Edwards Lets His Hair Down With Letterman

On The Late Show, Democratic Candidate Talks About His Hair, Monday's Debate

(AP)  John Edwards is trying to represent the "grown-up wing of the Democratic Party," but he wasn't too mature to let his hair down on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" on Tuesday.

The Democratic presidential candidate commented on his adult behavior when Letterman asked about the bitter personal arguments that erupted between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama during their debate Monday night in South Carolina.

"What was ... that melee like last night? What was that like? You were right there," Letterman asked, referring to the Myrtle Beach, S.C., debate. South Carolina Democrats vote in their presidential primary on Saturday.

"What I was trying to do was represent the grown-up wing of the Democratic Party last night," Edwards said.

But the former North Carolina senator was not too grown-up to let Letterman take a swipe - literally - at his carefully coifed hair.

"Could I just mess your hair up a little bit?" Letterman asked Edwards, who once spent $1,250 on a stylist, including travel costs.

"You want to? Go ahead," Edwards said.

"Has it ever been messed up?" Letterman asked before plunging his fingers in, making a mess of Edwards' hair as the candidate laughed and tried to reciprocate.

Earlier Tuesday, during a taping of "The Tyra Banks Show," Edwards discussed feeling like a minority in the campaign. Edwards is challenging a black man and a woman for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"It's hard to be heard," he said. "... We have a couple of candidates who are good candidates but they get an enormous amount of attention and publicity, and they've got enormous amounts of money. The result is I have to really work to be heard."

Edwards said that when he is heard "people understand I have this personal energy and passion for what it is I'm trying to do, whether it's health care, creating jobs, doing the things that need to be done for the country."

Banks asked what it feels like to be a minority and a white male.

"It feels like you have to fight for everything you get,." Edwards said.

Edwards' interview with Banks is scheduled to air Friday.

[glaswolf]

Well, I support Senator Edwards for President because he is solution oriented and will veer away from consensus solutions when they are wrong. This phenomenon is not normal for folks like Hilliary or Obama who build consensus solutions for coalitions of convenience. Senator Edwards will engage dysfunction where the others will just let it slide into oblivion with words of mutual praise. We don''t need orators who pronounce the words of others well in well chosen times, we need functional aggression bird dogging problems that plague us with dysfunction from consensus solutions driven by greed and interest while undermining trust upon which democracy depends ... that is part of the problems. Senator Edwards is a natural leader. Notice the woe isms of the Illi Senator who offers complaint in place of retort, who begs for favoritism while demanding equal treatment. Complain when asked to explain is the new black rhetorical motif under the Harvard legal scholar, the Kenyan American.

[infidel_us]

This man is a class A liar! The sooner he vanishes, the better off we''ll all be. Now he''s using US vets in more lies about homeless people.

I wonder if they have a semester in law school dealing with how to be morally bankrupt and still sleep at night?

I tended a little toward Edwards at the beginning of the campaign season (this is really true). I knew nothing about Obama, and had a somewhat negative impression of Clinton.

I became increasingly interested in the campaign around the time of Iowa, and began to read up, listen to the debates and interviews, read the transcripts of the debates, etc.

To my surprise, I became a somewhat fanatical Obama enthusiast. I think Edwards should drop out now.

If he offered a real alternative, I could see him staying in the race, but I honestly don''t see much difference in his position compared to Obama''s. I see more populist rhetoric from Edwards, but all three candidates are pretty centrist, and only Obama spoke out against the war early-on, displaying more potential for strong leadership, in my opinion.

Unless you are a Republican or you think that a Clinton candidacy would be good for the Democratic party, I would think that people should see that it is time for Edwards to withdraw.

[user168-2009]

Hillary, WAR = HATE , KILL, DESTRUCTION...
Why did you VOTE TWICE FOR WAR?!
Oh, because you left you mask and sunglasses in the car!?
"The chase of gain is rich in HATE", Hillary.
To let go of gain and hate you must not flock with slick Willy and his TWO FACES (the real meaning of parallel lives).

THERE MUST BE A REASON FOR YOU AND WILLY TO LOVE WEARING THOSE MASKS YOU HAVE, PLEASE TELL US WHY.

[rushlimpdrug]

Banks asked what it feels like to be a minority and a white male.

Tyra is sooo stupid.
The man is running for President of the U.S. and the best question to ask is this krap??
Perhaps she could have "axed" Edwards, "
What the hell does Osama Obama look like up close black, white, or zebra?

[realpatriot1]

Edwards sided with Obama after iowa to curry favor and now that Hillary''s ahead he met privately with her for 20 minutes after the last debate.

His campaign has said they don''t expect to win any state. He''s a distant 3rs here in North Carolina in recent polling(Obama 36% Clinton 32% edwards 21%).

The only reason he''s still in is to garner a job from whoever wins.

[hwy71so]

Letterman is washed up. He needs to retire. I haven''t seen or heard anything funny from him in probably 15 years.

[extremophil]

Letterman is a (relatively) funny entertainer, but I wouldn''t take his endorsement for anything.