The political price of Hillary Clinton’s ‘$600 haircut’

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — A reportedly pricy haircut for Hillary Clinton has stirred social media anger, and experts say the story gives new ammunition to critics who attempt to paint the former secretary of state as a rich, out-of-touch liberal who plays by her own rules.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination shut down a portion of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City last Friday so she could get a haircut at a salon that typically charges $600 for a cut.

Clinton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the haircut Wednesday, and the Post acknowledges it is unknown how much Clinton actually paid, but experts and political strategists say she probably should have taken a lesson from her husband’s 1993 “Hairgate” incident.

Whatever the truth about the haircut is, “perception can become political reality here,” said Boston University Professor Tom Whalen.

Conservativemediaoutlets and social media accounts were buzzing about the story Wednesday morning, with many questioning how a woman who reportedly gets such expensive haircuts can relate to the average voter.

“Hillary Clinton Receives Haircut That Costs More Than Average American Makes in a Week,” reported the Washington Free Beacon.

Beneath the typical partisan internet outrage lays a stark truth that Clinton’s campaign will have to deal with: many voters do not find her relatable.

“More and more, I think what the numbers are showing is that the general public is latching onto this idea that Hillary Clinton has been out of touch for so long that she doesn’t relate to the average American,” said Tom Basile, a conservative political strategist and commentator.

According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll of voters in three key swing states, 57% of respondents in Colorado, 55% in Iowa, and 50% in Virginia said she does not care about the needs and problems of people like them. Incidents like this will not help her counter that image, experts say.

Insignificant as it may seem, a story like the $600 haircut can help define a candidate, in this case reinforcing a perception that Clinton lives in “a cocoon of privilege,” according to Basile.

“In and of themselves, these episodes don’t amount to much, butthey’re building a political narrative that doesn’t speak well of her,” Whalen said.

“She suffers from a very serious ‘inauthentic’ problem,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.

“She’s disconnected from reality and disconnected from the average rank and file voter,” he said.

“She’s developed a tin ear when it comes to these things,” Basile said, and it feeds her critics’ claims that “the Clintons will do what they want and they can get away with it.”

“It plays into the existing narrative about Hillary Clinton, which is that she sort of lives in a parallel universe to everybody else,” said John Carroll, a professor of mass communication at Boston University.

According to Whalen, for many voters, “it’s just one more indication of privilege and cluelessness that is pretty much baked into the Hillary Clinton pie at this point.”

Basile suggested Republicans should be attacking Clinton for things like this early and often, noting that Barack Obama’s campaign in 2012 was selling the image of Mitt Romney as “a rich white guy who was out of touch and liked to fire people” before he was the nominee.

Carroll said even if Clinton’s opponents do not strike now, these minor incidents could still come back to haunt her in the general election.

“This has a pretty long shelf lifeIt’s a perennial in terms of Hillary Clinton and privilege and money and distance from real people,” he said.

Questions about grooming are nothing new to presidential campaigns. John Edwards was mocked for $400 haircuts in 2007. Republicans attacked John Kerry for a $150 haircut in 2002.

Mitt Romney’s hair stylist was interviewed by the New York Times in 2011, although Romney had only paid $70 for his most recent cut there at the time. And one reporter has noted how often Scott Walker tweets about his haircuts.

DonaldTrump’shair is a much-discussed topic in the media and has even generated its own memes. No word on the cost of his haircuts so far, though.

Bill Clinton was already president when two runways at Los Angeles International Airport were shut down while he got a $200 haircut on Air Force One in 1993, but the public perception of that incident lingered long afterward.

The experts and strategists said Hillary Clinton’s campaign needs to change its strategy to overcome her relatability problem.

“You don’t go get $600 haircutsYou really have to go grassroots. You have to demonstrate to people that you understand what they’re going through,” Basile said.

“Ideally you have ideas of substance that will address the poor and impoverishedSubstance trumps theatrics,” Whalen advised.

O’Connell said appearing on non-political media and talking about other subjects can help convince voters a candidate is “a hard-working person just like everyone else.”

“Her whole Secret Service staff pulling up to Chipotle in Iowa just isn’t going to do it,” he said.

Trying to look authentic and relatable presents a challenge of its own for Clinton, though.

“Anything she does at this point is going to seem contrived and politically strategic,” Basile said.

“When you try to be authentic and you’re not, it shows” Carroll agreed. “Her attempts to be like regular folk are pretty awkward for the most part.”

“She does not seem genuine” to some voters, Whalen said. He suggested that her years as Secretary of State left her “rusty” as a politician. “She’s just kind of getting her political sea legs right now.”

Republicans may not capitalize on her missteps right now because they’re having “a collective nervous breakdown” about Donald Trump at the moment, according to Whalen.

Trump “is taking all the political oxygen in the room,” he said.

“She’s going to have to really worry about it the second Trump-mania stops,” O’Connell said.

Difficult as it may be, the experts and strategists agree that Clinton will eventually need to find a way to connect with voters for her campaign to succeed.

“If you want to be president, the person who’s voting for you has to imagine running into you at the local bar or the local supermarketYou can’t do that with Hillary Clinton,” Basile said.

One haircut may not change anybody’s mind about Clinton, but the narrative that she is out of touch could eventually damage her campaign as much as it did John Kerry in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012, despite their less expensive hairdos.