Joe who?

I don't know about you, but I was sick of hearing about "Joe the Plumber" after the 10th or 11th time that his name was mentioned during the debate Wednesday night.

Two days later, I'm about ready to rip my hair out. I live in Toledo...home of "Joe the Plumber" but quite frankly, I don't understand why he is such a huge issue. One of the blogs I frequent had a post on Joe and after 140 comments, the blog's author closed the comment section. Many of those commenting are blaming the "liberal media" and "Obama followers" for attacking Joe the private citizen Joe MERELY because he DARED to ask Obama a question.

Seriously? You're kidding, right?

I used to be a reporter and I can tell you this much - if I was still working as a reporter and my editor had told me yesterday to 'figure out who Joe the Plumber' is...I would have done exactly what the media has been doing -- finding out who he is. The records (tax liens, lack of a plumbing license)..yeah, those are public records that anyone could find. The media is doing their job -- they aren't engaging in some left-wing conspiracy against some guy from Holland, OH. No one in the media is smearing Joe because he asked Obama a question.

While there may be some fringe crazies out there who are posting untruths about Joe, the things being reported by the mainstream media is fact-based. Joe isn't a licensed plumber, he does owe $1200 in back taxes, etc. Again, all are public records.

But then there is this beauty on CNN - Joe the Plumber is getting smeared, according to McCain. My favorite quote: "People are digging through his personal life and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house."

Um, Sen. McCain --- he didn't ask you to invoke his name over and over again in the debate either. And for the record, I have it on good authority that Joe initated the Obama exchange as Obama walked through Joe's neighborhood last weekend. The senator didn't just wander up to Joe and say "hey Joe, how's life?"

Some would have us believe that Obama's campaign is hiring people to dig through this guy's personal life and is forcing the news trucks to 'camp out' on his lawn. As if the senator doesn't have better things to do -- like oh, run for president.

To paraphrase (the "other Joe") Joe Biden: I am tired. Tired. Tired. Tired....of all this crap.

Can we please focus on what is important and not on silly things like Joe the Plumber. Oh and Joe the Plumber, you're 15 minutes have been up for about 2 days. If you want people to stop talking about you, tell them to get off your lawn.