Joe the Increasingly Desperate for Attention

Those are truly bad web designs, straight from the late 1990's. No wonder they say version 2.0 is coming soon.

Someone probably told "Joe" that he could get a web site up and running cheaply.

The design was probably created by "Melvyn, the next door neighbor's kid".

Oh, and Joe, lose the flashing text - please?

Wait, paperback slated for release Dec 1? Does anybody really think this meathead could churn out 100+ pages in 6 weeks, let alone get it edited and printed in that time frame?

Something smells even fishier than before. Did this guy totally play John McCain for free book publicity?

Looks awesome when you resize the text to maximum size in Safari (one of the few browsers that still resizes text instead of zooming... which I hate).

Does his website have any information on the two or three Protection From Abuse orders filed against him or the tax liens levied against him for non payment?? Probably not. Maybe his female victims who were battered by him should be contacted for their opinion of his sudden notoriety.

Mr. Stein's sneering, thinly-veiled superiority complex and the additional contempt in the comments section only serve to justify further working class resentment of liberals like MoJo readers. If you actually bothered to read Joe the Plumber's website content, you'd see this:

"The other day, I was contacted by 72-year old man who pleaded with me to share his story with the media and politicians. He and his wife lost all of their savings in the stock market recently. They worked all their lives for this country and now they have nothing. Why? Because of corruption in Washington. That man asked me, "What do I do now Joe?"

"So, here's my promise to Robert and the other Joes and Janes out there who have been failed by their politicians. I have formed this organization to bring together individuals who want to help others, while at the same time ensuring our government keeps answering our tough questions.

"With your help, we can stop the government and banks from taking peoples' homes away. We can stop our elected officials from selling our children into debt with our enemies. We can help each other far better and faster than the government has ever been able to."

It doesn't matter that Joe himself might not have written this, or that he's trying to cash in on his fleeting fame, or that he's likely a pawn of the battle-scarred GOP as it attempts resurgence. What matters here is that the sentiments in those words ring true for a lot of working people. It's a sad truth that government--of both parties--has failed working people. If you bothered to consider current events and recent history, you'd realize that modern Democrats haven't done working people any big favors. Just look at the Clinton years: welfare "reform" that was more like "deform," NAFTA and its failure to protect labor rights; Greenspan, Rubin, and Summers who refused to regulate dangerous new breeds of derivatives (despite clear warnings) that ultimately contributed to the financial crisis. Tell me: how is anyone supposed to trust any "elites" when even the "elites" who were supposed to be on their side--the Democrats--failed them miserably?

There's a lot of work to be done in restoring trust in government and giving ALL Americans a reason to be proud of their government. Stop your snotty-pants snarking and do some constructive bridge-building instead.

as a resident of ohio's 9th district for 23 years, i can say with the utmost certainty that joe will join he ranks of republicans crushed by marcy kaptur, one of the most impressive members of congress.

Sheehan is a kook who's fifteen minutes are long gone.
Soon, Joe Whatever will be as forgotten as she is.

Being a committed kook doesn't make one any less a kook, or any more memorable or more deserving of respect than any other kook. Many tinfoil-hat types are 110% committed to whatever-it-is-that-they're-committed-to, but so what?

Nobody remembers, because nobody cares.