Lots of pretty ordinary business people, like travelling salesmen, bill just about all expenses incurred while they’re travelling to a company expense account (whether they’re self-employed or work for somebody else), and those expenses are tax-deductible. Many things that would ordinarily be personal expenses need to be done while travelling, and cost a whole lot more when done while travelling, especially since it doesn’t usually make sense to spend time on a business trip trekking around a strange city finding barbers and laundromats. Ordinary people would get this done at a hotel’s salon (and have their laundry done through the hotel’s service), not have someone brought in especially to serve them, but I can see where it’s not too practical for either the hotel or the candidate to have a major Presidential candidate sitting in the chair at the hair salon just off the lobby, with security guys hovering, media and autograph seekers swarming, etc. $400 sounds pretty excessive to me, but $200 would really be quite reasonable under the circumstances. It makes sense to use a barber/stylist who is accustomed to dealing with celebrities and their security and confidentiality needs, and the normal prices of those stylists are quite high. Accepting the service free or at a significant discount to what the same stylist would normally get for a house call would really have to be reported as a campaign donation, and the stylist might not necessarily want to be turning up on databases of Edwards campaign donors (who knows where his other clients’ political loyalties may lie).
I happen to think Edwards is an arrogant dishonest sleazebag, who made his millions through phony malpractice suits that put good ob/gyns and other doctors out of business and drove up everybody’s healthcare costs by driving up the price of malpractice insurance. But I strongly suspect that a lot of very good, honest Presidential candidates and Presidents have paid this sort of price for haircuts, and think we should be careful about making a big deal out of Edwards doing it.
We agree : “ Edwards is an arrogant dishonest sleazebag...”
Edwards should change his campaign theme from ‘ I am one of the little people’ to something else. At a minimum, he makes himself an easy target for Hillary, Obama, etc.
I doubt that Edwards will make it past the first round.
Second, many of us have done lots of business traveling. Haircuts ( even at a normal price ) would likely not be approved.