I Am Not Joe the Plumber

15 seconds of celebrity went to Joe's head. Now that he wants to join the ruling class, the GOP poster boy's symbol is tarnished by his shameless opportunism.

Speaking of joining the elite, GOP mouthpiece Bill Hobbs is spinning Barack Obama's October fundraising spike in Tennessee as evidence that the latter is only popular with "monied urban elites." I can see where this is going: when urbanites are not trying to mutilate and fondle McCain campaign organizers or not trying to commit "voter fraud" then they are morphing into wealthy elites who otherwise could not contribute to a cause in which they believe.

But we've seen that state GOP communications directors don't tend to choose their words wisely:

Well, I am not one of those people that state GOP communications directors can easily twist into an elite force, just like I'm not Joe the Plumber who gains an instant notoriety based on exaggerations that translate to a possible career inside the beltway (what happened to Joe's plan to buy his boss's business?).

But I am one of many local donors who in October helped bring the Obama campaign even with the McCain campaign in Tennessee contributions. We made our first donation ever to a presidential candidate a few days ago because we believe that Barack Obama is the most suited to lifting our country out of this exceptional hole it is in. And I am convinced that there are lots of other Tennesseans both elite and ordinary, both urban and suburban who have done likewise.

So, let the mouthpiece downplay perhaps the most significant progress that a Democratic candidate can make in the reddest of states (and that darker shade of red puts it in the regressive company of intransigent bastions like Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Welcome to the ship of fools, Tennessee). It is clear that the only way that Obama could have caught McCain in Tennessee in fundraising is if lots of different kinds of people contributed to the cause. I am not Joe, but I am among the throng.