Just Leave Joe Alone

Everyone, for some bizarre, now knows the name of a small-businessman in Toledo, OH. I won't even mention his name here...if you want to read about it, just read something, anything about the debates.

All the man did was ask Senator Obama a question. He never wanted to be a mascot. He just wanted to have an opinion--and even if that opinion is wrong, he has a right to be wrong in peace. Conspiracy theorists have attempted to tie him to Charles Keating of the old days from McCain's Keating five scandal with scanty connections that at best tell us that this small businessman might be *gasp* pro-business. This fellow was just being an interested citizen, and now the media is looking to make him look like the dark underside of the American Everyman.

Yes, he might be incorrect about some of Obama's positions...yes, he might not have jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops of his profession (he's a plumber, but he's not licensed as such). No, he hasn't paid some back taxes. But guess what? How many of us can honestly say that we understand the tax proposals of the candidates, esp. when we get our news from a diet of television soundbytes? How many bother to read factcheck.org to get news faster than the speed of spin, as it were?

Finally, heaven knows how many richer individuals there are who carry out far greater misdeeds under the radar yet slip by without detection--just because they have the weight to throw around. Meanwhile, if Joe slips a little in the proposed earnings for the 3rd quarter of a possible business venture, he's dismissed as a Republican hack.

Let Joe be a single father in peace.