The 2008 Presidential election started in 2006 and it seems it just won't end. President-Elect Barack Obama hasn't even taken office yet and Sarah Palin is already gathering press for the 2012 election. Qualified or not, she still doesn't know where the continent of Africa is. But the one character that just won't go away is the man who stole his fifteen minutes of fame by confronting Obama on the streets and asking what his tax plan would do for person like him. We all know him....the man who looks like Mr. Clean. He is the almost famous, Joe the Plumber.
The story of Joe the Plumber was one that hounded the news everyday for a month or so. McCain's advisers and even Palin herself tooted the horn of Joe the Plumber. There was a problem though. Joe wasn't a plumber. He was a plumber's helper. In layman's terms, Joe was hired labor with a not-so-fancy title. Then they discover Joe owed back taxes. Of course, Joe the Tax Delinquent didn't sound as well. Some claimed Joe to be the all-American guy. Of course, he was the only all-American nobody on the campaign trail. The election ended, but Joe won't go away.
Joe the Plumber is now Joe the War Correspondent! Joe working for a conservative website is covering the war in Israel and the Gaza strip. Of course, more cameras are pointed at Joe than they are the actual war. Joe was followed by the press as he examined rockets that were collected by the Israeli military. He examined the rocket fragments as if he were sled dog looking at a palm tree for the first time. It was clear he had no idea what part of the toilet they came from. The press followed intently as if he was going to say something newsworthy. I guess there is always a first time for everything.
Joe the War Correspondent was not to fulfill the media's Oz fantasy. He stood in front of the cameras and looked very serious. He said "I don't think the press should be allowed to cover wars. The troops don't need reporters following them and giving away their positions". What?!? He went on to say that it should be like it was back during the days of World War I and II where you go to the movie theaters and see the airborne parachuting in after they have already accomplished their mission. Another...What?!?
Joe wake up and smell the....well....the joe. This is the 21st Century. Times are different. I find it ironic that as a war correspondent in the war zone of Gaza that he says reporters shouldn't be there. Wouldn't that be a better argument if he were say...I don't know...in the United States? He also needs to do a little search in current events and see that the idea for embedding the reporters with the troops was President G. W. Bush's idea. Joe, the viewers don't want to wait two or three months to see what happened. We are a society that wants to see things when they are still current. If it is two or three months later like the Great Wars before we get news, somebody else will be the story like Paul the Dog Walker or Tony the Beachcomber.
I got an idea. Joe, let the reporters cover the war and tell us about the victims of two warring factions. There are more important things in America that Joe could do. He could come back and report on something like the economy. That is a subject he shouldn't be able to mess up. Nobody else seems to know what is going on. So Joe won't look so bad reporting on it. The current situation with the economy is Joe's expertise. After all, it is going right down the crapper! TJB
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