Just who is Joe 'The Plumber' Wurzelbacher?

He's Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the middle class the presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Days earlier, Joe the Plumber had told Obama that the Democrat's tax plan would keep him from buying the business.

Joe the Plumber said Thursday he doesn't have a license and doesn't need one. Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, the nickname Republican John McCain bestowed on him during Wednesday's presidential debate, said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. Because he works for someone else, he doesn't need a license, he said.

Wurzelbacher, who voted in the Republican primary and indicated he backed McCain, was cited by the GOP presidential candidate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Democrat Barack Obama's tax plans. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many other times.

So what did Wurzelbacher (pronounced whur-zell-BAHK-er) think about being at the center of the debate?

"It's pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign," he said minutes after hearing McCain utter his name.

But the Toledo Blade reports that he appears to be a registered Republican, and a primary voter at that:

Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican.

He isn’t in the Toledo Yellow Pages, he isn’t registered to vote and it’s more likely that his existence as a plumber buying a $250K business is as sincere as Sarah Palin asking Joe Biden if she can call him “Joe.”

Isn’t it interesting that Joe is buying a business that is making a profit of exactly $250K, the Obama tax break minimum.

Would Joe be thrown off the rolls if he registered in Ohio today?

The Toledo Blade reported today that "Joe the Plumber's" name appears on Ohio voter registration rolls with a slight misspelling -- as Worzelbacher, not Wurzelbacher.

And that sort of data-entry error might be enough -- were Joe a new registrant -- to have him disqualified from voting in Ohio, Florida, or Wisconsin this year, depending on the outcome of ongoing litigation.

During last night's presidential debate, we heard a lot about "Joe the Plumber," also known as Joe Wurzelbacher, an average (ahem) Joe, who is really worried that a President Obama might raise his taxes. But does Joe really need to worry? Because if he's the same Joe that ABC News identified as Sam Joe Wurzelbacher, also of Toledo, Ohio, he doesn't always bother to pay his taxes.

Joe went On to say he is registered to vote but not a Republican or Democrat because he has voted for both parties.  He related to a Fox News reporter that his decision for voting for a candidate is based upon ones character not that he is an eloquent speaker. 

Facing the increasing prospect of a landslide defeat, Republican presidential nominee John McCain lashed out at Barack Obama for fomenting "class warfare" against Joe the Plumber, and of consorting with a "washed-out old terrorist" in last's night final presidential debate.

"What you want to do to Joe the Plumber" — a voter whom Mr. Obama had talked to at a recent campaign event — "and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business," Mr. McCain said.

Obama says, “Over the last 15 years, when you weren’t making 250, you would have been given a tax cut from me, so you’d actually have more money, which means you would have saved more, which means you would have gotten to the point where you could build your small business quicker than under the current tax code.