The failed Republican presidential candidate has turned up with his own show on Fox TV, writes Mark Hennessy
LOSING CANDIDATES in elections sometimes fade away; and sometimes, like former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, they simply move to new ground, still holding to their political creed.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher, lost out to Senator John McCain in the race for the Republican nomination, quitting the race in March following a series of defeats in Texas, Vermont and elsewhere.
Today, he has his own show on the influential Fox News, the Rupert Murdoch-owned and partisan-Republican television channel, where he has conducted a war against Democrat Barack Obama's tax policies. Usually, a politician promising to cut taxes for 95 per cent of the population - and Obama's plans would do that, according to respected independent analysts - would be on winning ground, or so one would believe.
On every occasion possible, however, Huckabee brings up Joe (the Plumber) Wurzelbacher, the Ohioan whose questions to Barack Obama led the latter to describe his policies as an attempt "to spread the wealth around".
During one appearance, Huckabee said - with venom, it must be said - that the Democrat wants to give tax dollars back to "people that don't, the 40 per cent that . . . aren't paying any taxes, they get a cheque . . . That's welfare. They get a cheque for having a pulse."
McCain is betting that even when taxpayers are not earning $250,000 a year, and have no hope of ever earning it, that they will hold on to the dream that they one day might - and that they do not want it taken off them if that ever happens.
Wurzelbacher is one of those. Joe the Plumber does not earn anywhere near $250,000 a year; and has limited hopes of doing so even if he manages to buy the Holland, Ohio, business for which he currently works.
Yet, he recoils from the phrase "spread the wealth around" - even though it would benefit him if implemented - on the grounds that it is unAmerican: "If Obama wants socialism he should go to a socialist state," he said this week.
The damage caused by the phrase, limited perhaps though it may be, to the Obama campaign is evidenced by the fact that the Democrat has not used it again; and he has instead taken to talking about "spreading around opportunity".
Nevertheless, the original has entered the political lexicon, and is being seized upon at every opportunity by Republicans who believe that it has put them back in the game for the White House, and some, but not all, polls agree.
The Republicans hope that the "socialist" tag will cause doubts in the minds of independents, particularly when they are reminded - as they were as of Thursday - that both Capitol Hill and the White House could fall into Democratic hands.
Under the tax plan of John McCain, the rich, poor and the middle class - the absolutely critical section of the population - would pay less.
Under Obama's, the rich would pay more while the poor and middle class would pay less. He has sought to drive home the message that he will scrap the 2001 tax changes made by president George Bush that have undoubtedly benefited the wealthy.
Millions earning $100,000 a year, who do not put down individual tax write-offs on their annual returns, would qualify for a $500 tax credit and a $4,000 credit for each child in college, while over-65s earning less than $50,000 would pay no income tax.
The Democrat would increase several taxes on the rich, including the amount they pay on capital gains, from 15 per cent currently - far lower than even Ireland's rate - to 28 per cent, which would be considerably higher than in Ireland even after Budget changes.
Obama has had to amend his language on tax before. Initially, he said he would impose Social Security (pension) charges on all income and not cut off the PRSI-like levies after people earn more than $102,000, as happens now. So now, the Illinois senator says that the Social Security levy would not be imposed on income between $102,000 and $250,000, but that it would come into operation once a taxpayer exceeds $250,000 in earnings on all sums above that threshold.
McCain would make President Bush's tax cuts permanent; including the abolition of higher tax rates and a number of measures that have benefited the middle class, such as elimination of the marriage penalty and extra tax credits for children.
Corporation tax under Obama would stay at 35 per cent; while McCain, who approvingly mentions Ireland's low rate at every opportunity - even if he wrongly puts the figure at 11 per cent rather than at 12.5 per cent, would cut it to 25 per cent.
The two candidates differ markedly in their attitudes to death duties - known as estate taxes in the US: McCain would levy a 15 per cent bill on estates above $5 million, while the Democrat wants to set a much higher, more quickly-imposed tariff at 45 per cent on estates over $3.5 million.
Both candidates acknowledge that something must be done with the alternative minimum tax, which was designed to ensure that everybody paid some tax but which has brought unintended numbers into its net because it has not kept pace with inflation.
In some ways, the most striking element of US tax law is that so many do not contribute. In 2006, 220 million were eligible to vote, but 89 million of them paid no income taxes; and Obama's tax credit ideas would add 18 million to that list.
In reality, both candidates' tax plans have little chance of ever coming into force in their current form. The next president is going to have to find a way of increasing revenues, rather than worrying about giving tax dollars back.