Republican presidential candidate John McCain has pinned his hopes for a late comeback on Joe the Plumber, the unlikely blue-collar hero of his final US presidential debate with Barack Obama.
But 34-year-old Ohio tradesman Joe Wurzelbacher who rocketed to prominence at the weekend after a chance conversation on taxes with Mr Obama, found the media glare a trial after a chain reaction of leaks about his background.
Front-runner Mr Obama meanwhile sharply warned supporters not to get 'giddy' or 'cocky' about his prospects, as he sat on clear leads in most polls nationally and in battleground states just 18 days before the 4 November election.
Mr McCain was adjudged by most snap polls to have lost last night's debate in New York, one of his last chances to make a splash, but mounted an aggressive new attempt to slam Mr Obama on taxes.
'We had a good debate last night. I thought I did pretty well, but let's have a little straight talk: the real winner last night was Joe the Plumber,' Mr McCain told cheering supporters in the key state of Pennsylvania.
Mr McCain told Fox News in an interview he was going to call Mr Wurzelbacher, but thought his phone lines were 'pretty well flooded.'
'But I think we're going to be spending some time together,' Mr McCain said.
The Arizona senator also released a hard-hitting new campaign spot, using footage of Mr Obama's meeting with Mr Wurzelbacher, and his rival's comment that he wanted to 'spread the wealth around.'
'Obama's not truthful on taxes,' the ad said, accusing the Illinois senator of hiding plans to take more from all Americans, including small businessmen.
Senator Obama says that only individuals making over $200,000 and families making more than $250,000 will face higher taxes if he is president, and most middle-class people will pay less.
A day after he became a metaphor for working-class Americans in the debate, and had his name repeatedly invoked by Mr McCain, Mr Wurzelbacher found that media attention cuts both ways.
The Toledo Blade newspaper reported that he was not registered as a plumber in Ohio at all.
There was another report that Mr Wurzelbacher was behind on his taxes.
On ABC, he admitted he earned nowhere near $250,000 and the New York Times revealed his full name was actually Samuel J Wurzelbacher.
'The candidate in this race whose policies will help him is Barack Obama, which is why we find this whole thing baffling,' Mr Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC.
Mr Wurzelbacher reacted to the media siege by calling a press conference.
'I'm just completely flabbergasted with this whole thing,' he said. 'I hope I'm not making too much of a fool of myself.'
Mr Obama meanwhile invoked the trauma of his January primary defeat in New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton, to warn supporters against celebrating victory with more than two weeks to go in the campaign.
Jokes all round
The pitched battle for the White House briefly made way for good humour and a good cause as the two candidates traded jibes at a black-tie charity dinner in New York last night.
24 hours after their last debate before the election, the presidential hopefuls were at the event to raise money for poor children in honour of the late New York Governor Al Smith.
Mr McCain went first, announcing he had just replaced all his campaign staff with Joe the Plumber.
'Joe the Plumber recently signed a very lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to handle all the work on all seven of their houses,' he added, alluding to the McCain family's many homes around the US that became an election issue earlier in the year.
Mr McCain moved on to find humour in other campaign issues, including dubious voter registration cards filled out by an organization called ACORN that has been signing up voters from disadvantaged areas.
'In Florida, they even turned up an ACORN registration form that bore the name of one Mickey Mouse. We're checking the paw prints (but) I'm pretty sure the big rat's a Republican,' he said.
Then it was Barack Obama's turn at the podium after Mr McCain had sought to raise the pressure on him, telling the assembled dignitaries they were about to hear the funniest speech of their lives.
'There is no other crowd in America that I'd rather be palling around with right now,' began Mr Obama, who Senator McCain's running mate Sarah Palin has derided for 'palling around' with 1960s radical William Ayers.
He also made jokes about the housing crisis, saying it had hit Mr McCain and his multiple homes heavier than most, and took a good-hearted swipe at his opponent's age.
He also won laughs for returning to the 'that one' comment from John McCain and delivered a one-liner about his middle name, Hussein.
'Many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father. What you may not know is that Barack is actually Swahili for 'that one',' he said, referring to his Kenyan father.
'And I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think I'd ever run for president.'
