MOVE over "Joe Sixpack": the Republicans' presidential election campaign has found a new hero.
Mr Sixpack, the everyman invoked on the stump alongside "hockey moms" in speeches made by vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as the ordinary guy chasing the American Dream, has been replaced by Joe the Plumber.
This real-life character has be
en catapulted into the centre of what remains of the campaign season.
John McCain badly needed a "game-changer" at the third and final presidential debate with Barack Obama yesterday, and an Ohio plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, 34, may have stepped up to the plate.
Mr Wurzelbacher was captured on film last Sunday, sporting a grey T-shirt and confronting Mr Obama during an impromptu campaign stop in Holland, Ohio, to ask him about his tax plan.
The plumber informed Mr Obama that he was on the point of buying a business valued at more than $250,000, and demanded to know why he would now be paying more tax as a result.
Mr Obama was forced to admit that, under his tax plans, the plumber, like 184,000 other small businesses across the United States, may well end up shouldering a greater tax burden, and that was just the opening Mr McCain needed to score a few hits.
The two candidates mentioned Joe no fewer than 26 times. By contrast, Iraq was mentioned just six times during their 90 minutes of debate at New York's Hofstra University.
Mr McCain said: "I would like to mention that a couple of days ago Senator Obama was out in Ohio and he had an encounter with a guy who's a plumber, his name is Joe Wurzelbacher. You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket."
Cornered after the debate to see if he had been convinced by any of Mr Obama's rhetoric, Mr Wurzelbacher seemed taken aback by the sudden avalanche of publicity.
He told reporters: "I was just really surprised that my name was mentioned. I think it helped them get their points across, so I was happy about that."
During the debate, Mr McCain was unable to make much more progress by returning to the character attacks of recent days to make headway with voters.
Joe the Plumber, on the other hand, may now give Mr McCain something to work with.
Karl Rove, the architect of George Bush's two election victories, told the Wall Street Journal: "Mr Obama hasn't closed the sale."
However, others question how potent the Wurzelbacher issue can become. Bill McPherson, a political analyst said: "I don't think that Joe the Plumber is going to get any traction, and the reason is that most Americans don't make anywhere near $250,000 a year, so they are not going to worry about paying an extra 3 per cent."
Viewers seemed to agree. Snap polls after the debate showed that most thought Mr Obama had won the debate, with CNN giving Mr Obama 58 per cent to Mr McCain's 31 per cent.
For McCain supporters, the Joe the Plumber line of attack injected something new into the presidential debates, which have started to become dull .
A CNN poll yesterday found that 67 per cent of voters don't want to see more before election day, 4 November.
And with Mr McCain languishing in the polls, he had no choice but to go on the attack.
However, there were barbs from Mr Obama, too, including one about those cries of "kill him" and "terrorist" aimed at the Democrat candidate that have been heard at recent McCain rallies.
Mr McCain responded: "Let me say categorically that I am proud of the people who come to my rallies. I am not going to stand for anybody saying that the people who come to our rallies are anything other than patriotic citizens."
Mr Obama failed to press the point further, reverting to his own tactics of pounding away on the theme that Mr McCain represents four more years of the policies of the hugely unpopular Bush administration.
He said: "I don't mind being attacked for the next three weeks. What the American people can't afford is four more years of failed economic policies."
With the debates over and the two candidates now heading for the final straights of their respective campaigns, Mr McCain and his campaign supporters have it all to do.
Even if he wins the six remaining toss-up states – those where polls oscillate between the two candidates – Mr Obama will still win the White House.
