Everyday movers, shakers

Among the tenets Americans hold dear is that anyone can grow up to become . . . famous. You thought we were going to say “president,” didn’t you? Don’t be ridiculous.

Joe the Plumber, who went from small-town obscurity to overnight fame after his sidewalk encounter with Barack Obama became a centerpiece of John McCain’s campaign rhetoric, has acquired an agent to manage his career as national celebrity.

There were other everyday Americans whose serendipitous interactions with the presidential candidates also made waves. Some abruptly changed the narrative by asking the unexpected question or provoking the unexpected comment. Others gave the candidate a story to tell Americans along the campaign trail. No one took off quite like Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, Ohio’s most famous nonlicensed plumber. But here, we celebrate them nonetheless.

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Carol Rue has one question for the American public: “My goodness, people, don’t you have anything better to do?”

It’s been almost a month since Rue’s mother, Gayle Quinnell, called Barack Obama “an Arab” during a rally for John McCain in Minnesota, and Quinnell is still being bombarded with hate mail and interview requests. She has even been parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”

Rue thinks it’s all very unfair. “We’re not actors or political people,” she said. “My mom’s just an American who read something that she believed. She regrets it.”

The whole mess started, Rue says, when her mother -- a McCain-Palin volunteer -- asked the library in her hometown of Shakopee, Minn., for information about the Democratic nominee. The biography they gave her wrongly identified Obama as a Muslim. What happened when McCain came to town has gone down in YouTube history.

Quinnell was called on to ask her candidate a question. Voice trembling, she tried to explain her concerns about Obama. In the end she sputtered, “He’s an Arab.”

McCain stopped her. “No, ma’am,” he said, and called his opponent “a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

The media pronounced Quinnell’s comment evidence of the increasing hostility at McCain rallies.

Quinnell does not have access to the Internet, Rue said, so she hasn’t read the less-than-kind things written about her online. But she did catch her parody on “Saturday Night Live.”

In the skit, cast member Kristen Wiig wanders around the stage mumbling about Obama and is at one point called “that crazy lady from the McCain rally.” Rue, who was watching with her mother back home, said they both laughed.

“We do have a sense of humor.”

-- Kate Linthicum