Video: Obama Mocks Joe The Plumber, Crowd Laughs

And the angry mob screams, "Kill him! Put him out of business!"...

UPDATE: Welcome HotAir, Riehl World View, Protein Wisdom, National Review, Instapundit, Ed Driscoll, memeorandum, AOSHQ, Bob Krumm and Tammy Bruce.

Too bad Joe the Plumber has received more scrutiny in 24 hours than Bill Ayers has in the past 24 months. For instance, did you know that Joe has a connection to Sarah Palin? Conspiracy!

UPDATE: As I pointed out in the comments, the speech footage obtained was already clipped (except for some standard, extraneous UH-UH-UH's which I removed --- you're welcome, Barack). Allahpundit has the full quote:

“He’s trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he’s fighting for,” Obama said. “How many plumbers you know that are making a quarter-million dollars a year?”

The jerk factor is marginally reduced. Still, as Glenn asks, what's wrong with fighting for a plumber? And beyond the truncated first part, why does Obama feel the need to belittle Joe's professional aspirations to be a successful plumber with the attendant income that brings?

MAJOR UPDATE: I found a full version of Obama's comment about Joe and re-cut this video to reflect the full context. Enjoy.

Comments

[Fed Up]

Quite a smug, elitist Prick for such a Stuttering Stooge. Now all of The Stuttering Stooge's little fascist minions are digging into Joe's personal and, what was until a certain southside Democrat Party Machine Hack decided the world couldn't survive without him in the White House to f*uck everything up, private life.

It's time for some smart entrepeneur to print up a bunch of "I AM Joe the Plumber" T-shirts, hats, bags, lunchboxes, ... you name it, put them up for sale on the internet and commit to donating a sizeable portion of the profits to Joe and his family. Just imagine the smoke blowing out of the Obamabots ears whenever they turn around on the streets of America only to be confronted with the symbol of The Stuttering Stooge's epic failure.

[Boo]

What a jerk... Guess he doesn't like the middle class like he says he does...

[Jeffersonian]

This reminds me of my favorite joke, the gist of which you can glean from the punch line: "Look, mate, when the common man takes over, you'll do as you're bloody well told!"

Obama is an elitist creep who inwardly, and outwardly, sneers at the people he pretends to champion.

[Tennyson Hayes]

Outstanding video. Obama says the words "a plumber making $250,000 a year" with such disdainful contempt. Like a mere plumber couldn't possibly work his way into the elite white-collar tax bracket that Obama and his Ivy League pals inhabit, oh no, that's a laughable presumption for peasants like Joe.

What a prissy SNOB this Obama is. Nice graphic at the end there, btw :-)

[wiseprince]

Obama doesn't get it. The American dream isn't about sitting on your butt and getting a check. It's about working hard (like a plumer) dreaming about what could be, working hard to make it happen and achieve the riches that you worked hard for. He doesn't get it. The point about the Joe the Plumer is not that he is making 250 000 a year. The point is that's where he wants to be (and beyond). All you are telling his is, don't bother because once you get to this point I'm going to kick you down a few notches and give your money to someone who didn't do all the work you did. Obama still doesn't get it. He really isn't like "us" (And by us I mean American's and people all around the world who dream big and work hard)

[Cuffy Meigs]

Nice graphic at the end there, btw :-)

That's one of my favorite photoshops you've ever done, Tennyson. A classic of this election.

[juliej]

Obama true colors are showing and it's not nice. He's a fraud and he doesn't believe in the American Dream. If anyone thinks he is going to give a rat's ass about anyone other then him, forget about it.

[A Gee]

Senator Obama and his supporters are now attacking an ordinary American whose only fault is asking Obama a question, a very good one at that. I believe Obama revealed himself to be the socialist that he is in his reply.

The media, if they have the guts, should be asking Senator Obama about his socialist and anti-American views and researching his background to save us from the coming socialism (wealth re-distribution, free speech suppresssion etc.).

This act of attacking an ordinary American for asking a legitimate question of a presidential candidate will, I believe, be a wake up call for all ordinary Americans to see the kind of leadership Senator Obama will bring to the White House should he be elected.

[LogicalUS]

What does Joe's work have to do with him asking a question? It wasn’t his fault that Obama embarrassed himself in the answer?

Obama gave the answer not Joe.

Obama and his brownshirts have a hissy fit because Obama made a fool out of HIMSELF in answering a simple question and today Obama lashes out like an immature boob to mock the questioner on national TV?

Are people really going to embarrass themselves by voting for this “man”? Have some self-respect, please

[Bruce]

While the crowd really seems to enjoy his snobbish attack on blue collar America, I get the impression his union supporters behind him are like "Uh....dude?".

[McAint]

You guys are retards.

Joe isn't even a licensed plumber, or even registered. Never has he done any training, nor an apprenticeship.

You think he's really "about to buy" his company?

Get. Fucking. Real.

[bskb]

Joe the plumber said that the business makes $250,000 per year, not himself. Like most small businesses, he has to put money into parts, vehicles, employees, and the last person to get paid is the owner of the business (don't worry though, Uncle Sam is sure to take the first cut from that pie). The notion that a plumber can't make 250k/year?

Do the math, that's a business that clears only $685 per day. That's not a lot of business to reach the quarter million dollar threshold.

Obama's derision is contempt for all working class Americans. He's laughing at you, his supporters are laughing at you, and if he wins in November, they'll be laughing all the way to the bank with your money.

[Cuffy Meigs]

Thanks for the speedy dossier on Joe, McAint. Now what can you tell me about William Ayers?

[Lea]

This "how many plumbers do you know making a quarter grand a year" quote is pure snobbery on Obama's part. He doesn't realize that people in trade actually can make decent money, especially if they own their own business. He thinks only important people like Lawyers with Harvard educations can make that kind of money. Idiot.

Welcome to reality, Senator.

[Josh]

To be fair they were laughing at the thought a Republican could possibly care about a plumber (and the tone he uses makes you think he doesn't think too highly of the profession). The thing that makes me want to scream is that "Joe the plumber" isn't making $250k as a plumber... but he wants to buy a business that makes about that. I know he might be a little busy but if you're going to mock a man in front of tens of millions of people could you at least bother to know what you're talking about? Pathetic.

[Becky]

What is the appropriate amount a plumber should make? That is where we are going with re-distribution, etc. If I were in the medical profession, I would be worried. Mass. just announced they are paying hospitals and doctors less to help stop the bleeding of their budget. For all his bravado about the middle class, he has revealed himself as discriminating.

[Joe Schmo]

Joe the Plumber is a Karl Rove plant. Rove knew that Obama would be walking around the neighborhood and had him there waiting.

Only an idiot can't see this.

[WJ]

This is to Bruce:

A person should not need to be "licensed" by the all mighty "State" to be a plumber. Somebody who can fix your plumbing is a plumber. Does your job require some sort of state licensing? Mine doesn't.

By the way nice discourse in calling people retards. Definitely shows what kind of person you are.

[Frank]

Elitist - the favorite buzzword of the "Dumb and Proud Of It" Right.

[WJ]

Apologies to Bruce. It was McAint I was responding to.

[big truck]

Yeah, great.

If you'd like to learn what Obama said before it was deceptively edited into a YouTube clip, go here:; http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/obama-on-joe-th.html

See, when we liberals hype a clip of McCain saying something disgusting, we don't need to chop off the first half of his sentence.

[Glenn Kenny]

Bullshit edit on that clip. Good that Fox News does your work for you, I guess.

[Risawn]

McAint,

the point of the whole issue is not Joe the Plumber, anybody could have asked that question. Obama answered with that asanine answer that basically shows his true colors and now the left is on some vitrol to attack Joe. Heaven forbid you ask a question to John McCain, he give an asanine reply in return and suddenly every little dirt in your life comes out as people suddenly try to put YOU out of business.

The thing is, it shouldn't matter if the question came from Joe Wulzerbacher, Katie Couric or Jesus Christ himself (because as the only perfect person to ever walk the earth, good luck finding some dirt on him). The person asking the question is irrelevant. What should be detrimental is the answer that Barack Obama gave.

But they are trying to deflect off Obama by attacking Joe. This is really telling on Obama.

[John Skookum]

Hooray for Joe. McCain only two points down in the Gallup poll, BEFORE his best debate, BEFORE Joe the plumber, and the Dow way back up again.

This was Obama's election to lose and he just lost it. We are not going to elect an unreconstructed Marxist in this country, no matter how smooth a talker.

Obama says he'll raise cap-gains taxes even if it brings in less money, because he wants it to be fair, i.e. he wants to punish the hard workers who get too jumped up above all the lazy pieces of shit who won't work.

Obama tells Joe the Plumber not to dare to rise above his station, because the Ivy League locusts who infest our government will kick him back down a few pegs and give his money to shiftless crackheads who reliably vote Democrat as long as the handouts keep coming.

Obama does not know that the government's power to tax is a sacred trust, to be used only when no non-coercive alternative is available to meet a real need. Obama sees your taxes, the sweat of your brow, the fruit of your labor, as his plaything and birthright as a member of the governing class. Obama thinks you are a slave and a donkey.

Let us kick the jug-eared commie's ass all the way back to Chicago.

[Marty]

A few weeks ago I had a plumber at my house for about a half hour and it cost me $125. I thought, "Man, that's the job I want! Unclog a drain for 125 bucks...I'm sure I could do that 5 or 6 times a day and make some real money." If only I had spent my undergraduate and graduate school years training for that job.... Being a CPA has gotten me nowhere other than sitting in an a stuffy office all day shuffling papers and sending emails.

[Lord Voldemort]

There was a scene at the end of Searching for Bobby Fisher, where the chess teacher is watching his prize pupil in a big match, and blurts out "that was a mistake".

Well, this was a mistake.

[Bruce]

Uh, Bruce. I hate to tell you this, but in many parts of the country, you can do plumbing work without a license and make pretty good living at it. I live in a rural area and a small plumbing business with a good reputation will stay busy. Examples like this I know of could pull in 250K gross per year. Hard work though.

Apprenticeship? Get real. Do you think this is medieval Europe?

[Moody Deep Thinker]

There is no middle class anymore. If you read the communist manifesto, there are no classes anymore. Just workers, supporting the state. No more class struggle.

Just ask Frank, another one of the disenfranchised Obama influences. Like all of Obama's influences, he has been repurposed to another reality. Like Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, ACORN, and anybody else that Obama 'knew' before he was a presidential candidate.

Seems like his whole life got removed before he ran for president. If you don't see the parallel, you are not cognizant.

Sometimes the Manchurian candidate isn't the politician, it is the voter. Why else is the LPM (Lazy People's Media) in overdrive? To deceive the people seems to be my conclusion. GO, do some googling folks. Suggestions, [Frank, Hawaii, Obama], Stanley Ann Durham, Jeremiah wright. Dig deep, you are being lied to in wholesale lots. Read wikipedia just for sources that have been misquoted or mangled.

War is deception
Lie enough and eventually they will believe.
Search enough and you will find truth.

For all that you value do more than read the media, research, study, go find out!

[Gary]

Becky,

Who knows if Joe was a Karl plant. One thing is certain was The Messiah's promise to punish success. Nobody forced The Messiah to answer the way he did. Obama plans to destroy the American Dream. He said it!

[Shannon Love]

Frank,

Elitist - the favorite buzzword of the "Dumb and Proud Of It" Right.

It's cultural thing. Since you're obviously not an American, you probably don't understand the basic idea that government of the people, by the people and for the people, presumes that ordinary people understand how to run their own lives and make political decisions without benefit of supposed moral and intellectual superiors.

Again, an American thing. People whose political culture arises from a long history of autocratic rule, feel otherwise.

[Jim Ryan]

Well, a plumber who wants to move up really has you lefties howling! Strike a nerve? Just hate that self-reliant kulak, don't you. Go ahead, destroy him. Go ahead, maybe you can find a DUI or something. Or a girly magazine under his bed. It's all you've got.

Watching you gnash your teeth in twee rage, I'm going to need more popcorn.

"He's not a plumber!" LOL

"He's behind on his taxes!" LOL

You lefties just got pwned. By a regular Joe. Priceless!

[jeff]

How does one have such contempt for the people one wants to lead?

[Jonathan]

Am I the only person who think that something like this would make a pretty decent campaign commercial?

[Jim Ryan]

"No fair, they edited the part out of the tape where Obama was nice!" LOL!

[oSama BiNLAden]

Wow, talk about putting the whole plumbers monkey wrench in one's mouth LOL

Good thing the election is still a couple weeks away. Time enough to turn the corner. Joe the Plumber and Joe 6-pack will com ethrough in the end.

McCain Palin in 2008 !!

[CKA in Red State USA]

Someone made the comment that Joe hasn't been an apprentice and have certain credentials.

Fair enough.

If we apply that to Barack Obama, then we'd find that, though he has two pieces of Ivy parchment, he's unqualified to be president.

After all, all he's done is move from one thing to another.

And his ENTIRE senate career has been to campaign for the POTUS position.

[Janemarie]

Yes yes YES make it a commercial, and air it when he has his 30 minute (attempted) love-fest with the American people. What a complete jerk! It's Obamaisms like this that make me wonder why anyone would believe he has a "first-class temperament" or "first-class intellect".

[M Kitchen]

"o" ...those plumbers... they cling to their pipe wrenches, guns, and religion!

Crowd: HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!

"o" I bet plumbers don't even know the price of arugula!!

Crowd: HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!

[Jim Ryan]

Scratch a commie and you'll find an priggish snob who wants to keep you poor and dependent on his government.

[Cuffy Meigs]

"No fair, they edited the part out of the tape where Obama was nice!" LOL!

Exactly, Jim. The second or third derivative video I pulled this clip from was already chopped, except for some standard Obama UH-UH-UHs immediately before he says "A plumber..." (you're welcome, Barack).

[LJM]

I love Joe the Plumber and am no fan of Obama's policies and as a small business owner I will be voting for McCain but by leaving out the words that Obama said before the sound bite you are really misrepresenting what he said which was:

"John McCain expects us to believe that a plumber is the guy he is fighting for."

I agree that Obama's tone is condescending but when put in context his point isn't as represented in the video

[Ginny]

McCain wins with Joe the plumber on his side! Lets go Joe! McCain is the better person of the two candidates, this video proves that Obama does not care for the average Joe, especially Joe the plumber!
How dispicable to get a crowd laughing at Obama's rally and use Joe the plumber, obama reminds me of a bully! America supports plumbers and hard working citizens with a American dream! Keep the dream alive and vote Mccain for president! Mccain cares for you and me, and Joe the plumber!

[Fed Up]

WJ:

"Elitist - the favorite buzzword of the 'Dumb and Proud Of It' Right."

Dumb? I don't think the word you're using means what you think it means. "Dumb", means to be mute, voiceless. Stupid, on the other hand, means to use words incorrectly like, say, using the word "Dumb" instead of the word "stupid". Well, the Right is not, nor ever will be "Dumb", and the mere thought of that just sends you America Hating Fascists screaming to the medicine cabinet for the lithium every time.

big truck:
"Bullshit edit on that clip."

Nope. No bullshit in the edit. You must be smelling the bullshit dribbling out of The Stuttering Stooge's mouth. It's OK. Anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together (and I guess you just barely made the cut on that requirement) got a good, unhealthy whiff of The Stuttering Stooge's real political philosophy. Marxism. No one edited those words. They were his. Now he has to own them. Embrace your failure BT, your mental breakdown will go so much more smoothly if you do.
Oh. And you know what they say about guys who brag about their "big trucks". Yeah. And tiny brains to go with the tiny lil' dickie.

[Joe - not the plumber]

This election is about to turn around.

They're getting the city of Toledo to force Joe's boss to fire him. Turns out that though he's completed his apprenticeship, he was wrong about the licensing requirements.

So now he'll be out of work with a wife and kid.

If there's one thing that Americans don't like, it's a bully.

[Dan]

Sarah Palin is drawing insane, ridiculous crowds in NH while Joe Biden drew 500?

Somethings going on in this election. I can't explain it, but Obama is not walking away with this thing by a long shot.

[Terry]

The US is in a cold civil war. This thread shows it. Hope it doesn't go hot.

[Brian]

So the Messiah couldn't handle a question from a blue collar guy concerned about how the Messiah's tax plan might affect him? How's he going to handle Chavez and Ahmadinejad and when he sits down with them for tea and finger sandwiches?

[Commenterlein]

So Republicans don't understand the difference between revenue and income? Or is understanding these things now "elitist" as well?

There was a time when conservatives prided themselves on actually, you know, knowing stuff.

[Kevin]

Wow. Some people are easily lead. NEVER trust a video of ANYONE saying anything that picks up in mid-sentence. The person making the video is trying to deceive you. In response to CKA, measuring the same period of time, Obama has written, passed, and voted for more legislation in the Senate than John McCain. So if Obama has accomplished nothing, then McCain is the laziest Senator to ever draw a government paycheck.

Now, some of you are complaining about the redistribution of wealth. What have we seen the last 8 years? WHat we've seen is the spreading around of regular people's wealth right into the pocket of the already extremely rich and powerful, people who ALREADY have the pull to get preferential reatment from the law, from the government and from everyone else, and somehow attempting to curtail that--that's socialism? You people have all been had. The Republicans are the biggest socialists to ever walk the planet. They have you SO conned that you WILLINGLY vote to let them keep doing it and you accuse anyone who tries to change it of being unAmerican. This isn't guesswork. This isn't conspiracy theory. The rich HAVE been getting richer and EVERYONE else is getting poorer. The rich can lobby for subsidies and funding for projects and a million other things to offset what taxes they don't keep in offshore accounts. They can hire lawyers and accountants and politicians to squeeze every last ounce out of us, and they do. And somehow stopping them is socialism? I am flabbergasted. Look around. It's not like this is a secret.

[largebill]

Screw licensing. I'm a plumber. Every decent dad is a plumber.

Obama can look down with disdain at professions like plumbers all he wants. However, I've gotten help from plumbers, but have never gotten help from a politician. What other professions does Obama have no respect for??????? As far as I can tell the only professions he finds honorable are lawyer, community organizer, abortionist, and um, uh, um?

Joe Biden is the forgotten man in this election. Heck, he is still trying to figure out how many letters he needs to spells j-o-b-s. Yet, Dan Quayle is mocked.

Sarah Palin will be in my small town tomorrow and thousands of people will be there to greet her. I'll be one of them. Not exactly relevant to the present conversation but figured it would make some of you all jealous.