One of the advertising blurbs from Joe the Plumber’s new book:

Joe’s story is the iconic American tale. He’s a patriot who became instantly famous for simply asking a question that millions of us wanted asked. As my friend Sean Hannity would say, Joe is a great American! — Mike Gallagher, Syndicated Talk Radio

Really? An iconic American Tale? I thought that was when a scrappy young immigrant worked hard to graduate from college, start a new business, have a nice family and own their own home. How is it iconic to become an instant demagogue in a presidential election?

As for the question Joe asked, let’s not forget that it was an unabashed, bald-faced lie: Joe lied about his intent to buy the business–he had no real chance of doing so in fact–and he completely made up the amount of income it would represent so as to falsely put Obama on the spot, making it seem like he was talking to an American whose taxes he would raise (Joe’s taxes would actually go down under Obama’s proposals).

So that’s the new “American Tale”: opportunistically fabricate a false set of circumstances in an attempt to set up a bogus attack on a politician from the opposing party, then rise to instant fame when the other candidate insipidly and impulsively makes you a poster boy for his own false set of political imagery, and you strike it rich by cashing in on that fame, signing music contracts and book deals, and going around making speeches that show up how stupid and clueless you are.

Hmm. Actually, come to think of it, in the Fox News universe, that is the new American Tale, isn’t it?