AT this point, the dynamics of the campaign have turned Joe the Plumber into Joe the Celebrity. The opportunities that Joe the Celebrity has of buying out his boss are a lot more realistic than the opportunities of Joe the Plumber. I think it's important to keep the debate focused on what Joe the Plumber could or could not realistically have been expected to achieve in the way of buying out the boss.
Anyone who understands business knows that people can turn things around, improve themselves, etc. They also know that loans are made on track records, not on gut instinct. They also know that rules are made to be broken, that is to say that while there is probably no bank at present which would loan Joe the funds to buy out the boss, there is no way of saying definitely that there is no little old lady plumbing customer or crazy relative or naive recent heir who couldn't be bamboozled or sweet-talked into backing Joe the Plumber as he presently is, i.e., no licence, no money, tax lien and all. IMHO, it's a very, very long shot, but not impossible.
But McCain wasn't using Joe to prove that Obama's unfair to lottery winners or to the one guy in a million who can pull off a miracle of business financing by finding a little old lady angel - - he presented Joe as a typical American working man with a dream who was about to get fucked in the ass by Obama and his tax plan. As a typical working class guy in the plumbing business with no money, no licence and liens on his property, Joe doesn't have a hope in hell of buying out the boss. Plain and simple. Any claim that he has any hope in the immediate future beyond a miracle is a lie.
