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ABC News’ Bret Hovell Reports: Maybe Joe the Plumber was out on a job. But he wasn’t out campaigning with Sen. John McCain Thursday morning.
Joe Wurzelbacher has been a regular part of McCain’s stump speech for the last several weeks, and so anticipation was high this morning in Defiance, Ohio, when McCain seemed set to finally meet his middle class foil.
But when McCain acknowledged him in front of the crowd, Joe was no where to be seen.
Speaking in the western Ohio town of Defiance, McCain was delivering the normal “Joe the Plumber” section of his stump speech, talking about how Joe was able to ask about a question of Sen. Barack Obama that no one had been able to ask.
Then, the moment of anticipation.
“Joe’s with us today. Joe, where are you? Where is Joe?” McCain asked, looking around the audience for Wurzelbacher.
“Is Joe with us today? Joe, I thought you were here today.”
McCain quickly figured a way to recover.
“Well, you’re all Joe the Plumbers!” McCain said, allowing the crowd to break the awkward silence. “So all of you stand up!”
McCain staffers called it a simple mix up, and said that Wurzelbacher will join the campaign at a Thursday evening event.