We're all pretty much JTPed out, but it's worth nothing that the McCain campaign's obsession with the man reveals a surprising fact about the presidential race: Obama was and is winning on the tax issue. Calling Democrats tax-and-spenders has been a mainstay of GOP messaging for many years, and it is usually a winning issue for them. As recently as a week ago, a poll revealed that more voters thought McCain would raise their taxes then Obama would.
In part, this is because of Obama's willingness to engage in the tax debate with McCain, especially on the health care front, where McCain has proposed taxing employer-based health care for the first time. The media was also willing to fact-check the McCain campaign on this -- recall this video of Fox News' Megyn Kelly taking Tucker Bounds to the woodshed over his claim that Obama would raise taxes.
But the McCain campaign really wants people to be scared that Obama will raise their taxes, and so it promoted JTP, the perfect avatar for people's anxieties. The fact that JTP isn't really representative of working class voters at all and his taxes would likely not go up makes the trope more effective -- it's really all about driving up unreasoning fear. Most people will see their taxes go down under Obama, but seeing any uncertainty they have reflected in JTP makes their concerns seem all the more real. Sure, the experts tell you Obama won't raise taxes, but what do they know?
It's a good thing, then, that various Obama allies are finding a lot of actual plumbers to make the case for their interests. Hopefully they will undermine the McCain camp's ridiculous charges of socialism, which have been rebutted plenty, but really: You're trying to buy houses for people with taxpayer dollars, John.
--Tim Fernholz
