Romney Plus Sharpton Equals Awesome Hair!

Why, oh why, are Mitt Romney and Al Sharpton hating on each other? Both of them have such impressive coifs and eccentric tastes. (Romney digs Battlefield Earth - 'nuff said.)

But hate they do. Sharpton threw some trash talk about Mormons in Romney's direction, and the former governor and aspiring presidential candidate is having none of it.

In a debate with perpetually hung-over author Christopher Hitchens, Al Sharpton said, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don’t worry about that; that’s a temporary situation."

Hardcore Repub red-staters will treat Sharpton like red meat for this one because he insisted that Don Imus be fired. Sharpton says that he was setting up a contrast between himself and Hitchens, an atheist, and not a contrast between himself and Romney. That may be, but that comment came out so, so wrong. It seems as if Sharpton the Orator just tripped on his own tongue.

If you've seen Hitchens in action - we have - it's easy to imagine Sharpton getting flustered and losing control over his tongue. Then again, Sharpton has been known to lose his tongue before. Gothamist suggested that Romney was actually ripping Sharpton off by getting "as much free press as possible."

Romney treated the comment with the utmost disdain, saying, "It shows that bigotry still exists in some corners." But Romney didn't call Sharpton a bigot. He said that what Sharpton said "could be described as a bigoted comment." So it seems as if the two share awesome hair, a yen for free press, and the superpower of making modular, ambiguous statements.

Compare the hair. Image of Al Sharpton from Leslie Rae at Wikimedia Commons. Image of Mitt Romney from Steve Jurvetson at Wikimedia Commons.