Joe the plumber’s past matters but Obama’s doesn’t

In the few short days since we first learned of Joe the plumber, reporters have scoured his past, his associations, his political affiliations, his tax records, his licensing to plumb, his financial information and made it all public. The media is reporting on Joe the plumber - investigative reporting.

A recent AP article includes reporting on all the above and catalogs what few items in Joe’s private life they apparently believe would be embarrassing - like the fact he owes some back taxes, or that he doesn’t have a journeyman license for plumbing.

Why this treatment? Because Joe’s message is powerful and they need to defang it. Joe is the face of what’s wrong with Obama’s economic policy proposals.

The fact this private citizen expressed himself while the media happened to be recording is enough mandate to go digging through this guy’s private life and present it to the world.

But we can’t talk about Ayers? We can’t try to explore how a radical like Ayers has influenced and informed Obama?  Couric can ask Palin what magazines she reads (and gripe about the answer) but there can’t be a little digging to explore the connections between Obama and Ayers?

Of course the answer to all this is media bias. Plain and simple. Any mention of Ayers is damaging to Obama unless Obama’s camp carefully shapes the questions and answers. So its off limits. But because this everyday man spoke his mind, he isn’t. The AP goes to great lengths trying to connect McCain and his message to any of Joe’s past failings. 

He’s divorced you know.

For too many Americans this is effective. They’ll view it as points taken off McCain’s side of the board when actually it does nothing to McCain’s position which hasn’t changed and won’t change. It will make Joe’s questions for Obama less meaningful and soften the blow in Obama’s answer - spread the wealth around.

The facts remain the same.  Obama is a Marxist - he wants to redistribute wealth, he wants to pit one class of Americans against another, he wants authority to control outcomes rather than protect opportunity.

He’s dangerous and he has the mainstream media’s full support.