Background on Josephine the Plumber

In the final presidential candidate debate, John McCain accused Barack Obama of wanting to raise taxes on struggling small business owners. As an example, McCain spoke about Joe Wurzelbacher from Toledo, Ohio, a plumber who planned to buy his own plumbing business, and feared that he might suffer under Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on people who earn more than $250,000 a year. McCain and Obama apparently spent much of the rest of the debate arguing about how their policies would affect people like Joe the Plumber.

But of course, anyone with feminist sensibilities might wonder, what about Josephine the Plumber?

For instance, Teresa C. Younger points out that the candidates failed to focus on female small-business owners. And Judi Jennings uses the idea of Josephine the Plumber to call for what she describes as a "moral economy." Meanwhile, Revolution 21's Blog for the People remembers the original Josephine the Plumber who sold Comet cleanser on t.v.--and also points out that Josephine "is fine with Barack Obama's tax plan. She makes only 67 percent of what Joe the Plumber does and won't get above the Democrat's $250,000 soak 'em threshold."