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Joe the Plumber Turns Joe the War Correspondent
January 12, 2009 2:27 PM
ABC News' David Wright reports: His 15 minutes of fame are officially over, but Joe the Plumber seems not to have gotten the memo.
Samuel Wurzelbacher is now in Israel as Joe the War Correspondent, hoping to turn the notoriety he gained during the 2008 campaign into an international franchise for a conservative online outfit called Pajamas TV.
The toughly posed question is, after all, what made him famous in the first place. Republican John McCain practically hinged his entire campaign on a question Wurzelbacher happened to ask Barack Obama.
But it appears that in a war zone, the plumber is out of his depth.
“Shoot, I got a lot of questions, I'm just trying to find the right one,” he admitted, as he spoke with an Israeli police spokesman in front of a pile of Hamas shrapnel.
Visiting the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which is close enough to Gaza for Hamas rockets to have become a deadly nuisance, Wurzelbacher explained a conflict that has vexed presidents, prime Ministers and Nobel laureates –- not to mention generations of Palestinians and Israelis -- as though it were a particularly tricky plumbing job.
"The people of Sderot can’t do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in," he said. "I’m sure they’re taking quick showers."
Asked about Israel’s ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip, Wurzelbacher made it clear he has no desire to see the front lines himself or to investigate both sides of the story.
He said: "To be honest I don’t think journalists should be anywhere around war. You guys report where our troops are at, you report what’s happening day to day, you make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine.
"I like back in World War I and World War II, where you’d go to the theater and you’d see our troops on screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them," he said. "I think media should be abolished from reporting."
The New York Daily News was quick to point out, "It seems he skipped a key chapter in the newsman's manual." After his first big day on the job, Joe the War Correspondent didn’t bother to file a story.
January 12, 2009 in Political Radar | Permalink | Share | User Comments (86)
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The guy is an idot! And the people who hired him are just as bright.
And McCain used Joe while putting Palin in a closet, So McCain is in the same club as are his advisers who "managed" Palin.
Posted by: independentview | Jan 12, 2009 3:02:55 PM
And to think McCain turned to him and Palin to save his campaign. Both are idiots and thankfully America got it right for once. Go home Joe before you get yourself killed over there and please go back to your old job as a tax evading unlicensed plumber.
Posted by: allie08 | Jan 12, 2009 3:29:57 PM
In hindsight - albeit 20/20 - They all look like idiots! Joe the Moron for being a bona fide imbicile, Sarah Palin for being an imbicile and a divisive polititian in an age when that will loose you an election, and McCain who is probably a good man for picking both Sarah Palin and Joe the Moron who summarily threw McCain under the bus when they lost. LOL I like seeing Joe the Moron in Israel. It really hammers home what the GOP has become.
Posted by: Eddy | Jan 12, 2009 3:31:25 PM
So Joe the War Correspondant doesn't believe reporters should report on atrocities being committed in war. Not even the genocide that is surely taking place against the Palestinian people? That sounds like the Cain Syndrome if I ever heard one. Hide your devious acts away from the eyes of God? Only this time, hide them away from the world. But God is watching, and God is judging. And I don't think He likes what is being allowed to take place.
Posted by: Hes_watchingUS | Jan 12, 2009 3:32:42 PM
Is this guy suppose to get through to the beer swilling, belly slapping , homer simpson type american thats out there...?
Answer ?
Close down your eyes, then close down your mind...Seek the truth that resides in all of us deep within our life flame, then open your eyes, project the truth...and never be swayed again.
Posted by: Tim? | Jan 12, 2009 3:34:47 PM
So Joe, who's reporting from a battle zone, doesn't think people should report from battle zones. And why shouldn't reporters report? Because, according to Joe, they don't know what they're talking about. Isn't that precisely why we need information?
This follows his concerns that taxes are too high, though it turns out he doesn't pay taxes.
Yes, America, this is the Republican party. No wonder the nation is in the dumps.
Posted by: baffled | Jan 12, 2009 3:39:22 PM
Joe, please go away!! Nobody cares what you have to say!!
Posted by: Lou Ser | Jan 12, 2009 3:47:08 PM
Ah Joe, the ugly American. Joe, go home.
Posted by: scooterfoot | Jan 12, 2009 3:48:53 PM
What's Joe doing there with Pajamas Media if he thinks the media should be abolished from reporting? I think in this same interview, he was real contentious with an Israeli reporter who was minding his own business. He's a moron, no doubt, but not a benign one.
Posted by: kat | Jan 12, 2009 3:51:11 PM
Gotta love Joe. Anything to make a liberal cry...
Posted by: Tono | Jan 12, 2009 3:51:25 PM
Jesus was a liberal. Nothing wrong with that.
Posted by: Patrick | Jan 12, 2009 3:57:16 PM
allie08
when you say"And to think McCain turned to him and Palin to save his campaign. Both are idiots and thankfully America got it right for once. Go home Joe before you get yourself killed over there and please go back to your old job as a tax evading unlicensed plumber..................................................any chance you would relent... just leave him there!
Posted by: MrSleepy | Jan 12, 2009 3:57:18 PM
" For Triumph of Evil It is necessary that concerned people around world
and on the Globe say nothing and accept the the highly questionable
statements by the powerful and access to influnce"
That is what is happening in and around Gaza and LOC {[Line of Control]
[line of conflict]} between the divided people of Kashmir.
The occu[ied, oppressed, and tormented people on this Globe are going
become human bombs to express their pain, anquish, and displeasre. It is
time Israel, India, and rest of the world realize this fact of life on his
perilous Globe that these tormented and traumatized people can be easily exploited and angered to act like evil people. In summary State sponsored
terrorism breeds terrorists as we label them.
Yours truly,
COL. A.M.Khajawall [Ret]
Posted by: COL. A.M.Khajawall[Ret] | Jan 12, 2009 3:57:24 PM
I can identify with Joe, maybe 'cause Im a lowly mechanic. As a mechanic I can tell you one thing about people standing over you and voicing their opinion about your work while you are trying to do a job.........It always ends with the job taking longer and not being done right. Its true because the people voicing their opinions or REPORTING, most often have no clue about what is really going on or else they would be doing the job themself. As such they can only manage to INTERFERE with the job being done. Resulting in a longer time span needed to get the job done and an inferior quality of the finished job. So just as most repair shops use an excuse like "Insurance regulations prohibit customers from entering the service bays" Joe is correct in stating that war is best kept reporter free via any excuse necessary.
Posted by: Robert | Jan 12, 2009 4:03:00 PM
"media should be abolished from reporting" - that about sums it up, huh? Now, let's get back to them good old WWII films where we always win the good fight, in a good way! What is this? Ozzie and Harriet? They have been proven to be a lie Joe, and folks. this too shall pass...
Posted by: dave | Jan 12, 2009 4:07:57 PM
I had no idea that all the people during World Wars I and II were excited and happy for the troops. Those must have been the good old days, back when people didn't have opinions. When I saw the title, I thought the journalists were just being hard on this poor guy since he has no education or training to be a journalist. But then I saw the clip and I thought, no, he really is a complete idiot.
Posted by: Mallory | Jan 12, 2009 4:12:56 PM
Isn't this guy's fifteen minutes of fame just about up???
Posted by: Greg Smith | Jan 12, 2009 4:13:44 PM
Wars are not won on the battlefeild, battles are. Wars are won at home when the people BELIEVE they have done the right thing after the battle is over. For this reason America WILL NEVER WIN ANOTHER WAR! Funny thing is that the very people who deserve a nation that will fight for them are the ones who will fight for themsleves anyway. The rest of the liberal quacks would die at the hands of our enemies without this protection and may desrve too anyway LOL.
Posted by: Robert | Jan 12, 2009 4:19:28 PM
the guy is a frickin joke....can ABC find something else to report other than this mron...please
Posted by: Rick Brosseau | Jan 12, 2009 4:37:43 PM
I believe I speak for most Americans when I say ......
Most of you people are an embarrassment!
Sorry spokespeople for our country. Sorry global citizens.
God Bless Joe! God Bless Sarah!
God Bless America!
Posted by: JimOnTheRight | Jan 12, 2009 5:05:39 PM
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