He’s been sold to us as an unerring proxy for conservative grassroots opinion.

And so he is.

GLENN: Well, okay. Let’s take them one by one. Tell me about John McCain, something that I don’t know.

JOE THE PLUMBER: Well, something you don’t know, actually it’s probably stuff that you’ve already guessed and has already been painted in the different media spotlights. Just, well, you know, the bailouts. When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen, yet he voted for it. At the same time he’s talking about how he’s going to make somebody famous if they even think about putting pork in the bill? We all know how much pork was in the $700 billion bailout package. And why did he vote for it? And I asked him pretty direct questions and some of the answers you guys are going to receive, you know, they appalled me, absolutely. You know, I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.

GLENN: Really?

JOE THE PLUMBER: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Why didn’t you get off the bus?

JOE THE PLUMBER: Honestly because the thought of Barack Obama becoming President scares me even more…

I mean, you know, hopefully I wasn’t too big a proponent of that, this — what do you call it — tripping post, if you will. There isn’t somebody. Neither campaign put out a — no, I’m not going to speak for the Democrats but I mean, the Republicans didn’t put out a candidate for us to really vote for. It’s the lesser of two evils.

He also adores Palin. Of course.

I can’t believe Beck didn’t set him up for the kill by asking about immigration. Exit question one: How do you suppose Joe feels about Obama’s birth certificate? Exit question two: Anyone else feel a teensy bit sorry for Maverick? Yeah, he’s a squish, and yeah, he cynically milked JTP’s working-class credentials for everything they were worth, but the guy can’t even catch a break from people he’s made famous.