By shrewdly injecting Joe the Plumber into the presidential conversation, is John McCain taking a page from his former advisor Phil Gramm, who frequently referenced an "everyman" named Dicky Flatt?
This is from Wikipedia:
"As a senator, Gramm often called for reductions in taxes and fraud in government spending. He employed his "Dicky Flatt Test" to determine if federal programs were worthwhile (Richard "Dicky" Flatt owns a family run printing business started by his father and mother in Mexia, Texas, and is a longtime Gramm supporter). In Gramm's eyes, Flatt embodied the travails that a typical Texas independent small businessman faced in the realm of taxation and government spending. And Flatt agrees with many of the political opinions of Gramm on less taxation and less government."