Boxer-Fiorina Hairstyles Taken Seriously By Pollster

Making minor news today are the recent results of a poll from Public Policy Polling, which surveyed Californians and documented the fact that incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) leads her GOP opponent, Carly Fiorina, by a margin of 49%-40%, suggesting that Boxer is expanding her advantage.

Making substantially less news is the fact that, for some reason, PPP thought it was important to ask those surveyed about whose hairstyle is better:

Obviously, what gives rise to this question is an incident which occurred back in early June, when a live microphone caught Fiorina dissing Boxer's hair as "so yesterday". That was sure fun for a day or so! Of course, the question PPP asked -- "Do you have a higher opinion of Barbara Boxer's hair or Carly Fiorina's hair?" -- was stripped of all context regarding that incident. And in addition, here's some more context that goes missing: Fiorina is a breast cancer survivor who lost her hair during her chemotherapy treatment.

Now, of course, one could suggest that Fiorina made hairstyles "fair game" and "opened the door" to hairstyle criticism with her mildly dickish comment. But should pollsters be kicking the Door of Dickishness ajar in their surveys for laughs? I submit to you: no, they should not.

I like to think that the 67% of respondents who said they were "not sure" were actually saying that they were "not sure" they were speaking to grown-ups.

UPDATE: A friend takes me to task for sleeping on the fact that PPP's question is also straight-up, jarringly sexist, to boot. She's right! It is! With Congress being America's premiere comb-over farm, why isn't this crap ever asked of male candidates?

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