Let Joe the Plumber Go

This is a message to the media: Please, for the love of all things holy and unholy and everything in between, let Joe the Plumber go. Let him sink quietly into that good night. Let him fade away. Let us forget there was ever a time when the popular phrase of the day was [Name] the [Signifier]. Let us forget that this man was flung from obscurity to a debate topic. Let's all forget that he was never going to be able to buy that business this year or the next, and that he wasn't a licensed plumber. Let's all just ignore that bit of hysteria, and chock it up to the fact that our presidential campaign season ran just a little too long. Let's take this as a valuable lesson, and recognize that maybe - just maybe - the long campaign season led us all into a weird state of punch-drunkenness, like if we'd all collectively stayed up for more than 48 hours. And that in that weird state, we obsessed over things and people who never should have seen the light of day. Asking Joe the Plumber's opinion about McCain would have been acceptable, oh, 3 weeks ago. But the time for that shenanigans is over. And it would really do us all a lot of good if we could all just put that period of insanity behind us. So, Joe the Plumber was appalled by John McCain. Okay. Well, I was and am appalled by Joe the Plumber. Does anyone want to interview me? No? Okay then. Find something actually worthwhile to report. Please.