July 19, 2007 1:20 PM

It's STILL Not News (Even When It's the Other Side)

We have no love for Mitt Romney over here. His "double Guantanamo" defense of torture remains one of the most chilling remarks of the Presidential contest so far (no worries, though, we're sure it will get worse).

But just because we don't like the guy, doesn't mean we will jump up and down with glee that he spent $2,000 on make-up while he was Governor.

Raw Story reports this find because of the hullaballoo over the cost of Edwards' haircut. But political discourse needs to be better than a never-ending game of Gotcha.

How much a candidate spends on a haircut doesn't matter -- how they would focus on the needs of our society's least fortunate members does matter. Change hair styling to make-up and the wisdom remains true. We shouldn't care.

All of these candidates are going to dress well, look sharp and worry about appearing telegenic. That's the system as it exists. We can't then criticize them for playing the part.

However, we can criticize the media for thinking we're going to value these reports -- and the only reason to reference Mitt's make-up is to make the point that we want more from our reporters, our candidates and our electoral process.