Pity poor Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. On October 14th, he was just a guy struggling to get by who, seizing an opportunity to approach Barack Obama at a rally in an attempt to throw him off guard, asked essentially whether he would be affected by Obama’s tax plan if he were to buy the plumbing company he worked for. Obama admittedly flubbed the answer. If the company brings in $280,000 in profit then, yes, he will be taxed, and well he should – if you’re a small business clearing that much in profit, you no doubt received tax benefits and help and guidance from government-funded organizations like the SBA, and you should pay your due so that other business owners can attempt to attain the same dream (and, remember that I am a small business owner myself). If, however, the company brings in $280,000 in revenue, which is what I suspect, than it’s highly likely he’d actually see a tax break, since his adjusted gross income after expenses, payroll, etc. would most likely fall below the $250,000 cutoff Obama has lately been touting.

This flub gave the McCain camp an awesome opportunity to further muddy the issue and use this exchange as a way to promote his deeply flawed tax plan, which would do nothing to help Joe in his theoretically situation whatsoever. In theory, this was a good move – it put a human face on the tax question and allowed McCain a chance to pretend for a moment that he gives a crap about the middle class. Unfortunately, his decision to do so unfairly flashed an overly strong floodlight on Mr. Wurzelbacher – an average Joe not at all used to the fame and not at all prepared for it. Perhaps if McCain had conferred with him about it beforehand Mr. Wurzelbacher may have been better prepared. Instead, he was as shocked as anyone to hear his name mentioned no fewer that 21 times by the Republican candidate, five by the Democrat.

And now the media have a new darling. Only, it turns out he’s not so darling. Apparently, Joe the Plumber is, technically, not a licensed Plumber (but only in his county – he has his license with the state, apparently). In addition, he’s nowhere near being able to buy the company he works for. In fact, in the original discussion he had with Obama, he stated that he was considering it, which is like me saying I’m considering taking a trip to Spain sometime this year – possible, but currently unlikely. This, of course, has been blown into him being about to buy the company, being prepared to buy the company and, in some reports I read, having actually just bought the company. At $40,000 a year in salary, though, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to muster up the funds soon enough.

Besides, he owes about $1,200 in back taxes to the state of Ohio that needs to be paid first, as well as an additional $1,200 to St. Charles Mercy Hospital. The former debt has resulted in a lien on his home.

So Joe the Plumber, who, in a snarky moment, tried to land a gotcha on Obama, has now been thrust into the spotlight, and we’re seeing there ain’t pretty. We know about his liens, his salary, where he lives, the status of his license, what party he’s registered to vote for during the last several elections and who knows how much other minutia that just hasn’t been reported. When I worked for the Daily Cal, I did a lot of investigative reporting, spending tons of time digging through public documents. It’s astounding what you can learn about a person if you know where to look. Joe just got the full media bum rush – his whole life is being exposed on national news outlets all because he asked Obama a question, all because McCain is so out of touch with reality that he took no concern about how mentioning Joe by name during the debate would radically – and detrimentally – change his life. This is not the first time.

Remember way back in the first debate when McCain flaunted the bracelet he wore in remembrance of Matthew Stanley, a soldier killed in Iraq? Apparently, he whips this thing out all the time. No doubt there’s some pride in Stanley’s family when McCain “honors” their son by using him as a political prop, but has his honor of this young men really kept him from allowing more young men and women to die for a needless, fruitless, pointless war? During the first debate, we were alerted to the fact that Obama also wears such a bracelet. It’s the first time we’ve heard him talk about it because the mother who gave it to him to honor her son, Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, asked him not to use it as a political prop. And, granted, he did just that during the debate, but the mother who gave it to him understood the situation – that he was proving that McCain is not alone in caring about the soldiers fighting for us overseas – and was pleased with how it came off. In other words, Obama has not used Sgt. Jopek as a political pawn like McCain has used his bracelet since the beginning of his campaign.

McCain’s stunning disregard for the privacy of average citizens is alarming and devastating. The world now knows all about Joe and his tax problems. He has had his right to privacy trampled and been made into a public figure without his intent or consent. In a single daily news cycle, he went from the “winner of the debate” as McCain portrayed him this morning to a deadbeat who can’t even pay his bills. All Because McCain deliberately used him as a pawn and single-handedly abolished his anonymity in a cynical attempt to win this campaign at any cost without any regard to the consequences.

Why would you want to vote for someone like that?