Captain's Quarters -

"For the record, the issue on this point isn't the cost of the haircuts, but the fact that Edwards paid for them with campaign contributions."

I beg to differ with you here. It is certainly legal for the campaign to pay for Mr. Edwards' haircuts.

The fact that John Edwards campaigns on Al Gore's environmental coattails and proffers his committment to ending hunger as we know it falls flat when one discovers he flies in Hollywood hairstylists for $1,250 haircuts.

What damage do those plane rides do to the environment? Could Mr. Edwards just get his hair cut down at Floyd's Barber Shop for $13.00 and donate the remaining $1,237 to his local food pantry?

Yes, I think he could if he were that kind of a person. He clearly is not.

Such is leadership in the Democrat Party.

yes, and I like to transfer my dogs on the roof of my car.
Now, can we get back to the real issues , please..

Once a shyster lawyer, always a shyster lawyer.

strictly the behavior of a poseur.......

he has to try to look good keeping up the "breck" image as he laments the downtrodden all the while lounging in the largest house in the carolinas' paid from "ambulance chasing" phony science lawsuits as he spoke to fetuses in the womb on monday while championing abortions on tuesday.

he is a little man of no consequence. the real question is: who is the bigger phony? him or his wife........

"It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned for president, vice president and now president again, his hair seems to have attracted as much attention as, say, his position on health care."

It seems not to have occurred to the writers at the Washington Post that this is not "some kind of commentary" on American politics but, rather, on Mr. Edwards. Anyone who watched him closely during the 2004 campaign could easily see that his hair is much more substantial than his position on health care.

Who. Gives. A. Sh*t.

This is so petty and irrelevant.

All the candidates spend hundreds of dollars on haircuts, so there's no news there.

All the candidates make extraordinary arrangements to have their hair cut, so there's no story there.

All, if not most of the candidates get their haircuts paid for by the campaign, and who cares- it's an important part of their image- so there's no story there.

Get back to the real issues.

i seriously doubt george bush pays twenty dollars at the local barber shop to get his hair cut. by the way, are taxpayers footing the bill for his and cheney's tailored suits?

All of them, dave? Care to back that up with some facts?

I do not care about someone's hair stylist, but when he pretends to be a champion for the poor people he shouldn't be spending their campaign contributions on such trivialities -- especially when he can afford to build the biggest house in the county. It at least smacks of tone-deafness.

"Get back to the real issues."

The issue is hunger in America. That's an issue ... right?

Should Democrat candidate for President John Edwards fly in hairstylists for $1,250 haircuts, or actually do something about hunger in America by ... you know ... donating that money instead to his food pantry?

That's the issue: Hunger in America. It's one of John Edwards' signature issues.

Do we really want as our President someone who sets this example for the rest of us?

It's not the cost of the haircut or even how it was paid for. It's the idea that this man should hector the rest of us on the needs of the poor and expect us to take him seriously.

One thing I always gave John Kerry credit for, he comes from money originally, married into more of it and never tried very much to act as if he didn't. And I actually also give Kerry credit for some empathy when it comes to those less fortunate.

For Edwards, not so much. It's all just artifice. Whatever vague feelings he might have for the deprived and downtrodden are clearly subsumed by his need to show off and look pretty doing it. He's nouveau riche and he acts like it.

' ... by the way, are taxpayers footing the bill for his and cheney's tailored suits."

Vice-President Cheney and President Bush purchase their own clothing.

Mr. Edwards purchases $1,250 haircuts with campaign donations.

Ditto silkystylist: it doesn't bother me very much that Edwards uses campaign funds to pay for his haircuts. It DOES piss me off that he yaps about "two Americas" and his grand plans to tax the hell out of me to pay for social spending while he lives the life of a rich and vain nabob.

rbj - all the candidates claim to care about the poor...so what's your point? Edwards is no more of a bull shi**er than any of the rest of them on this issue. It's politics.

realissueguy - ahh the old indignant and pointless "that money should have gone to charity if he really cared" argument. These rich candidates surely give significant money to charity. But of course, how much they give is none of your business. And even if they did divulge to people like you what their personal charitable contributions were, you'd shriek that it was a cheap whorish political ploy.

This "story" is beneath you, Captain.

Indeed, Ed.

John Edwards is not relevant as a Democrat candidate. The Hillary/Obama ticket is about as pre-ordained as it comes.

So why are YOU talking about him? It doesn't matter how much his haircuts are or if he spent campaign money on them or not, because frankly I expect him out of the race before the end of the year, if not sooner.

Edwards doesn't matter.

Edwards also blamed a staffer for trying to get an XBox (or something) from WalMart. And their whole blogger fiasco. Wonder if there are more cases of 'bad staffer'.

As for the hair cut issue itself, it's not important but neither is it irrelevant. It does speak to judgement and style over substance.

Also I doubt Rudy and Fred have expensive haircuts and a quick google of 'President Bush haircut' found this link which I can't vouch for but it sounds about right.

I beg to differ with what strikes me as the somewhat sanctimonious "tut tutting" and finger wagging at the Captain going on over this. My take:

1. If Edwards "doesn't matter" and will soon be out of the race, it might be BECAUSE of stories like this, and also, e.g., the leftist profanity moonbat blogger who was hired and let go, etc., (and the lame attempts at "spin" by the Edwards camp both then and for this kerfuffle). If we grandly and oh so nobly JUST "stick to the issues," then examples of what an ineffectual, effete, shallow poseur Edwards is would never come to light at all. And maybe he WOULDN'T be so far back in the pack as he deserves. Some of us naively still hold to the silly belief that character or lack thereof SHOULD count for something. Combined with some real political skill and savvy. Neither of which Edwards appears to have.

See to me, the issue is not that the haircuts cost $400 or $1250 or whatever; and also, contrary to Ed, not that funds donated to his campaign paid for them. It is that a) first, this hectoring anti-poverty blowhard and his "two America's" so blatantly and in-your-face fashion obscenely wallows in the over the top lifestyle enjoyed by less than 1/10th of one percent of the citizenry, with his haircuts and his 28,000 square foot palace, etc., - in between scolding the rest of us on how shameful it is that so many little children go to bed hungry at night. And no, NOT all politicians engage in this exact same sort of demagoguery; AND then, b) when he gets busted on it, he demonstrates his insincerity, essential dishonesty, lack of courage, and general ineptitude, by attempting to dodge, fib and spin his way out of it, instead of just standing up and saying something like. "Okay I admit it - I am a weathy man; I pursued the American dream and succeeded; and I'm not going to apologize for it." And then perhaps even throw in a little self depreciating humor for good measure "Heck folks, if you could see what I look like WITHOUT those expensive hair cuts, you'd understand why I have to get them - just ask my wife what I look like first thing in the morning." (Har har, crowd claps/laughs). Can you picture someone like Reagan or Guiliani smoothly deflecting an issue like this, in that manner? I can.

But instead, Edwards REPEATEDLY comes off as a tone-deaf, bumbling, arrogant, and incapable of knowing how to be forthright, ex-trial lawyer. Thanks New Media. Good to know. The OLD media would have carefully hidden that from me - and all we'd get would be his "position" on the issues.

2. Maybe I'll be willing to stick solely "to the issues," when CBS,ABC,NBC,CNN,NPR, WaPo, NYT, Comedy Central, MTV, etc, etc, etc, agree to it - for ALL the candidates. But I won't hold my breath. Any bets on how many "dog on the roof" stories/questions Romney is going to have to endure from the main stream media, (and late night t.v. skits/jokes) especially if he becomes or remains a front runner? But if Edwards would surge into front-runner status, his palace and haircuts should be "beneath" discussion??? Someone please tell me why the Right is supposed to ALWAYS fight with one hand tied behind its back, and nobly attempt to "stay above" the fray - when the same courtesy is NEVER shown in return.

Here is just one example: EVERY single American who had to make a decision on Bush Sr./Quayle, KNEW, long before it came time to cast their vote, that Quayle had been born with a silver spoon, that he got C's in college, that he got out of Nam with the insinuation that it was via family connections, etc. The national mainstream media made sure we ALL knew every single tidbit about Quayle which might cast him in a negative light. (And this is before the Media crowned Quayle as our official National Idiot - that came later). Because this was prior to the Internet and the growth of Conservative talk radio - NOBOBY told the voters stuff like Loyd Benson belonging to a whites only country club, or that he so rich he could buy and sell Quayle ten times over, etc. HIS being a rich elitist just never seemed to be able to make it into the papers, or worthy of a 60 Minutes piece or a single mention by Dan Rather, etc. Yessir, we just "stuck to the issues," when it came to Lloyd Benson's qualifications. How noble. And what a load of crap.

All the personal "dirt" on the conservative candidates has ALWAYS been thrown out there for all to digest, my entire lifetime (and the first election I voted in was 1976). But now, thanks to a.m. radio and the internet....the playing field is FINALLY starting to level.

Again - thank you new media.

CE: "For the record, the issue on this point isn't the cost of the haircuts, but the fact that Edwards paid for them with campaign contributions."

I agree with just about all of your post, Ed, except that the cost of the haircuts is an issue to me whether or not he opts to pay for them himself.

The critical factor making this important is the fact that this is not a person running his own personal life but rather a candidate for the highest office in the land to serve a great nation. Were he a private citizen just doing what rich people do, I wouldn't care. Competitive, honest capitalism permits the earning and spending of vast quantities of money, so to Edwards the private citizen, I say "roll the bills up into logs and heat your home with 'em should you choose."

This, however, is a citizen whose judgment we must trust, a citizen who will be in charge of the virtually unlimited piggy bank a free-spending Congress can give him, a citizen who must use taxpayer resources prudently especially when the President will be spending borrowed money. His status as private citizen now is trumped by the fact that he wants to become America's most public one and he is putting on his supposed "best" behavior now to get there. We are witnessing Edwards at his best, and his best will see to it to spend ridiculous amounts of money on his hair. How much more would he be willing to spend on all other facets of his life or on what he deems important?

If he cannot bother himself to know what he is spending on haircuts, clearly something quite important to his impressive vanity, or doesn't consider such extravagance to be an extreme waste of resources, then he cannot represent me or understand my lot in life since I still live in the America opposite his side of the railroad tracks. His judgment and willful ignorance (if he is indeed unaware of his spending) preclude him from any important position serving the public much less the presidency.

Edwards if all fluff. He had 6 years of nothing in the Senate and would not even have been re-elected (internal polling told him that). So he runs for President to get on the VP ticket to get his name out there.

Edwards doesn't have a $1250 haircut PR problem. Edwards has a flawed character and judgment problem. While coining the "2 Americas" problem, he lives in the elitest of elite lifestyles of the "other" America that he disdains while making his speeches.

What a blowhard hypocrite. This all style, no substance phoney just needs to disappear from the limelight FOREVER.

Edwards if all fluff. He had 6 years of nothing in the Senate and would not even have been re-elected (internal polling told him that). So he runs for President to get on the VP ticket to get his name out there.

Edwards doesn't have a $1250 haircut PR problem. Edwards has a flawed character and judgment problem. While coining the "2 Americas" problem, he lives in the elitest of elite lifestyles of the "other" America that he disdains while making his speeches.

What a blowhard hypocrite. This all style, no substance phoney just needs to disappear from the limelight FOREVER.

There is a lesson in this for all politicians. Americans don't expect everyone to be just like them. They don't expect their politicians to like the same foods, shop in the same stores, attend the same churches or to be poor. But they do expect them to be real people and real Americans. They expect them to be grounded in reality.

This was a large part of the problem with John Kerry and with John Edwards. Most American men not only can't imagine having a manicure, let alone the exorbitant prices people like Kerry pay for them. Most American men can't imagine spending more than $20.00 or so on a haircut, nor would it occur to them to spend a day in a spa being pampered at any cost. When most American men find out about someone like Edwards, there is an immediate disconnect because they immediately know that he is not only not like them, but he cannot possibly imagine what it is to be like them.

Americans don't vote for space aliens.