McCain Hammers Away at Economic Issue

Oct. 28, 2008— -- Sen. John McCain called in a famous handyman today to tighten up his message that Sen. Barack Obama's proposed tax policies would hurt small businesses and middle-class families.

Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, today made a cameo appearance on the campaign trail for McCain in Ohio.

Wurzelbacher, arguably the most famous plumber in the country, campaigned with McCain surrogate former congressmen Rob Portman as McCain invokes Joe's name in campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Wurzelbacher has been a mainstay of McCain's economic argument since the plumber met Obama earlier this month and complained about Obama's plans to increase taxes on families and businesses earning more than $250,000.

Ever since that meeting, McCain has been hammering away at Obama's answer to Joe that Obama wants to "spread the wealth."

McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin have used Obama's remark to compare his economic plans to socialism, to say Obama wants to "punish" hard work and that Obama is likely to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for what McCain estimates is $1 trillion in proposed new spending.

The Republican also launched a new ad today that hits Obama with the phrases "for higher taxes," "spread your income," " a trillion in new spending," " pain for small business" and "risky."

The images and words are interspersed with pictures of McCain and the words "for workin' Joes," "keep what's yours," "freeze spending, eliminate waste," "economic growth" and "proven."

McCain's aggressive assault on Obama's economic plans appears to be helping him creep closer to Obama, particularly on the economy, an issue for which McCain has polled poorly.

The latest ABCNews/Washington Post tracking poll indicates that McCain has closed the overall gap with Obama from 11 points to seven points.

Obama's lead over McCain on who would be best at handling the economy has slipped from 18 points to 10 points. Voters now say they trust Obama over McCain, 52 percent to 42 percent, on economic issues, according to the latest ABC/Post tracking poll. Last week Obama's lead on that issue was 56-38.