JoeThePlumber or Joetheplumber.com Gets into Spotlight by Obama and McCain's Last Debate

Who would have thought that a plumber would get the center stage at the recent presidential debate? In the past, a Wall Street financier would have made the headlines. But not this year. Wall Street is no more or it is no longer what it used to be. This is the triumph of the little guys, the ordinary guys who do real jobs and who are not to make a few bucks from the American taxpayer. It makes sense that Barack Obama and John McCain want to align themselves with the ordinary, hard-working guy, Joe the Plumber.


The third and final presidential debate wasn't about Barack the Senator. And it wasn't about John the maverick, either. Instead it was all about Joe the plumber.

The debate was fairly unremarkable, save for repeated references to a plumber from Toledo, Ohio named Joe Wurzelbacher. Sen. McCain made the first reference when he chided his democratic rival for wanting to raise taxes on people like ol' Joe. That's standard—politicians often make allusions to "regular folks" to prove that they understand real problems.

But then it got weird. Sen. Obama mentioned the suddenly famous plumber, too. And then Sen. McCain talked about Joe some more. It was almost as if both candidates thought the entire election rode on Joe's vote. By the end of the debate, "Joe the plumber" had been mentioned a grand total of 20 times. That's more than "change" and "reform" combined.

The bizarre exchange inspired both the searchers and the bloggers. Queries on "who is joe the plumber" and "joe wurzelbacher" both skyrocketed. Meanwhile, blogs and papers from the Buzz attempted to shed some light on the man behind the socket wrench. The New York Times explains how Joe and Sen. Obama met and discussed Obama's tax plan for small businesses (like, ahem, plumbers).

Politico reports that Joe isn't about to surrender his 15 minutes. He's already talked to Katie Couric and he'll be ruminating on his sudden fame during morning news programs. Tune in, but don't expect to hear who he's voting for. Media Bistro writes that Joe plans to keep that between himself and the lever (well, assuming he's registered).

What will happen to Joetheplumber.com?

Joe the Plumber, after he went ‘toe-to-toe’ with Obama, then got his video plastered on YouTube, I could almost see the dollar signs light up. The dollar signs got even bigger after Joe The Plumber was mentioned 15 times during the presidential debate last night. Political rhetoric and opinion aside, let’s look at the aftermath of ‘Joe the Plumber’ in the internet world.

Joetheplumber.com is as of now a site about ‘plumbing’. It is owned by a plumber living in Amarillo, Texas. The site has places to procure an estimate, list of services available, and means to contact Joe. Pretty standard fare for a services site. After the past two days we can expect that the site, and Joe the Plumber of Amarillo will never be the same.