findingDulcinea

Plumbergate: The Rise and Fall of Joe the Plumber

Jae C. Hong/AP

As news broke of the real identity of "Joe the Plumber," the now ubiquitous figure in the third presidential debate, the editorial team at findingDulcinea had a variety of responses, all in the comedic vein.

First, we realized we missed Joe Six-Pack and wanted to bring him back for some more laughs. So some of us renamed ourselves according to the alcoholic beverage that best describes us:

Jane Microbrew
Anne Cabernet Sauvignon
Adam Gin-n-Tonic
Emily Maker's Mark
Anne Wild Turkey
Haley Boxed Wine
Liz Gluten-Free Beer

We're waiting for the presidential or vice presidential candidates to call out our respective demographics at a rally.

Emily Maker's Mark imagined that perhaps Joe Six-Pack's name is derived from his wife's maiden name, Six, and his own last name, Pack.
 
Adam Gin-n-Tonic suggested that to save money, Joe should buy in bulk and change his name to Joe Case of 24.

Moving on to Joe the Plumber, Anne Wild Turkey, who wrote our story on Plumbergate, quoted Jimi Hendrix, asking, "Hey Joe, where you going / with that plunger in your hand?"

Anne Cabernet Sauvignon pointed out that Joe the Plumber "describes himself as a freelance toilet-fixer. So does my husband."

Of course, these are in addition to the slew of plumber jokes available on the Internet.

Read our news coverage of Joe the Plumber (real name Samuel J. Wurzelbacher) in Beyond the Headlines.

Liz Colville
Senior Writer

How to Vote on November 4

As voter registration deadlines quickly approach, it’s now time to make sure every voter is equipped with the proper Election Day information. While rules and regulations vary from state to state, and sometimes from county to county, there are a few general guidelines that go for the whole country. For those that differ, some kind souls have gathered all the facts in a few helpful sites.

Vote411 has compiled all the relevant information for voters, including ways to find your polling place, registration deadlines and even an advance look at your ballot in certain states.

866OurVote is a newly-launched site by the National Campaign for Fair Elections that provides information on how polling places should be operated, how to make sure your polling place is run fairly and properly, and finally, how to report suspicious activity on Election Day.

One for the Table is an absentee voter information site that was compiled by a parent who, after dropping her son off at college, realized he would be thousands of miles from his polling place without any information on how to vote.

Rock the Vote provides a quick list of voter registration deadlines, but it’s important to remember that although some deadlines fall early in October, other states offer the chance to register at the polling place on Election Day.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

Visit our Election 2008 section to learn more about the candidates, their running mates, and key election issues, and read our latest election news stories.

Surmounting the Political Rumor Mill

Though the Internet has allowed politicians to reach out in ways once thought impossible, it has also allowed rumors and innuendo to reach even further, even faster. As Winston Churchill once said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” And that was before DSL.

Nowadays, campaigns are forced to be diligent observers of the Web, finding and squashing rumors and urban legends before they can derail or even destroy a candidate. As John Kerry learned in 2004, unanswered rumors left to spread can be like an election year zombie—impossible to kill. Learning from past mistakes, both campaigns have set up truth squads of sorts to handle the wealth of misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies about all four of the major party candidates.

The Republican Party’s Myth Buster takes a wide approach to debunking election gossip, addressing policy issues alongside personal attacks. A recently announced Truth Squad aimed at disproving rumors surrounding VP candidate Sarah Palin should have a Web presence before too long.

Stop the Smears was Barack Obama’s answer to a slew of rumors related to his religion, his patriotism and even his birth certificate.

Snopes and FactCheck.org remain the most persistent and reliably unbiased guardians of the Web when it comes to proving or disproving the constant stream of rumors aimed at all of the candidates.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

How to Tell if a Politician is Lying to You

Undoubtedly the most covered election in history, Campaign 2008 has been a nonstop barrage of charges, counter-charges and outright lies, making it difficult to keep up, let alone know if what you're reading or watching is even true. Thankfully, a couple of sites have taken on the task of checking and double-checking the candidates and their campaigns to keep them clean, above board and honest.

FactCheck.org is arguably the most commonly used and cited destination for keeping politicians' charges on the up and up. Sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, the site's motto, "Keeping Politicians Accountable," amounts to short reports on everything from speeches to campaign commercials.

PolitiFact is a collaborative effort by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly that takes comments and allegations by not only the major candidates, but their surrogates and assorted hangers-on, and analyzes them on their Truth-O-Meter, providing explanations of why they are right, wrong or somewhere in between.

OpenSecrets.org is the Center for Responsive Politics' take on making sure the million of dollars that funnel through our current political system are accounted for. The site provides concise reports on the influence of money on our political process.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

To do some research on the 2008 presidential candidates, check out our Election 2008 Web Guide or for daily news and profiles of key issues and players, see our Election 2008 section.

Following the Democratic National Convention Online

Kathryn Scott Osler/AP

With the conventions kicking off, the late summer election lull has officially come to an end. Every network, Web site and publication is descending on the Mile High City for a week of Obamania.

This year, forget your run-of-the-mill camera or microphone reporting. Intent on offering 360-degree coverage, news and opinion sites are going to be offering perspectives from every possible angle.

The Huffington Post’s correspondents will be Twittering their way through Denver in addition to maintaining their normal blogging duties, offering as much in-depth coverage as 140 characters allows.

The GOP is hoping to counter whatever bounce the Democrats might be able to get out of the convention by setting up a rapid-response site, NotReady08.com, to cover the convention from a location just beside Denver’s Pepsi Center, complete with counter postings to whoever might be addressing the crowd.

And finally, C-SPAN is offering a relatively traditional approach by comparison, with a large, constantly updated trove of convention videos, as well as background materials.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

Calling All Political Junkies

Even political junkies can be overwhelmed by the millions of blogs and sites out there. Thankfully, there is a trio that has cut through the confusion and filtered the endless buffet of election news into easily digestible servings.

FiveThirtyEight distills the myriad political polls drawn every day into something everyone can understand, helping junkies get a handle on everything from daily tracking polls to county-by-county surveys.

Real Clear Politics offers a quick directory of the day’s political articles, editorials and blog posts from around the Web, keeping things simple with links to every side of an issue as well as reports from across the globe. Their poll averages and breakdowns provide a simple glimpse of the campaign without the in-depth explanations provided by FiveThirtyEight.

The Page is Mark Halperin of Time Magazine’s attempt at an election news aggregator, providing a nice glimpse of how the election is being covered around the Web. As an added bonus, Halperin tapes a daily “Page-Cast” detailing what readers should look for on the trail that day.

Chris Coats
Senior Writer

More sites like the ones above can be found in our Elections 2008 section.