Say a nice restaurant puts lobster on the menu at $8. That's well below the market rate but even at that price not every diner is going to choose lobster. Some may pick another entree because they just don't like lobster, others may pick another entree because they had it before and liked it while still others will pick the cheeseburger because it is $7.95 and they cannot justify spending that extra nickel.
That was the analogy that struck me when reading this Atlantic article asking Has Mitt Romney Run a Lousy Campaign? Hell no!
"Cringe inducing gaffes"? "I'm running for office for Pete's sake"? "My wife has a couple of Cadillacs"? "Friends with a few NASCAR team owners"? "For Pete's sake" is as gritty as it gets for Mitt Romney. He's not going to launch into John McCain type Naval cuss-fests. Romney is worth north of $250 million - of course his wife has a couple of cars. At least they are American made. A real gaffe is Energy Secretary Steven Chu's wife driving a BMW (but don't expect that to be called a "gaffe" even though it is exponentially worse political optics). Some critics have taken the "friends with a few NASCAR team owners" as evidence Romney is out of touch with sports. This is a guy with Red Sox season tickets, who is great friends with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose former Bain partner now owns the Celtics and a guy who helped build the Sports Authority into a national powerhouse. Yeah - obviously this guy Romney is completely out of touch when it comes to sports.
(I will grant that I have no idea what prompted him to remark that the trees in Michigan are just the right height - if you will grant me that Barack Obama really knew that there are just 50 states and not 57 as he has claimed.)
"The standoffishness of hard-core conservatives"? You mean the people who first supported Rick Perry and then supported Newt Gingrich and are now supporting Rick Santorum? Does any thinking person believe that Rick Santorum will be able to withstand Romney's campaign attacks in California or New York? Santorum wants to take contraception away from women and porn away from men. The guy has no chance. The Romney campaign has done a great job targeting the people who want lobster. Are they supposed to waste time and money marketing to the standoffish people who will buy the cheeseburger to save a nickel no matter what?
The bottom line is that so far the choice of lobster has been chosen more than all the other menu options combined. The Atlantic seems to think lobster should have been chosen by everyone.
The only thing that matters is that in November when the choice is between the $8 lobster and the $2 trillion Arugula Caesar salad - the choice will be clear.