Plenty of people who do stuff like plumbing who don't know what they are doing, and they give rise to a lot of valuable trade making good by people who do know what they are doing.

Licensing for a skilled job like plumbing or electrics, where mistakes can be pretty disastrous, aren't red tape. They make sense in the same way that insisting on the same kind of licensing for drivers does.

When a politician picks up a member of the public and starts using them as a club to beat their opponent over the head with, as McCain did, that is not going to be comfortable for that club.

I hope Joe manages to parley his fifteen minutes of fame in such a way as to come off better. But it's liable to be a rough ride, and that is McCain's doing. (And perhaps his own choice to some extent.)