Why We Won’t Cover Romney’s Makeup Criticism; also, Kerry and Romney Campaign Exchange Barbs

July 17, 2007 | Permalink

The Politico found a neat little item in Mitt Romney’s second quarter disclosure forms — $300 he spent on make-up in advance of television debates. It’s kind of funny for a half a second — man wears make-up, ha-ha. $300 is close to $400, which is what John Edwards spent on a haircut.

Why doesn’t John Edwards’s hair equal Mitt Romney’s face paint?

The primary difference is definitional: The centerpiece of Edwards’s campaign is his anti-poverty efforts; he presents himself as a dedicated messenger for the cause, and he likes expensive haircuts, bought a gimungous house, etc. etc. His credibility as a messenger comes into question when he spends money ostentatiously. (The haircut was inadvertently billed to the campaign, a spokesman later said).

There is a difference in the political reality: fairly or unfairly, a healthy chunk of the national political press corps doesn’t like John Edwards.

Fairly or unfairly, there’s also a difference in narrative timing: when the first quarter ended, the press was trying to bury Edwards. It’s not so much interested in burying Romney right now — many reporters think he’s the Republican frontrunner.

Of course, I’m going with the Occam’s Razor explanation: people on television should wear makeup. The ghost of Richard Nixon would certainly agree. …

Oh, and we didn’t care about the haircut either, so there.

Also, John Kerry and the Romney campaign had this exchange which only seems to legitimize Mitt Romney. From The Boston Herald:

“Let’s be very clear. I had not changed my positions and they played a game with that,” Kerry said of his Republican opponents in the 2004 race.

By contrast, he said, Romney is far more deserving of the flip-flopper label. “He’s changed on abortion, he’s changed on gay rights and he’s changed on marriage,” Kerry said. “He’s changed on guns and he’s changed on the war. That’s pretty significant. I think people are asking the question out there, ‘Who is he, really?’

A Romney spokesman quickly returned fire yesterday, charging that Kerry is harboring the delusions of a fallen contender.

“This is a textbook case of Freudian projection,” Eric Fehrnstrom said. “John Kerry is projecting his own undesirable traits onto other people. It’s a mild form of personality disorder. Usually, it’s not a cause for concern unless it shows up in a U.S. senator.”

What the hell is Kerry thinking doing something like that? There’s absolutely no possible benefits… Somewhere Mitt Romney is smiling.

Related at 2008 Central: