Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - Posts
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Joe the Plumber may never
have fancied himself the mascot of the Republican Party, but Tito Munoz seemed
fully prepared for the role.
Munoz showed up at a McCain rally in Woodbridge, Va.
last weekend dressed in a yellow hardhat and orange surveyor vest, decked out in
McCain-Palin flair and
sporting a sign that read “Construction Worker for McCain-Palin” on one side
and “Media—Tell the Whole Story!” on the other. During McCain’s stump speech,
Munoz was behind the candidate, alongside “Phil the Bricklayer” and “Rose the
Teacher.”
After McCain had left, Munoz planted himself a few yards
behind the press bleachers and started shouting about the media. He quickly
attracted a small crowd of reporters and fellow rally-goers. (Listen to audio of Munoz here and here, and see the Mother Jones video here.)
“Why you guys have to go and find every little thing that
Joe the Plumber is about?” he demanded. “How come you have not done the same
thing with Obama?”
If publicity was Munoz’s goal, it worked. National Review’s Byron York devoted
800 words to Munoz in a story about the “Joe the Plumber” phenomenon, which
received considerable
blog attention. The McCain campaign noticed, and two days later Sarah Palin
introduced "Tito the builder" into her stump speech.
“Tito is not pleased with how the Barack Obama campaign and
some of the media friends there have been roughing up Joe the Plumber,” Palin said
at a Colorado rally.
Is it really that easy to insert oneself into the campaign
storyline? Munoz’s case is worthy of a close read. Here are a few tips on how
to become a McCain campaign personality:
- Make Your Profession
Clear. Sarah Palin cannot shoehorn you into the “(name) the (profession)”
formula if she doesn’t know what you do. Blue-collar jobs are preferable but
not required. If your line of work involves a uniform, wear it. (Note: Party
City has hundreds of locations nationwide.)
- Choose a red-meat
issue. Choices include media bias, taxes, and William Ayers. No need to
confine yourself to one if the spirit moves you. Just let it flow.
- Find David Corn. The
bulk of Munoz’s tirade was directed at Mother
Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn, who provoked
him for several minutes with requests for facts to back-up his arguments. That
exchange got the crowd riled around Munoz, which attracted more people and more
reporters. If Corn isn’t present, any journalist willing to engage the mob will
suffice.
- Humility, humility. “I’m
just an ordinary person, like everybody,” Munoz told the crowd. “But I’m tired
of listening to the bias in the media. And today I make a decision to come and
support [McCain] and come and confront you guys.”
- Project. Munoz
was not without competition during his impromptu press-bashing press
conference. At one point, a taller man in a brown jacket directly behind
him—pictured here—briefly stole the spotlight when he started yelling that
“human life begins at conception, end of story.” Not to be outdone, Tito simply
out-shouted his competitor.
It worked for Tito. Meanwhile, Senate candidate and former Virginia governor Jim
Gilmore stood twenty feet away, looking lonely.
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sponsorship
See all Swift Boat Watch entries here.
Who They Are:
Health Care for America
Now
Purpose: To
support quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
Director: The national campaign manager is
Richard Hirsch, previously executive director of Citizen Action, an
organization that helped the poor find insurance in New York state.
Funding: The
organization has received a $10
million dollar grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies as well as $500,000 a
piece from their 16 steering
committee members, which include MoveOn.org,
the Center for American Progress
Action Fund, and the recently
targeted community-organizing group ACORN.
Cost: $1 million,
part of a larger $4.3 million dollar ad buy that will air similar ads against
congressional candidates.
Where It Ran: The
ad aired on national cable and major markets in Ohio for two weeks starting Oct. 8.
Claims: The ad is
narrated by a woman with cancer who says that John McCain’s health care plan
could cause 20 million people lose their employer-provided health insurance
plans. Those with existing conditions like her, she says, would not be able to
get a new plan.
Accuracy: John
McCain’s health care
plan would give families a $5,000 dollar tax refundable tax credit to
purchase health insurance while reducing incentives that encourage employers to
provide their employees with coverage. The main thrust of the ad – that 20
million people would lose their insurance if John McCain’s plan were instituted
– is supported by a recent
paper published in the journal Health
Affairs and a follow-up
report (PDF) by the Economic Policy Institute. These studies argue that, with
fewer tax incentives, fewer businesses will offer insurance plans. The
Commonwealth Fund has documented
the difficulty of finding health care individually after losing an
employer-sponsored plan and the Kaiser Family Foundation including in the case
of breast-cancer
survivors (PDF) and other individuals with pre-existing conditions. However,
another
recent study (PDF), by the health system consultant HSI, argued that McCain’s plan would in
fact reduce the number of uninsured people by 20 million. And a Tax
Policy Center report (PDF) lands in the middle, agreeing that McCain’s proposal
would cause 20 million to lose or leave their employer-sponsored program but
saying also that overall the proposal would decrease the number of uninsured by
one million as 21 million bought non-employer-sponsored plans, including some
of those who lost their employer-sponsored plans.
Factcheck.org
has examined McCain’s proposal and found a consensus among health care experts
that McCain’s proposal would most likely cause employers to reduce the coverage
offered. Their report also stated that while some would benefit from the
adjustment of incentives, the old and unhealthy would probably get the short
end of the stick, as Jane Bryant Quinn argued in Newsweek.
Swift Boat Rating:
Several studies state that around 20 million people could
lose their employer-sponsored coverage, though the ad doesn’t mention that many
would likely get non-employer plans. That being said, many health care experts agree
with the assertion that McCain’s plan would make it harder for people like the woman
portrayed in the ad to secure health insurance.
Background: Health
Care for America Now is a coalition of non-profits and public officials. Obama
has signed their statement of
principles.
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