-old boy was a year ago.
Pathetic. All of it.
Update: Go figure. I’m a “lefty” again. Confusion is still the name of the blogospheric game.