Thomas Tabback News Today

‘I’m a flash in the pan,’ he said. ‘I’m not a mega-star, I’m not Matt Damon. I just hope I’m not making too much of a fool of myself’

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who briefly became “Joe the Plumber,” the metaphorical American middle-class Everyman, by injecting himself into the 2008 presidential campaign in an impromptu nationally-televised face-off with Barack Obama over taxing small businesses, died Sunday at his home in Campbellsport, Wisconsin, about 60 miles north of Milwaukee. He was 49.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who briefly became "Joe the Plumber," the metaphorical American middle-class Everyman, by injecting himself into the 2008 presidential campaign in an impromptu nationally-televised face-off with Barack Obama over taxing small businesses, died Sunday at his home in Campbellsport, Wisconsin, about 60 miles north of Milwaukee. He was 49.