I never thought I would see a Fox News anchor go Campbell Brown on a McCainiac. But that is exactly what Shep Smith did to Joe the Iconic Plumber. Take a look for yourself, and see if you can figure out what happened:
I’m guessing that it was this statement from the now famous plumber that most galled Shep: “I’m just going to push it back on your listeners to figure out why I would agree to something like that.” Um, excuse me, did he just get away with that?
In a bizarre twist to the last lap in this presidential election, John McCain has elevated Joe the Plumber to – basically – running mate status. Joe’s out on the stump gladhanding and taking more press questions than Sarah Palin has in the whole general election. The media obediently reports everything this guy says now. But the beauty – or the horror, to a journalist – is that Joe is accountable to no one for what he says on camera (except maybe to his kids, who aren’t old enough to be embarrassed). It’s like he’s Tucker Bounds, except he gets away with it.
It’s all a little surreal. Joe’s now got a publicist (who will keep him from saying such stupid things in the future), and there’s talk of a country music album now. Joe the plumber would be the most famous swing voter in history . . . if he were in fact a swing voter. But, he’s not, and he never was. He made that perfectly clear, even before “endorsing” McCain last week. And now he’s basically become the campaign’s mascot; a formulaic symbol, replicable into Phil the Bricklayer, Rose the Teacher or Tito the Builder (who’s stumpin’ with Sarah the Hunter Palin in Virginia now).
I suppose it was inevitable that someone was gonna knock this guy off the pedestal John McCain has set him on; I just never thought it would happen on the Fox News Network. Well played, Shep. Finally fair and balanced.
