The star of Wednesday night’s final presidential debate was neither John McCain nor his rival, Barack Obama. It was “Joe the Plumber,” aka Joe Wurzelbacher, a brawny, T-shirt-clad plumber. His name came up 26 times during the debate — a stand-in for hard-working, upwardly mobile Americans.

Obama met Wurzelbacher on Sunday during a visit to Holland, Ohio, where a TV crew captured a lively exchange between them.

“Do you believe in the American dream?” Wurzelbacher asked Obama. “Yes, sir,” Obama replied. In the ensuing conversation, which lasted almost six minutes, Wurzelbacher explained that he is trying to buy a business and worries that he will pay higher taxes under Obama’s proposal. “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s not that I want to punish your success,” replied Obama. “I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too. My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Obama concluded by telling Wurzelbacher, who looked dubious: “Even if I don’t get your vote, I am going to work for you.”

Early in the debate, McCain accused Obama of promulgating “class warfare” and introduced “Joe the Plumber” to America.

“Joe wants to buy the business that he has been in for all of these years, worked 10, 12 hours a day,” said McCain. “But he looked at your tax plan, and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes.” He continued: “When Obama ended up his conversation with Joe the Plumber — we need to spread the wealth around. In other words, we’re going to take Joe’s money, give it to Obama and let him spread the wealth around. The whole premise behind Obama's plans are class warfare.”

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