TOLEDO (WTOL) - The presidential candidates faced off for the last time in Wednesday night's third debate, and, this morning, folks are talking about one person whose name came up 26 times in 90 min.: Joe the Plumber.
Turns out he's Joe Wurzelbacher from Holland, Oh. He'd gone one-on-one with Sen. Barack Obama during the latter's visit to the area this week. Indeed, he'd challenged the senator, mentioning his plans to purchase the plumbing business he'd been working for and his worries that Obama's tax plan would prevent him from following through with that plan.
"I'm going to buy a company for $250,000, and I'm worried I'll be taxed too much," Wurzelbacher said after Wednesday night's debate. When asked how he thought Obama did when pressed on the issue, Wurzelbacher said: "He's been consistent in his answers, but it still seems like a tap dance to me. Redistributing the wealth... I work hard and that bothers me."
During the debate, Obama mentioned Wurzelbacher 11 times; McCain 15. Here is a portion of what they said.
MCCAIN: I would like to mention that a couple days ago Senator Obama was out in Ohio and he had an encounter with a guy who's a plumber; his name is Joe Wurzelbacher. Joe wants to buy the business that he has been in for all of these years, worked 10, 12 hours a day. And he wanted to buy the business but he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes.
