What many have feared about Senator Obama is his ambition to tax people to achieve his goals. He currently says that those making $250K and over are the people he will tax. I’ve heard this all before. That $250K would drop down to $100K once he takes office. And, if he can’t get the tax base he needs then, it could drop even further. I’ve been around long enough to know politicians will say anything to get themselves elected. Obama is no different despite what his cult followers may believe.

Thus far, Senator Obama has run a practically error free campaign. I fully expected him to make a mistake in one of the three debates. But, for the most part, he has basically stolen McCain’s lunch money and made him like it. But, where he may have blundered is in Ohio with a comment about his tax plan to Joe Wurzelbacher, or, as he is now referred to, Joe the Plumber. Mr. Wurzelbacher told Senator Obama his tax plan was going to punish him as a small business owner whose company makes about $250K a year. Senator Obama told him he was sorry, but there were “…people behind him who deserved a shot at success just as he did…spread the wealth.” Those last three words could come back to haunt Senator Obama. It smacks of socialism. If Senator McCain was not such a dimwitted person, he would have bashed Obama on that continually and spitefully throughout Wednesday night’s debate. He should keep at him on that. But, McCain is not that smart.

What gets me is that the Obama camp is not trying to smooth over the Illinois senator’s words. They is no denial they intend to “spread the wealth” as Obama said. This tells me the Obama camp is in dangerous territory in that they are smug with the idea the election is in the bag. Over confidence can be a very dangerous thing. Many thought Harry Truman was beat until the following morning the results were known. In some respects, it reminds me of the fatal mistake of the second Carter-Ford debate on October 2, 1976. In that debate Gerald Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." . He added that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union", and made the same claim with regards to Yugoslavia and Romania. Ford basically freed Eastern Europe on that night. It cost him the election and we were then blessed with four years of Jimmy Carter

Obama’s Joe the Plumber miscue is not nearly that bad. I still think the election is his to lose. But, the longer that “Joe the Plumber’s” 15 minutes of fame continue, this “spread the wealth” is going to continue to hurt him.