Joe the Plumber's Book Delayed

When we last left Samuel Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber), he was saving freedom by starring in his own version of the "3 AM Ad." It's a 3 AM ad by virtue of the fact that you're most likely to see the ad at 3 AM, during a Law & Order marathon.

Before that, I was defending Joe against charges of self-promotion, particularly with regard to his new book, Joe The Plumber - Fighting for the American Dream. The book was due out December 1, but it looks like the American Dream will remain helpless for awhile longer. From Joe's website:

For those of you who have pre-ordered signed copies of Joe's book Joe The Plumber - Fighting for the American Dream, your copies will ship December 10th to be received in time for Christmas. Due to demand and holiday scheduling concerns, we just weren't able to meet our December 1st targeted ship date.

On the site, you can actually pre-order a signed copy of the book, and get a free, one-year "Freedom Membership," a 19.95 value. You need a "Freedom Membership" to access the full site.

I'm really glad I got my Freedom Membership for free.

That's right, I ponied up for the signed hardcover. Hell, I've made more than that writing about Joe, so I guess it's the least I could do. What do I get for my $20?

Support Joe's fight to preserve our American Dream by registering today and receive the following benefits:

* Total Access to Joe The Forum where you may chat directly with Joe

* Blog with Joe on Joe The Blogger

* Monthly email newsletter subscription

* 10% Discount off all Shop Joe merchandise

* Become an integral part of an American movement to preserve our American Dream

There are a couple of problems with this. First of all, Joe hasn't posted anything in "Joe the Forum" for almost 2 weeks. Second, there is no blog yet. Not even a template, just a "coming soon" message. I guess it should say, "Blog with Joe someday..."

Maybe he thinks blog means something that it doesn't mean.

Third, it says I get 10% off on all Shop Joe merchandise. The problem is, the only thing available at Shop Joe is the frakkin' book I just bought without my membership!

As for being part of a movement, well, I counted 144 "Freedom Members," out of a total of 886. That includes Joe. (but not, apparently, his fair weather friends John McCain and Sarah Palin). I guess it's possible that interest in Joe will increase now that he's made the transition from cable news to blurry local advertising, but as it stands, I made a bigger "movement" than that this morning.

I find this whole chain of events somewhat disappointing. This has got to be the most poorly-managed 15 minutes of fame that I have ever seen. A decent manager would have gotten at least a cable chat show for Joe.

The silver lining to all of this, though, is that my signed hardcover could end up being a valuable collectible.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal" , on BlogTalkRadio Tues - Thur at 10pm, and Fri, & Sat at 11pm. Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.