APPLEBAUM OR JOE......

You know how it is – having sacked most of his experienced staff “thirsty” Will Lewis has to pack most of his Daily Telegraph with polyfilla – opinion pieces rather than factual reports. Hence today we have Anne Applebaum earning her four figures with a piece on the US election hacked out probably over thirty minutes between a latte and the first dry white wine of the day. But Lewis doesn’t care, it’s filled a page and at least its not Bryony Gordon or Celia Walden so that’s a relief

Applebaum does the standard Toby Harnden – reads the NYT and WaPo, streams something from CNN or ABC then pontificates about the Bradley Effect etc as if none of us has the wit to hit the US on the internet ourselves. There is, of course, the mandatory reference to a “shrill” Palin going negative on Obama about Ayers, so tiresome, so cheap.
(Memo to AA – read Thomas Sowell
about the significance of one’s earlier allies…)
Then comes the compulsory (for DT) Vicki Woods moment. Anne has a friend who is so worried about O losing that rather than posting her vote from the UK she is flying over to make certain it counts..(subtext…..I have the sort of friends who can fly over to Virginia on a whim while you are still trying to work out the times of the next bus to Tesco…)

Here’s a serving suggestion for Lewis – forget AA and hire Joe the Plumber instead. Not only will you get a more realistic viewpoint about the American politics from lower down the pecking order but you could get your cistern fixed at the same time….and he'll probably be cheaper....

But wait – Alex Spillius (DT Harnden Clone) deflates Joe by pointing out that he hasn’t got a plumbers licence owes back taxes- another McCain fiasco (Palin 2…). Unfortunately ace reporter Spillius has only done his homework in a half hearted fashion by relying too much on the NYT and the unions - and the networks. Joe doesn’t need a licence because he is working for a licensed plumber.

“No, Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher doesn't have a plumbing license, but his employer does. His back taxes total less than $1,200. Not exactly Wesley Snipes.” (Fox)

As Jules Crittenden has pointed out “I could care less about Joe’s background, whether he’s legit, or whether he is a McCain operative. What I do care about is that I could be attacked like a public figure simply for asking a question, like Joe. I am chilled. No longer undecided either.
Joe is emerging as an everyman uber-Palin, tapping into the fundamental Joeness of America … an innocent trap Obama set for himself, when he went out to talk to regular Americans, and was caught telling them how he really feels. “Share the wealth.” Joe, a living, breathing Norman Rockwell painting in our own time, then is set upon by the Obamist press.
The Joes of America aren’t going to like that. Obama better watch out. He may find he’s stirred up an army of them.”
Oh and about those unpaid taxes – someone else owes even more
But somehow don’t expect Spillius and Harnden to focus too much on Martin Nesbitt – he is even less significant than Joe, he just happens to be Obama’s Campaign Treasurer……..