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Politics

Candidates take aim at their own feet, pull trigger

By BILL ADAIR, Times Washington Bureau Chief
Published April 21, 2007

In tennis, they call them unforced errors. The player is in position, has plenty of time -- and still whacks the ball into the net.

As the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, the candidates are hitting a lot of balls into the net.

This week it was John Edwards, the Democrat with great hair who spent $800 in campaign money on two haircuts. The pricey salon visits looked especially silly because Edwards portrays himself as the candidate fighting for the poor.

On the Republican side, it was Sen. John McCain who muffed an easy shot. He responded to a question about military action against Iran by singing a variation on the Beach Boy's song Barbara Ann: "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."

Edwards and McCain are by no means the first.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who has been fighting charges that he is a flip-flopper, mentioned a few weeks ago that he was a lifelong hunter. But when reporters asked for more details, his campaign said he had hunted only twice. Then, a day later, Romney said that was wrong and that he had hunted "small game" for many years.

Sen. Joseph Biden, a Democrat, made a major blunder the day he launched his presidential campaign. In an interview, he called Sen. Barack Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," a comment that drew lots of criticism. It dealt a serious blow to Biden's campaign before it even got off the ground.

Needless to say, presidential campaigns are most effective when the candidate is setting the agenda rather than responding to charges from the opponent "I am not a flip-flopper!". It's no fun being on the defensive, but the good candidates can disarm a charge or make a counter-charge before getting hurt.

The worst hits are when they bring it on themselves. McCain wasn't in the heat of a debate or under tough questioning when he sang "bomb Iran." He just made a bad joke.

The same for Edwards. It was his choice to pay $400 for a cut and blow-dry. (The campaign records don't specify, but we have to assume that a $400 cut includes a free blow dry.)

These mistakes can matter. You can be sure that McCain's opponents will give us many reminders about his song, to make the point that we can't trust a commander-in-chief who jokes about bombing another country.

Likewise, the Democratic candidates and their allies won't let us forget about Edwards' pricey haircuts, to make the point that the former senator is too focused on his hairdo and not enough on spending money wisely.

On Thursday, the Edwards campaign announced that the haircut bill had been paid by mistake and that Edwards would reimburse the campaign. That was probably the best move he could make to quell the controversy, but it doesn't address the real point: Who spends 400 bucks on a haircut?

Edwards wants to be the candidate for the downtrodden. The image of him getting an expensive coif doesn't help.

Romney was already battling allegations that he flip-flopped on abortion and gay rights. Now he claims to be a hunter ... but maybe he isn't. Even before this, he was called "just another flip-flopper from Massachusetts," an effort to liken him with Sen. John Kerry.

Often, elections turn less on the big issues of the day than on how we feel about the candidates. Their mistakes provide an important glimpse into what they are and what they're not.

Think Michael Dukakis in the tank, John Kerry in the hunting outfit. Dukakis did not have to get into that tank and Kerry did not have to go hunting. But they came away from those photo ops worse off than they went in.

With their singing and their haircuts and claims about hunting, the 2008 candidates are hitting easy shots into the net. The unforced errors will cost them.

Washington Bureau Chief Bill Adair can be reached at adair@sptimes.com or (202) 463-0575.

[Last modified April 20, 2007, 20:29:26]