John Edwards' Haircut

Photo from dKosopedia.com

Every election cycle, it seems we get at least one really ridiculous story with legs about a major candidate. For some reason, a story with no real newsworthiness will stick like glue to them, and they just can't shake it. This time around, it's (cue the scary music) John Edwards' expensive haircut.

Every time I see FOX "News" run a story on this (often much-hyped, and top-of-the-program), I roll my eyes so hard, it's a wonder they come back to face front. This 24-hour "News" network actually runs the infamous YouTube video of Edwards "primping" on a loop during these "reports." Complete with "I Feel Pretty" soundtrack. On a "News" network. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I could go off on the many reasons this story galls me, but while perusing MediaMatters.org, I happened upon this post. Paul Waldman took the words right out of my mouth (er, keyboard). Read on.

[Excerpt]

The Haircut siren song

by Paul Waldman

You don't have to be a professor of semiotics to understand what The Haircut is supposed to represent. It was seized upon with such glee by the press corps because it brings together two key stories that its members never tire of telling about Democrats. By sheer coincidence, they also happen to be the two portraits Republicans have painted of their opponents with such smashing success before, and are planning to paint again.

The first story is this: Democrats are phony. They pretend they're regular people when they're really not, reporters tell us. They pretend they care about poor people, when they couldn't possibly, if they themselves are not poor. (The Republican presidential candidates, on the other hand, are rich and evince no particular interest in helping people who aren't, which seems to be what the press considers the appropriate stance to adopt.). . .

[snip]

. . .The flip side of this story, of course is that Republicans are manly. Tune into a story about the 2008 race and chances are you'll hear what strong, masculine men the Republicans are. Chris Matthews wonders how easily Rudy Giuliani would kick Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ass in a street fight. Roger Simon of The Politico says admiringly that Mitt Romney "has shoulders you could land a 737 on," while Newsweek calls him "buff and handsome."

Read more at: MediaMatters.org (It's really good)

I'd like to add that if this is the biggest negative John Edwards has--the most noteworthy thing to pick on--he's a pretty strong candidate. Uh, no pun intended. Handsome candidate? No, that doesn't work either. Oh, you know what I mean. . .

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