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"  During last night&amp;#039;s debate, the phrase &amp;quot;Joe the Plumber&amp;quot; was uttered 26 times, creating a new political demographic to covet: Men named Joseph who un-clog sinks for a living. While Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumber who inspired &amp;quot;Joe the Plumber,&amp;quot; may not be a licensed plumber, or someone who would be impacted by Barack Obama&amp;#039;s tax plan, or even someone that has completely paid off his taxes, he&amp;#039;s become an important rhetorical device. So what of the other Joes out there? We asked a dozen &amp;quot;Joe the Plumbers&amp;quot; from coast-to-coast about their thoughts on the candidates and found out they prefer McCain five-to-three -- but with a whopping four plumbers named Joe still undecided, their vote could be crucial come Election Day. This is what they told us. &amp;quot;I like McCain. I like the fact that he&amp;#039;s not, how do I put it, not a token, OK? I like the fact that he&amp;#039;s running to help the American people where Barack Obama&amp;#039;s running to help the Democratic Party. John McCain is just a man --there&amp;#039;s a lot to be said for age and experience.&amp;quot; -- Joe Rappa, New Ark, DE; Voting for McCain. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t feel like either candidate is hitting home as far as where we stand as middle-class people. They&amp;#039;re both trying to, but I don&amp;#039;t think either one has really made us decide one way or the other at this point.&amp;quot; -- Joe Faltine, Lancaster, PA; Voting for McCain. &amp;quot;Believe it or not, I&amp;#039;m still kind of undecided myself, even though we&amp;#039;ve got [19 days] to go. It&amp;#039;s the same old stuff. And I know everybody says Obama looks good, and he talks well; however McCain&amp;#039;s got more experience... It&amp;#039;s just a big dilemma. I&amp;#039;ve always voted Republican myself, but this time I&amp;#039;m not sure.&amp;quot; -- Joe Lara, Oxnard, CA; Undecided. &amp;quot;Being a small business owner myself, I&amp;#039;m feeling it quite deeply. My business is down. What I normally do over one-to-two days, I&amp;#039;m doing over a two-week period now. I would like to get back to the good old days where you could actually make a good living for your family and not have to worry. Plumbers, we&amp;#039;re very hard-working people.&amp;quot; -- Joe Tuttle, Trenton, OH; Voting for McCain. &amp;quot;I think [&amp;#039;Joe the Plumber&amp;#039;] is sort of demeaning in a way. I understand what they&amp;#039;re getting at. He&amp;#039;s just a common guy, you know, out there trying to make a living. But personally, I think I&amp;#039;m smarter than that and I&amp;#039;d hate to be lumped into a group of people that have their butt cracks hanging out. I&amp;#039;m not really part of that whole contingent.&amp;quot; -- Joe Johnson, Long Beach, CA; Undecided. &amp;quot;I think they both understand the problem and the issues, it&amp;#039;s just, which one will actually work to solve them and take care of them? Not just talk about them but actually solve the problems that small business owners face. I&amp;#039;m gonna use the full three weeks to decide which way to vote.&amp;quot; -- Joe Hillman, Fort Lauderdale, FL; Undecided. &amp;quot;They touched on a lot of issues, especially Obama. I like his tax plan for small business, because I&amp;#039;m a small business person. If I was making over $250,000, I would expect to pay higher taxes. That would only be normal.&amp;quot;Joseph Haley, Frost, TX; Voting for Obama. &amp;quot;I liked the way that Obama answered the questions. I felt that John McCain was in attack mode [during the debate] rather than actually answering the questions. I admire the way Obama addressed the questions and stayed cool. I like McCain. I&amp;#039;ve been in Arizona for a long time; I like the man. But I don&amp;#039;t feel like he&amp;#039;s in touch with the middle class as much as Obama is, or appears to be anyway.&amp;quot; -- Joe Ciotta, Fountain Hills, AZ; Voting for Obama. &amp;quot;I think they both have their flaws, but I think that McCain is more... See, where I come from, McCain is more the one that would represent us. I don&amp;#039;t think you&amp;#039;re ever gonna find a candidate that&amp;#039;s gonna be perfect and everything you like. But as I&amp;#039;ve heard it mentioned on talk radio, I guess McCain is the lesser of two evils.&amp;quot; -- Joe Rushing, Lubbock, TX; Voting for McCain. &amp;quot;I think they both have an interest in the average Joe, in Joe the plumber, and where I fall in the hierarchy of earnings, which is middle class. But I&amp;#039;m definitely much more comfortable with Obama.&amp;quot; -- Joe Lillis, Oleta, KS; Voting for Obama. &amp;quot;Too many things [that Obama said] were roundabout. They weren&amp;#039;t to the point. And I&amp;#039;m a no-nonsense guy. I live in a black-and-white world where there&amp;#039;s no gray. So with that, after last night&amp;#039;s airing, that&amp;#039;s the deciding factor that put me over to McCain.&amp;quot; -- Joseph DePinto, Cutchogue, NY; Voting for McCain. &amp;quot;McCain... he&amp;#039;s a Republican and I&amp;#039;ve seen where we&amp;#039;ve gone with the Republicans and I wonder where we&amp;#039;re gonna end up. If we follow the same path we&amp;#039;ve been doing with the Republicans for the last eight years, we&amp;#039;re gonna be in trouble again. It&amp;#039;s not gonna go away.&amp;quot; -- Joe Ludwig, Babylon, NY; Undecided, leaning towards Obama. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a5255/joe-the-plumber-poll-101608/>