John McCain knows how to use a winning message. The latest McCain ad is titled “Sweat Equity”, but it just as easily could be called “I Am Spartacus”:
BARACK OBAMA: I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.
WOMAN: I’m Joe the plumber.
WOMAN: I’m Joe the plumber.
WOMAN: I’m Joe the plumber.
ANNCR: Spread the wealth?
MAN: I’m supposed to work harder…
MAN: Just to pay more taxes.
MAN: Obama wants my sweat to pay for his trillion dollars in new spending?
WOMAN: I’m Joe the plumber.
ANNCR: Barack Obama. Higher Taxes. More Spending. Not Ready.
The Spartacus theme resonates on a couple of different levels. First, we have everyone identifying with a beleaguered hero as a way of supporting him, but let’s also recall the circumstances of Spartacus. Spartacus led a rebellion of slaves against the government that oppressed them. Joe the Plumber has led a rebellion against an oppressive governing philosophy that erodes the notion of private property and would make taxpayers into serfs to the lords of Washington DC.
That kind of message resonates. People may want services from the federal government, but they don’t want outright redistributionism, where the government transfers cash from those who pay taxes to those who don’t. Barack Obama’s tax plan does just that.
McCain has been given three winning messages in the last few weeks of the campaign: the Democratic social engineering that led to the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac collapse, Joe Biden’s warning of international crises as a result of electing Obama, and Joe the Plumber. This ad is a good step forward in riding these three themes to Election Day.
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