It’s something that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is almost as well-known for as his rousing appeals on behalf of working Americans: picture-perfect hair.
But the former U.S. senator from North Carolina, who has weathered two presidential nominating contests with not a hair out of place, lost the look briefly on David Letterman’s show on Tuesday.
“Can I just — mess your hair up a little bit?” the late-night talk show host asked as the audience erupted.
“You want to?” Edwards laughed. “Go ahead.”
“Do you mind?” Letterman inquired again.
“I don’t mind,” tossed back Edwards, once lambasted for spending $400 on a haircut.
“Has it ever been messed up?” Letterman asked. Edwards responded by ruffling his own hair — on the side that didn’t face the camera.
“No, no,” said Letterman, reaching out and tousling the smooth light-brown hairdo front and center. Letterman disturbed a small tuft but the candidate’s coif proved fairly resilient.
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Photo credit: The Late Show with David Letterman
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6 comments so far
Oh, this is really hard-hitting news!
- Posted by orangutanHere is the real story behind the myth of John Edwards’ $400 haircut.
* John pre-arranged for a barber to meet him before a campaign event.
* John arrived very late for the event, and paid the barber for his lost time.
Rupert Murdoch got his panties in a twist about Edwards’ awesome message. He led a smear campaign that has been repeated by irresponsible journalists such as yourself.
It’s disgusting to see the trivialization of Edwards from august institutions of journalism such as Reuters. The people will find the truth out about how slack you are with your research due to oversights like this one.
- Posted by jef wallaceThe “real story behind the myth of John Edwards’ $400 haircut”? Give me a break. The only inaccuracy is that some of his haircuts actually cost $1200 apiece.
Last year, the Washington Post detailed the history between Edwards and Joseph Torrenueva, the Beverly Hills-based hair artist who cut John’s locks from 2003 until March, 2007, and whose expensive services have caused much political grief for Edwards (Splitting Hairs, Edwards’s Stylist Tells His Side of Story, July 5, 2007).
Sure, the press jumped all over Edwards when news of his haircuts first hit. The attention given John’s haircuts versus his ideas is emblematic of the trivia-obsessed, soundbite-driven, profit-chasing nature of corporate media political coverage. As a result, a lot of people were willing to cut Edwards some slack about the episode.
But he made matters worse for himself. Instead of taking responsibility and admitting he had an expensive stylist, Edwards fudged the truth and claimed he didn’t know how much the $400 haircuts had cost. He also made it sound like he’d barely seen the stylist before, calling him “that guy.”
Yet he must have realized it wasn’t cheap to fly a hairdresser to the stars around the country to cut his hair for more than three years. He may have been unaware of how Republicans have repeatedly used Democrats’ fancy hair stylists to paint them as out of touch with average voters, although it happened to his running mate John Kerry in 2004. Regardless, Edwards was tripped up by his own bad judgement in getting such gold-plated hair treatment to begin with.
He also got into haircut trouble because his campaign team screwed up. His haircuts would never have become an issue if a staffer had not inadvertently billed two of them to the campaign during the first quarter of 2007, instead of using John’s personal account. Since no one in charge of filing his finance reports noticed that expensive haircuts might not help Edwards’ image as a champion of the poor and working class, they became public knowledge, and the media reported on them.
Like it or not, if you’re running for President, your every move is under press scrutiny.
- Posted by The Latest OutrageIf an expensive haircut is the only thing that we have to worry about, then what is the problem? Where is truth? Where is honestly? Where is commitment? Wake up America!
- Posted by TinaIf an expensive haircut is the only thing that we have to worry about, then what is the problem? Where is truth? Where is honesty? Where is commitment? Wake up America!
- Posted by TinaWho gives a rat’s a– about how much he chooses to pay for a haircut? He can afford it, so what? He’s rich and and a liberal democrat. So were JFK and FDR. He’s not arguing that it’s not okay to be rich, he’s arguing that the money in politics has corrupted the system, and things like corporate welfare and globalization haven’t exactly been working for the lower middle class and poor in America.
- Posted by Rob