“管道工喬”走紅美國大選辯論
Google's Search engine was clogged with requests Thursday for information about "Joe the plumber," an obscure handyman from Ohio flushed into the limelight during the latest US presidential debate.
Searches for "Joe the plumber" ranked number seven early Thursday on Google's list of "Hot Trends," the most sought after information on the Internet, trailing such items as "Halloween candy" and "free ecards."
"Who is 'Joe the plumber'" was number one on the list of "hot searches" at and it was all the buzz over at Yahoo Buzz, topping even curiosity about Madonna's impending divorce.
Enterprising Web surfers who skipped the search engines altogether and typed directly into their browser landed on the website of an Amarillo, Texas-based plumber who bills himself as the "Friendliest Plumber in Town."
The real name of “Joe the plumber” is Sam Joe Wurzelbacher and he was mentioned by the candidates more than two dozen times yesterday, after questioning Democratic candidate Barack Obama about his tax policy at a rally last week.
"I'm getting ready to buy a company that makes $US250,000 a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" he asked Senator Obama at the time.
Republicans rejoiced, and John McCain made Joe the Plumber a theme of the third and final debate, in an attempt to woo blue collar voters.
Joe the Plumber said Thursday he doesn't have a license and doesn't need one, because he works for someone else.
本週四，“Joe the plumber”成爲Google搜索引擎上的大熱關鍵詞，這位來自俄亥俄州的神祕管道工成爲最後一次美國總統大選辯論上的絕對“主角”。
本週四早些時候，“Joe the plumber” 位列Google“熱門趨勢”搜索排行第七大最熱關鍵詞，緊隨“Halloween candy”和“free ecards”之後。
此外，“誰是Joe the plumber？”成爲（美國在線）“熱門搜索”榜冠軍，同時在Yahoo Buzz上也是人氣極高，甚至超過了麥當娜離婚。
有些心急的網友連搜索都不用了，乾脆直接在地址欄裏輸入 一探究竟。而這個網站則是得克薩斯州阿馬裏洛市一名管道工的個人主頁，他稱自己是“鎮上最友好的管道工”。
“Joe the plumber”的真名叫Same Joe Wurzelbacher，在昨天的大選辯論中，他被兩位候選人提及二十多次。喬在上週的一次造勢活動中向民主黨候選人巴拉克•奧巴馬提了一個有關稅收政策的問題。
他說：“我打算買下一家年利潤達25萬美元的公司。而如果你當選了，我就要多交稅，是嗎？”
這可讓共和黨候選人約翰•麥凱恩抓住了“把柄”，在第三次辯論中，他利用“Joe the plumber”大作文章，試圖贏得藍領選民。
“Joe the plumber”於本週四稱，他還沒有營業執照，不過他也不需要，因爲現在他給別人打工。
