Opinion: Turns out Dwaine Webber <em>is</em> unemployed as he told Obama, but it was voluntary

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MEMO TO REGULAR AMERICANS WHO WANT TO TALK TO THE PRESIDENT ON NATIONAL TV ABOUT THEIR OWN PERSONAL LIFE STORY:

Get your facts straight before you stand up.

Apparently Dwaine Webber was not paying attention last year when someone named Joe the Wurzelbacher addressed candidate Barack Obama on a Toledo cul-de-sac. And was featured on national TV worrying about the Democrat’s tax plans, which Obama’s Republican opponent happened then to mention a gazillion times in a later debate.

And ultimately more came out about Joseph’s life than Joseph probably preferred, although he’s milking the fame for all it’s worth nowadays.

Anyway, so yesterday Dwaine was at Obama’s town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, as The Ticket and many others reported. And he was recognized by the president and read off his carefully-prepared index card about being laid off after 13 years of good work with Toyota but now was having trouble finding a new job to support his family because of a past felony conviction. And what could he do?

And the president was very sympathetic and said he was surprised and would have expected the layoff from an American car company because Toyota had done so well.

Well, it turns out the burly, 45-year-old Norwalk resident wasn’t exactly laid off. He and Toyota agreed today that he took a voluntary buyout. His choice. He’s still looking, if you’re hiring. But how he got where he is turns out to be a little different than he first described on national TV.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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