Do you hear that? It's the sound of dozens of campaign reporters working the phones in a desperate attempt to scare up the first reaction quote from about Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe The Plumber, a small business owner who pointedly questioned Barack Obama on the campaign trail and became an incessant talking point for John McCain in tonight's otherwise boring presidential debate. McCain once again failed to deliver a performance that will help him steal supporters away from frontrunner Obama. Sure, his "I am not George Bush" line was a nice zinger that will be talked about tomorrow, but his Joe The Plumber fetish is far more fascinating.

Thanks to McCain, Joe's name was mentioned 13 times in the opening minutes of the debate alone, according to Reuters. McCain tried to use him to show how Obama is a typical tax-and-spend liberal who will soak workaday Rust Belt entrepreneurs and force them to sell their F-150 pickups or whatever.

But the ploy backfired when McCain tried to say Obama's health insurance plan would fine Joe for failing to carry coverage on himself.

Asked how much he would fine Joe for not carrying health coverage, Obama replied "zero," sending McCain into one of the many fits of insane, frightening blinking that afflicted him throughout the evening. Obama's plan, you see, exempts small businesses, so Joe will be fine. Zing!

Obama also probably scored some serious Ohio points when he responded to a McCain attack on his free trade policies by calling for tougher enforcement of existing trade agreements and fairer deals in the future. He also wisely disengaged from a discussion of dirty campaigning, an issue on which he could have scored some tactical points, by saying economic woes of everyday people are more important than hurt feelings on the campaign trail. Both responses should play well with blue-collar swing voters concerned about unemployment and the economic meltdown.

Anyway, it's safe to say that one blue-collar worker's opinion of the debate will be especially swingy: Joe Wurzelbacher's. Our guess he's still in the tank for McCain, who made him famous. But only if the Republican nominee represented his views fairly. Decide for yourself whether that's the case; the video of Joe's original interaction with Obama is below.

UPDATE: Joe isn't saying who he's voting for! But he still thinks Obama wants to redistribute his wealth, so that gives you a clue.