I think this kind of coverage has much more to recommend itself than the propaganda from the GOP disguised as serious analysis that we saw in 2000 and 2004. It clarifies for the public the utter inanity of the press corps.

I'm telling you, we should just appoint the President at random, like jury duty.

The results couldn't possibly be any worse than they are right now.

Oh, I don't know. If it were random, Al or Egbert might get appointed.

With this crowd in office, they'd "randomly" appoint Cheney.

Can you imagine the stories folks would come up with to get out of President duty? Lies would be told that would make Tommy Flanagan blush.

Remember the Michael Moore (though I disagree with his body mass) clips of administration bigwigs getting touched up before TV appearances? Think that comes cheap? That should have ended the matter.

Course, after weeks of making fun of Edwards, every one will now follow Kevin's line now that's it's a Republican on the ropes. I say forget it. Let's give him as good as Edwards and Clinton got. Then maybe we can start acting like grownups.

Knowing nothing about makeup, I look at that and think, "$300? Is that a lot?"

If I were in a rival campaign, I'd be pushing the fact that he went to a place called "Hidden Beauty" more than what he actually paid the folks there.

It's all a big joke, this presidential process.

How much does it cost to get Paul Wolfowitz to lick your comb for you? He probably needs the work now that he's lost his bank gig.

Romney spent $300 on makeup 'consulting'

Actually, the real story that has yet to break: compared to your average presidential candidate, Giuliani uses 6 times the average amount of toilette paper.

The least disgusting explanation is that he continues to cross-dress in private and needs the tissue to pad his bras.

I don't mind the "stupid stuff" if it's evenly applied. Now, at long last, it's finally aimed at a Republican.

Kevin, this is what passes for news these days. The masses have been so dumbed down by Fox News and non-stop Paris Hilton coverage, they couldn't ask a meaningful question if their lives depended on it. Welcome to Bushworld!

Kevin: "Oh, I don't know. If it were random, Al or Egbert might get appointed."

Please. In all likelihood, those two clowns are probably a couple of borscht-eating, vodka-swilling foreign nationals from eastern Europe who entered this country illegally on a fraudulently-obtained student visa, and are now being paid below minimum wage and under the table (in cash, natch) by the RNC to monitor your blog and to disrupt its proceedings. It is for them that George W. Bush wants his guest worker program, which is all the more reason to oppose his immigration bill.

Um...maybe stuff like this will help people come to realize how &$*@%ing vapid it's all become?

On a somewhat more partisan note: sauce for the freakin' goose...

Ha ha. I knew it.

I saw Mitt in person a few years ago when he was running for Massachusetts governor. It was a shake-hands kiss-babies event, and I was able to get about fifteen feet away from him.

Two things I noticed:
- he's shorter than his TV appearances imply he is. But that's nothing compared to:
- his face was covered, _covered_, with stage pancake makeup.

Mitt, the Cover Girl.

Can we just stop this stuff?

I would tend to agree. A man must wear makeup when communicating in the medium we like to call "television."

I have worked in television. In the 1980s, I was often a guest on business programs in the Northeast. Invariably, you would show up a hour before the taping and a flighty little gal in a smock would put a napkin over your business shirt and tie and touch up the foundation I had already applied at home. They pancake you a little to keep the shine off of your skull. They can do a little rouge to make it look like you've been running around outside playing football on a cold day. I like to have my eyes defined a little around top and my eyebrows darkened just slightly--nothing that would give me raccoon eyes, of course. I also wear a very light touchup of lipstick, more to define the lines that are there and to accentuate the corners of my mouth--very important when speaking to people.

There's really nothing wrong with wearing makeup. I think a $150 consultation sounds about right--I've paid MORE than that in NYC, and that was only a couple of years ago.

We'll see, won't we, whether a manly Republican will get the continuous battering over this topic that Edwards got. Besides Rush, Sean and the Fox fiends who are unlikely to mention it, will the NYT (Dowd, Brooks et al) include pejoratives about Mitt in their columns? Or will the WaPo editorialize about the incessant focus on trivia instead of covering the substance of candidate policy prescriptions?

You can be sure that whatever coverage is given to this story, it will die quickly, never to be mentioned again. Of course, the MSM will eagerly await the next opportunity to bash a fem-Dem. That's just how the themes are carried.

When the msm chuckleheads have spent countless hours snickering about how much the only serious Democratic candidate spent on haircuts, the only response is to call for fairness in finding out how much the other candidates have spent. I'd really like to know how much the other candidates have spent only because the msm unfairly zeroed in on Edwards. I'm sure the other candidates have spent a fortune on appearance consultants.

Well, Kevin, I'd love to go back to the days of Edward R. Murrow (just before my time) or Walter Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley (who I clearly remember). Those days were not as good for news coverage as we like to think in retrospect, but were still clearly superior to today. Unfortunately, it's not likely to happen. I feel guilty saying it, but it's at least nice to see a stupid story like this about a Rethug for once.

Many observers thought the decisive point in the 1960 election was that Nixon didn't bother to get himself properly made up for his TV debate with Kennedy, coming across to a national TV audience as sweaty and unshaven. It is therefore not surprising that any serious candidate nowdays takes some pains to give himself or herself a relatively telegenic appearance. Republicans do love their "gotcha" games, but of course their own candidates do the same.

Kevin, I don't think the Romney story has quite caught on.

Edwards+Hair = 548 stories on google news
Romney + Makeup = 2 stories on google news

Actually, WTF with the youtube videos for Hillary (Hott4Hill) and Obama (Obama-Girl). I have to guess this stuff was funded and promoted by the same people that did the swiftboat ads.

Liberals are unserious folks who treat the presidential campaign as a beauty pageant ? We put Obama up there because we think he's cute and can safely answer beauty pageant questions in spite of his inexperience ? Hillary has the lusty lesbian vote locked up? Edwards is struggling to turn heads with his fancy haircuts and strategic use of doublestick tape?

Simple answers to stupid questions

Seriously. Can we just stop this stuff?

No. We cannot just stop this stuff. You've got arrows and you don't want to shoot them? Just how confident are you that Republican Mitt Romney will choose good Supreme Court Justices when he is elected President?

Sheesh! Unilateral disarmament? No thanks. This crap works and until it stops working I see no reason that Republicans should be the only side that gets to point out embarassing facts about the other side.
_

Maybe Entertainment Tonight should become the Official Media Voice of the 2008 Election, brought to you by ExxonMobil and L'Oreal ("Because you're worth it.")

It wouldn't be any worse than the current coverage.

I'm telling you, we should just appoint the President at random, like jury duty.

The results couldn't possibly be any worse than they are right now.
Posted by: craigie on July 17, 2007 at 1:38 AM
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I would agree with that. That's a very Vonnegutian idea you have there. I would make it a lottery. Pick 1000 eligible candidates at random from the nationwide pool of eligible voters for election. Let any of the initial 1000 bow out for any reason. Those that are left-give them all equal free air time for 30 days. Allow any of them to drop out at any time. Do run-off elections and keep the top 25% until you are down to two candidates.

Seriously. Can we just stop this stuff?

No.

To be more precise, no, we, the Democrats, can't stop this stuff because that would just be unilateral disarmament. When you face a lunatic armed with a knife intent on harming you and your family, you don't respond by putting down your own knife and saying "seriously, can we just stop this stuff?" No, you jam your knife into his fucking eyeball and twist until he stops thrashing.

Pick 1000 eligible candidates at random from the nationwide pool of eligible voters for election.

should read...

Pick 1000 eligible candidates at random from the nationwide pool of *registered* voters for election.

You want people that are truly interested in voting in the first place. My bad.

so who spends more on makeup - Hillary or Mitt?

Romney hates the poor, so he's not a hypocrite like Edwards.

Why don't you understand the distinction, Kevin?

Just wondering. Is Jim Webbs hair real? It looks fake to me. If it's real it's an amazing head of hair for a man his age. If not he wasted his money.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden confirmed that the payments — actually two separate $150 charges — were for makeup, though he said the former Massachusetts governor had only one session with Hidden Beauty of West Hills, Calif.

Hey, a lot of men like to explore their more feminine side. So what if Mitt likes to put on mascara and blush and experiment with different shades of eyeshadow? Rudy, for example, enjoys dressing up in stockings, dresses and pearls. Really, this is nothing to be ashamed of...

"Seriously. Can we just stop this stuff?"

Why is it that is must always stop when its a Republican being "outted". For Christ's sake they beat that f-ing haircut bullshit for months and ended up doing some damage to Edwards.
So if this bullshit must go on let's be fair about it.

So, Kevin, it's okay to smear and ridicule John Edwards over his expensive haircuts, but when the media attempts to balance the equities by looking at similar extravagances on the other side, all of a sudden we must "stop the madness"? This is exactly the milquetoast attitude that has hurt the Left into so much in recent years. Yes, it's silly, and yes, it degrades our political discourse. But these things have consequences, and they are the result of deliberate behind-the-scenes maneuvers by right-wing political operatives (remember the "metrosexual" jabs at Kerry, and Fox News Channel's "accidental" running of an image of Kerry with lipstick on?).

No, you all don't understand. The threshold is $357.27. Thus, Romney at $300.00 is okay, but Edwards ad $400.00 isn't.
If I was Thompson or Guiliani, though, I'd be pushing the "Hidden Beauty" angle.

Seriously, though. Last night Mrs. T. and I were flipping through the channels and on Headline News, which used to feature, strangely enough, literate-sounding adults reading the f*cking headlines, was this f*ckwit named Glenn Beck spending ten minutes on Edwards' hair. I thought our satellite provider had screwed up and we were getting Fox News. It wasn't. Said right there on the screen "CNN Headline News." Liberal media my ass. This country is more like the Marching Morons every day.

Like Egbert, I tremble for my country.

I say we keep talking about Metrosexual Mitt's personal appearance until the Republicans start having substantiative discussions (not merely reciting talking points) on health care and foreign policy.

If, only a few of them would start working on their Inner Beauty.

That's nothing. I spent $300 on diapers this month, and it's barely half over.

The MSM will protect Mitt on this one...unless he suddenly becomes an economic populist (fat chance). Then it's open season.

The real story is getting buried, as usual. Who, in the Republican field, planted this story in the news?

MAKE IT STOP

What needs putting an end to is making politicians media stars and politicians seeking to become media stars. Unfortunately, the electorate wants media stars for their leaders regardless of the terrible things they do after they are elected.

Who..., planted this story in the news?

Digby reports it was Thompson's jesus freak goons.

Welcome to the two year the 2+ year campaign cycle. Yay.(?)

"Seriously, can't we just stop this stuff?"

Coming from the anguished brain of the consummate triviameister.

The only politician I've ever donated money to was McCain, and I regret that now, but I'm sure he wouldn't have used my donation for a $400 haircut or a $15,000 per month consultant to tell him to wear a brown suit. Maybe Romney needed to spend this money to look good under TV lights, but even this expense is pushing the envelope for me.

No, you jam your knife into his fucking eyeball and twist until he stops thrashing.

Stefan for President!

So we go back and forth between reporting on what Paris Hilton is doing, and what Paris Hilton would have done if running for President.

The obvious question is who floated this story to the Politico and why.
was it just so show "balance" for the Edwards haircut stab-in-the-back, or was someone trying to torpedo Romney's campaign.