My respect for the political acuity of John Edwards just got amped up a notch as he was somehow able to integrate recent revelations of a $400 haircut into a pretty compelling appeal to the working class:

“Everybody’s supposed to have a chance in the United States of America,” he said. “Why do we think people want to come here? That’s why they want to come here. They want to come here because people like me can come from nowhere, the son of a mill worker … and now be running for the president of the United States and pay $400 for a haircut.”

Now I doubt many blue collar workers are just holding out for that big break cause they really long for a good shampoo and a facial, but converting an embarrassing gaffe to a political boon doesn’t get much more impressive than this.