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Joe the Plumber on Rick Santelli, John McCain and Sarah Palin

I could not shake the sense that Rick Santelli, CNBC’s Angry Man, was going through the same media cycle that Joe Wurzelbacher was. So, at an Americans for Tax

Jul 31, 202031.5K Shares631.2K Views
I could not shake the sense that Rick Santelli, CNBC’s Angry Man, was going through the same media cycle that Joe Wurzelbacher was. So, at an Americans for Tax Reform luncheon today, I asked Wurzelbacher if he agreed with Santelli’s appearance last week, in which Santelli blasted the mortgage rescue plan and saying that there was a “silent majority” that was sick of bailing out losers. Wurzelbacher smiled, and said he’d seen Santelli, but he wasn’t ready to call Santelli the leader of a popular movement.
“You’re asking me to comment on what other people think,” said Wurzelbacher. “I can’t do that. He’s right that this plan is rewarding bad behavior, without a doubt. And I appreciated his passion when he was speaking.”
Several times, once without being prodded, Wurzelbacher lit into the presidential candidate who lifted him out of obscurity.
On the housing bubble:
John McCain likes to say: Well, I warned about this! Well, I didn’t hear him. And I listened. He might have said it in certain circles but I didn’t really hear him. If he was thinking that was really going to be something he ought have made a bigger stink than he did.
On the Straight Talk Express:
John McCain’s a politician. I don’t really have a whole lot of respect for politicians. I did not agree with the amnesty bill he tried to put forth before running. I thought it was just about the most asinine thing I’d ever heard. You go ahead and let people break laws, then you pardon them and welcome them in? It makes no sense.
Three years ago he was the favorite among Democrats. That always bothered me. Then he talks about reaching across the aisle. I’m tired of reaching across the aisle. You got voted in, supposedly, because of your ideas, your principles, your values, and yet you’re supposed to reach across the aisle and bend on those things to get things done? You don’t sit there and say, ‘I’ll give you Park Place for Boardwalk.’ There’s too much wheeling and dealing in politics. You don’t coerce, and see, that was my problem when I was on the bus. That was the word that was used on the bus. “Coerced.” That’s a bad word. When John McCain sat there and said, “Well, some senators had to be coerced,” that pissed me off. That really upset me.
On Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin:
Absolutely incredible woman. Actually really wants to serve America. Do I think she should give ‘em another chance? I dunno. I mean, America tore her up. The media in general. But of any of the politicians I’ve actually met she seems the most sincere. She actually wants to do what’s right for America. She didn’t have that gleam in her eye of power an money, she had that ‘I want to serve’ look. That’s the kind of character and leadership we need. When you go into politics you want to help your fellow man, not help yourself. I think I’ve got a pretty good B.S. detector and I didn’t smell any from her.
Wurzelbacher wasn’t thrilled by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s GOP response to last night’s presidential address. “The only one I can see who I’d considering voting for is Newt Gingrich.”
Paula M. Graham

Paula M. Graham

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