JOE MISSES THE POINT

From Freddy Gray, literary Editor of the American Conservative. "Outside I bump into a bald man smoking. It's Joe the Plumber. He looks exhausted . I scrounge a cigarette from him and we stand together puffing away. I ask him what the future holds. "I think I am going to take on the IRS." he says. "If not, I guess I go back to doing what I was doing." A young conference attendee approaches us, breathless with excitement, and asks for Joe's opinion on the best way of reforming American Democracy. Joe listens patiently to the boy's ambitious schemes. He cracks an avuncular smile, puts out his cigarette and says: "I'll have to think about that and get back to you." With that, he shuffles back towards the hotel, perhaps to sort out the Republican party, or maybe just to fix a leak."

Poor Joe, Perhaps if he had a bit more time to reflect he might have responded, "Kid, we need less of it."