Opinion

LESSONS FROM THE PLUMBER

Who was the big winner in last night’s presidential debate?

That would be Joe Wurzelbacher – “Joe the Plumber” – who Sunday demanded that Barack Obama explain why he should pay higher taxes for “fulfilling the American dream.”

Obama confessed to the aspiring Toledo businessman that the taxes are important to “spread the wealth around.”

To which John McCain said last night: “I’m not going to spread his wealth around. I’m going to let him keep his wealth.” He added, “We need people like Joe the Plumber to create jobs.”

McCain went on repeatedly to invoke Joe’s name as he discussed health care, education and cutting federal spending.

It was Joe the Plumber as Everyman – and it seemed to work.

(Not surprisingly, Wurzelbacher came away from the evening saying that, on taxes, McCain “got it right.”)

It remains to be seen whether the electorate agrees – but it was a confident McCain on display last night against an oft-defensive Obama.

On issue after issue, McCain made his case, deftly countering Obama’s jabs.

Why, he asked, does Obama “always say we have to spend more?”

Added McCain: “Throwing money at every problem is not the answer.”

And, in fact, Obama – despite his call for “targeted” spending cuts – proposed big increases, particularly on education.

He also delivered a ringing endorsement of judicial activism, suggesting that he would select federal judges more concerned with social issues than with interpreting the law.

As McCain noted, Obama made the case for “Big Government at its best.” But that, he rightly noted, can be “too much government.”

Was it too little, too late for the Arizona Republican?

With the Dow off by 733 points yesterday, and Obama opening ever-increasing leads in the polls, McCain may well have been undertaking an impossible mission.

But he gave it his all, scored some points and – if nothing else – America has gotten a better understanding of Obama’s tax program.

Thanks, Joe the Plumber!