Joe the Plumber

It was really kind of a bizarre debate last night, with both candidates fixating on one guy who I actually thought was a metaphor. Turns out he wasn't, which I guess is good to know if you live in the Columbus, Ohio area.

But the real funny part about focusing on this guy as the "typical Ohio undecided voter" is this: He's not even registered to vote. And he already supported McCain! So he's neither undecided, nor a voter. *facepalm*

Take a look at this wonderful interview with Katie Couric, where Joe compares Obama to Sammy Davis, Jr:

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Let's move beyond Joe, since it seems that's what the audience desperately wanted to do last night. According to Amy Sullivan in Time:

In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.”

The group of 50 uncommitted voters should have at least been receptive to McCain—Republicans and Independents outnumbered Democrats in the group by almost 4 to 1, and they started the evening with much warmer responses to McCain than to his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama. But by the time it was all over, so few of them had declared their support for McCain that there weren’t enough for Greenberg to separate them into a post-debate focus group. Meanwhile, the Obama supporters had to assemble in two different rooms to keep their discussion groups manageable.

That, of course, segues us nicely into the real muck: Who did better in the eyes of the undecideds? The answer was Obama in a rout. Whether it was because of McCain's bizarre answers - like when he said he doesn't think teachers should be certified - or his even more bizarre resemblance to Jabba the Hutt remains to be seen.

Nice eyeroll, John.

Back on the financial front, Wall Street will today try to deal with Wednesday's little 700 point hiccup. Financial Times are expecting yet more ups-and-downs, as the news just keeps changing seemingly hourly.

The good news, though? Consumer prices were flat in September, a nice surprise that has the market rallying early in today's session.

Happy Thursday, everyone.

EDIT: Thanks to our friends at Plunderbund, we find that Joe the hard workin' Plumber somehow has the day off. Check out their story for some (well-deserved) snark.