Plumber on tour (UPDATED)

Timothy McNulty | October 28, 2008

Newspapers have asked a couple times why Joe the Plumber has not appeared at rallies for McCain-Palin. Starting today, he'll join a bus tour in Ohio with other campaign surrogates, ABC reported last night:

Wurzelbacher, the Toledo-area native, will go on a bus tour with former Rep. Rob Portman, a close McCain supporter, and a number of small business people.

It will be the first time Wurzelbacher has been out to campaign for the McCain ticket since he approached Barack Obama some weeks back to ask about Obama's tax policy, and became a part of McCain's stump speech.

UPDATE: Joe's making news again, agreeing on the campaign trail that a vote for Obama would be "a vote for the death" of Israel. From Fox News:

Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber," on Tuesday twice agreed with a claim from an audience member at a John McCain rally that "a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for the death to Israel." 

Wurzelbacher was hitting the campaign trail on behalf of McCain for the first time, joining former Rep. Rob Portman on a GOP bus tour through Ohio. 

At a stop in Columbus, he fielded the question on Israel from a self-identified Jewish senior citizen. 

The questioner said he was "concerned" with Barack Obama's associations and "It's my belief that a vote for Obama is a vote for the death to Israel." 

Wurzelbacher responded: "I do know that."

. . . Though "Joe the Plumber" has become a centerpiece of McCain's campaign in the closing days of the presidential race, McCain aides told FOX News the Republican nominee does not share Wurzelbacher's opinion on Obama's view toward Israel. 

Obama states on his Web site that he strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as Israel's right to defend itself and foreign assistance to the country. 

McCain, though, has suggested Obama's commitment to Israel is not as deep as it should be. 

A McCain TV ad out Tuesday ridicules Obama for saying Iran, whose president is openly hostile toward Israel, is a "tiny" country that "doesn't pose a serious threat." 

The narrator says: "Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren't serious threats? Obama -- dangerously unprepared to be president."