Damn stof you're still in Korea? Yeah you missed a lot. Joe the Plumber staged a coup and took over the GOP and the media. We've been keeping it under raps, but I figured I could let you in on it.

A whole thread filled with mindless hatred towards a guy because he took the media smear against him and turned it into a way to provide for his family.

Stay classy folks.

At least someone is not in with the hating tirade.

I don't see mindless hatred towards a guy as much as I see informed mockery of a situation. He was just some random tax evading unlicensed plumber who asked an arbitrary political question of a Candidate. No biggie there.  It was when a desperate political party turned him in to a symbol that the whole situation became a joke. Now this joke seems to have run off in a whole new direction. There's nothing wrong with laughing at a joke if it's funny.

Apparently I was born yesterday, now I'm supposed to believe this is all in good fun?

You guys are berating him and mocking him simply because he disagrees with your political views.  We all know this has nothing to do with good fun, we saw well enough throughout the campaign season what each and every one of you thought of JTP when his only crime was asking a question and this is no different. 

Should we examine this closer?  If you want I can go over the absurdities here highlighting the ridiculousness of these comments in detail.

We can start with the simple question of how reasonable the standards here are....the guy asked a question and his personal life was thrown open to the public....and apparently having a few problems disqualifies you from being able to ask a question?  Is that the political process you guys support?  Or do you not even recognize that this is exactly what you're promoting.

Or how about the fact that the ridicule and smears are a clear sign to anyone thinking about getting involved in the political debate that they might as well not even bother...because even if they ask a good tough question like we should be asking of all of our candidates it will only bring them heartache...oh and if you try to turn those negatives into a positive you'll only be inviting even more smears and ridicule as we see here.

Exactly what did JTP do that makes him worth all the effort and scorn?  For all the talk I hear about helping people who are in a rough time it seems like a pretty disingenuous thing to participate in this....well the best word is probably schadenfreude.  I think it's sick that people can sit here and do this without ever realizing that there is a person on the other end of this.  Compassion?  Only when it serves your purpose....the only thing that disturbs me more than the flocking to participate in this madness is the defense of it.  Sick and demented.

I'm just calling it for what it is, don't insult my intelligence by pretending it isn't exactly what it is. 

PS - Oh and please someone rationalize it by saying how you're just one person on a message board....I just love to hear people make excuses for their bad behavior ....classic! "It's ok because nobody is looking!"....Be honest...how many of you were thinking that?  Well more than will admit it that's for sure, these aren't the words or deeds of people who possess a moral backbone.  Oh..there I went using the M word...sorry about that....

late edit:

PPS - For clarity and the record I'm not at all talking about the folks pointing out the length of his 15 minutes being a bit long, my issue is with those who are using this as another opportunity to smear the guy as was done in the campaign.  They know who they are.

Tune in next thread for another one of Bart's Sqrl's People.

As far as Samuel Wurzelbacher goes IMO, if that video up is truly indicative of his beliefs (despite obviously being cherrypicked) then he deserves plenty of mockery.

Interesting characterization (and I like the reference ), but still an attempt to marginalize the point without actually making any point....more of a non-comment that hopes people won't notice it lacks argumentative substance.

It's sort of like when someone interrupts the party to point out that someone was trampled...everyone at the party knows they should stop and do something...especially now that it's being pointed out (they were hoping everyone would just pretend collectively not to have seen it) and now this person interrupting the music is echoing their conscience which is telling them to stop and get help...but as long as someone turns the music back on they can justify to themselves going about their partying again and callously pretending to be oblivious.  It doesn't matter to them that turning the music back on doesn't actually address the issue or that this poor trampled person could have life-long injuries or possibly even bleed to death, so long as it lets them go back to their party and not feel too guilty about it, they're happy.

Overall topic again: I think it's interesting how when someone like Obama talks about this responsibility thing where you do the right thing even when nobody is looking, or helping your neighbor, etc...people think it's great and love the idea.  But when someone else points it out...well now it's just sappy nonsense.  I personally find it to be one of the most encouraging things about him as a person, I'm still waiting to see it really take hold with his supporters but I like that message and I hope he sticks to it.

Either way, I've said my peace in the thread, people can and obviously will do what they want. I'm not going to turn this into a giant brawl, because I don't really have the free time to devote or the desire to beat my head against the wall.

I have even worse news guys: Republicans are acknowledging rush limbaugh as a reliable and great republican ally...
OMG. What has happened to my party? And to prove they are keeping up with the times they elect a black person to be chairman... Which wouldn't be bad, but they did it just because of obama. What the hell is going on!

Obama should give him a cabinet position since he doesn't pay his taxes like many of the nominees, past and present.

Come on now, do we really need this stuff? I'll admit the coincidense is striking in the fact that for both the nominees and JTP they both claim to have not known about the taxes or to have made a mistake and then paid off the taxes as soon as it became an issue.  But in neither case does it really promote meaningful debate...it's just side stuff.  At best I could see it being used as an argument to simplify the tax code but outside of some sort of tax discussion it's just sniping.