Back to those $400 haircuts.

What is the difference between a few $400 haircuts and Sen. Clinton’s (very, very) expensive suits and Fred Thompson’s (very, very) expensive suits? Or what is the difference between those haircuts and the thousands spent by candidates and campaigns on makeup? There is no difference. We simply don’t want to deal with the question of poverty.

Why? It makes us uncomfortable?

Why? Because we know, unlike curing cancer or saving the climate, that we can each “solve poverty” in our own little world. We know we can give money instead of spending it on another dinner out (especially if our clothes have grown a bit snug). We know that the new HDTV we covet isn’t truly vital and that that money can go elsewhere. We know that we don’t need to be watching American Idol and Lost and House and CSI and and and. Poverty slaps us across the face because it is ours to solve and it can be solved. So when a candidate starts talking about it we want to compromise that candidate as soon as we can. Our consciences can’t take it otherwise.