Why Wurzelbacher's no ordinary Joe
Updated on 17 October 2008
Ah, the perils of using an ordinary guy to frame the most important debate of your career. You know nothing about him. You have no idea what lurks in his past. And you can bet he'll turn out to be nothing that he seems.
So - Joe the Plumber: in the absence of anything else he could turn out to be the October surprise.
He's not called Joe. And he isn't a plumber. Oh, and he owes back taxes. And his name isn't strictly on the correct voter roll.
And far from being undecided, he's a registered Republican. What can you say but - oops! Perhaps that's what Joe meant when he compared himself to Britney Spears.
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So let's see the evidence - and it's given some reporters a lot of fun digging this stuff up from the archives.
There's never a plumber around when you want one, and it's true in Joe's case.
His local paper - the redoubtably named Toledo Blade - reports that although he claimed to work for a company called Newell Plumbing & Heating, according to local records it doesn't have a county wide licence.
Mr Wurzelbacher would need to get his own but it turns out he's not registered at all to work as a plumber in the state of Ohio.
He says he's 'working on taking the Ohio plumbing contractors licence test'. But other local managers aren't happy with him complaining he's never had any training in the job, unionised or otherwise.
And as Politico points out, similar typo errors have knocked people off the rolls before: in 2006 - Florida officials removed the name of Jose Lopez-Sandin, after officials typed his name in as "Joseph Lopez-Sandin." They also removed the name of Anne Nguyen after her name was entered as "Ann Nguyen."
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But back to the rich resources of the Toledo blade. Joe, who isn't Joe, the plumber who isn't a plumber, a Mr Wurzelbacher who might be a Mr Worzelbacher - doesn't seem to be anywhere near buying that $250,000 business that might incur extra taxes under a President Obama.
Court records from a divorce show he made just $40,000 in 2006.
And - here's the kicker - last year a legal claim was filed against him because it seems some $1,183 in personal property taxes hadn't been paid, although no action in the case has been pursued.
For the paranoid - yet more coincidences to get excited about. More than a decade ago, before his Joe the plumber fame - our man lived in Alaska - where his son (who really IS called Joe) was born. There's even a snapshot, courtesy of his ex-wife.
You'd think politicians would know the rules by now. Never be photographed with animals. Or wearing a funny hat. And never, never drag some random member of the public into your speeches without doing your background research first.
Mind you, given that John McCain managed to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate after meeting her just the once - maybe he was just conforming to type. Say it ain't so...
A few years later - up he pops living in McCain's home state of Arizona. It's not known whether he ever bumped into the Senator - or the Palins - but it's set off a vast slew of rumours and ludicrous conspiracy theories on the blogosphere.
And there's more. It turns out Joe Wurzelbacher isn't a registered voter. Check the records, and a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher DOES appear on the list, with a matching address and date of birth.
Mr Worzelbacher voted Republican in the state primary in March - so much for his claim to be an undecided voter.
In Florida, this misspelling in the register would be enough to get him disqualified.
