I thought Obama's conversation with Joe the Plumber was pretty good - respectful, genuinely informative, and not in any way patronising. The way McCain a specimen example of phony populism, and letting the poor guy in for a media circus that could well end up hurting him badly.

Of course it could equally well end up doing him some good, but it's not McCain's place to play games with a stranger like that, without his approval. Of course perhaps it did have his approval, and that stuff about "my old buddy Joe" was actually true, and the whole thing was cooked up in advance, But I don't think that should be assumed.

The odd thing is, the so called issue at the heart of this - the extra tax involved on the difference between the $250,000 ceiling and the $280,000 Joe was imagining this plumbing firm as making - doesn't sound like enough money to actually make much of a disincentive.