Never in his wildest dreams did Joe the plumber think that a simple question to Barack Obama asking if, “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” would thrust him into becoming a national icon and the focal point of the third and last presidential debate.

But Joe that’s what it did.  You can put your monkey wrench back in the box, turn over your business to someone else to run, work the talk show circuit and wait for a spokesperson spot on a national plumber franchise, or for that matter, start one of your own.

Oh, Joe the plumber is Joe Wurzelbacher, a guy from Toledo, Ohio.  And Joe don’t let the Madison Avenue suits change your last name . . . I love it, for it works across Middle America where toilets need to be fixed.

Joe’s star began to rise when he asked the question about taxes a few days ago, but it became more prominent when Obama gave a Marxian response by saying, “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too,” Obama responded.  “My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, its going to be good for everybody . . . I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Joe, in case you weren’t counting, your name was mentioned collectively by both candidates 20 times.

Now on the basis of the debate, you’re going to be paying more taxes if Obama wins the election, less if McCain wins, but either way you’re going to be okay as a symbol of plumbers across America.