For the second time, John McCain has hastily turned his campaign spotlight on a single individual only to find out the next day that he probably should have done a little more research.  Turns out Joe the Plumber– McCain’s example of the American small business everyman who will be hurt by Barack Obama’s tax policies– would actually pay lower taxes and health care costs under an Obama administration.  Also, Joe the Plumber isn’t exactly an unbiased observer; he’s a registered Republican.  Also, speaking of bias, Joe the Plumber doesn’t seem to be all that racially sensitive.  Also, Joe the Plumber doesn’t just dislike Obama’s tax plan, he also disliked Bush’s; as evidenced by the fact that he didn’t pay his taxes last year.  Oh, and Joe the Plumber isn’t a licensed plumber and doesn’t even belong to a union.

But other than that…

POST SCRIPT: Turns out, Joe the Plumber’s real last name is “Wurzelbacher,” not “the Plumber” as McCain claims.  What more don’t we know about this Joe the so-called Plumber?  Politico’s Jonathan Martin wonders if Joe is the new Palin.  I’m gonna say…. yes.

UPDATE: Um, I was completely kidding about the name thing, but it turns out Joe the Plumber’s real name really isn’t Joe.  Meet Sam the not-so-Plumber.  Politico is in near disbelief that McCain would base his final debate performance, and presumably his attempted comeback, on a random guy his campaign didn’t bother vet.  Even George Bush knew better than that:

A day after making Joseph Wurzelbacher famous, referencing him in the debate almost two dozen times as someone who would pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, McCain learned the fine print Thursday on the plumber’s not-so-tidy personal story: He owes back taxes. He is not a licensed plumber. And it turns out that Wurzelbacher makes less than $250,000 a year, which means he would receive a tax cut if Obama were elected president.

McCain likes to say that he isn’t George W. Bush – and in this case of bungled public relations, it is clear he is not. The famously-disciplined Bush campaign operation would likely have found the perfect anonymous citizen to illustrate a policy proposal, rather than spontaneously wrap itself around an unknown entity with so many asterisks.

While the arc of Wurzelbacher’s breakneck trip through the news cycle – from private citizen to insta-celebrity to political target – offers a curious insight into the political media culture, it also appears to offer a glimpse into the McCain campaign’s on-the-fly decisionmaking style. 

A McCain source said Thursday that the campaign read about Wurzelbacher on the Drudge Report, while another campaign aide confirmed that he was not vetted.

So McCain based his final debate performance– mentioning Joe the Plumber no less than 20 times– on a guy his campaign read about on the Internet.  This is almost as bad as vetting Sarah Palin over the phone, except that there’s no possibility that Joe the Plumber will be the President of the United States in three months.

Back to the Palin comparison, Andrew Sullivan makes this incredible observation, seven weeks after the Republican convention:

Joe the Plumber has now had more press conferences than Sarah Palin.