October 29, 2008 | 4:01 pm

Joe the Plumber speaks, reporters act like America is listening

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I’m baffled. Why—oh why—are we supposed to care about the sage wisdom from the mouth of Joe the unlicensed plumber?

Yesterday real-life Mr. Clean said Barack Obama would turn the United States into a socialist nation and would bring about the “death of Israel.” And the media lapped it up. Associated Press filed a wire story picked up around the world, including in Israel:

The Ohio plumber, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher, agreed with a Jewish McCain supporter who asked him during an election rally in Ohio if he believed “a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel.”

“I’ll go ahead and agree with you on that,” Wurzelbacher told the man, retired Florida lawyer Stan Chapman who was visiting Ohio.

Wurzelbacher, who also said he believed Obama would make America a socialist nation, was joined at the rally by Rob Portman, a former Ohio congressman and budget director under President Bush, who said he disagreed with Chapman’s assessment of Obama’s foreign policy.

Shortly after Wurzelbacher’s statement was made, the McCain campaign issued a statement saying “while he’s clearly his own man, so far Joe has offered some penetrating and clear analysis that cuts to the core of many of the concerns that people have with Barack Obama’s statements and policies.”

Penetrating and clear analysis ... are you kidding me? I’m sorry, but when did ol’ Joe become an expert on domestic and foreign policy? I really thought he would disappear after it was revealed that he isn’t a licensed plumber and he isn’t even close to making the kind of money that would be more heavily taxed by an Obama administration. Somehow he’s become the populist voice of a floundering campaign.