Joe the Plumber to Become War Correspondent in Israel

Samuel Wurzelbacher to report on ‘Average Joes’ in Israel for Web site

TOLEDO, Ohio – Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter’s notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher says he’ll spend 10 days covering the fighting.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel’s “‘Average Joes’ share their story.”

Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack Obama about his tax plan.

He later joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail. At one stop, he agreed with a McCain supporter who asked if he believed a vote for Obama was a vote for the death of Israel.

Joe the Plumber is a term applied to Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Wurzelbacher is a celebrity, author and former plumber.

He was videotaped questioning Democratic candidate Barack Obama about his small business tax policy during a campaign stop in Ohio. Republican candidate John McCain then called him "Joe the Plumber" during the third presidential debate on October 15, 2008. The McCain-Palin campaign and the media later applied "Joe the Plumber" as a metaphor for middle class Americans.

Media background research soon revealed that he was not a licensed plumber and he owed taxes. Wurzelbacher now promotes digital converter boxes for analog television, his political watchdog group, charity, and book; he describes himself as "unemployed."