--- description: Samuel Wurzelbacher, the man who gained fame by quizzing Barack Obama about his tax plan, tries his hand at a new career: war correspondent title: Joe the Plumber, War Correspondent image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) # Joe the Plumber, War Correspondent by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 12, 2009 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jan 12, 2009 5:00 AM CUT Samuel Wurzelbacher, the man who gained fame by quizzing Barack Obama about his tax plan, tries his hand at a new career: war correspondent ### In the Field  On January 11, Samuel Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, traveled to the Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of rockets fired from within the Gaza Strip. Heidi Levine / Sipa ### Reporting  The conservative website PJTV.com has commissioned Wurzelbacher to file reports from the war-torn region. Heidi Levine / Sipa ### Evidence  Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld shows Wurzelbacher the remains of Palestinian rocket shells. AFP / Getty ### Scene-Setter  Wurzelbacher poses for photographs against the backdrop of fires caused by Israeli military strikes inside the Gaza Strip. Heidi Levine / Sipa ### Handshake  Members of the media greet Wurzelbacher on a visit to the Israeli-Gaza border. Heidi Levine / Sipa ### Still a Subject  Wurzelbacher remains the focus of media interest. Heidi Levine / Sipa ### Tough  Though he describes himself as a "peace-loving man," Wurzelbacher says, "when someone hits me, I'm going to unload on the boy. And if the rest of the world doesn't understand that, then I'm sorry." Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7090827/joe-the-plumber-war-correspondent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7090827/joe-the-plumber-war-correspondent/"},"headline":"Joe the Plumber, War Correspondent","datePublished":"2009-01-12T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:46:25.339Z","description":"Samuel Wurzelbacher, the man who gained fame by quizzing Barack Obama about his tax plan, tries his hand at a new career: war correspondent","url":"https://time.com/archive/7090827/joe-the-plumber-war-correspondent/","keywords":["LightBox"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7090827/joe-the-plumber-war-correspondent/","name":"Joe the Plumber, War Correspondent"}}]}] ```