Gotcha!

Just so you know, I’m agnostic on the subject of whether former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz should run for president as an independent. Just as I’m agnostic on ALL of the prospective candidates for all of the parties this early in the political season. 

White House hopefuls have a way of burning bright and burning out. Today’s frontrunner will be tomorrow’s dropout.

Back to Schultz, though. He was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” yesterday when Mika Brzezinski asked the self-made billionaire a question that has the left cheering: “How much does an 18-ounce box of Cheerios cost?”

He didn’t know.

Can you IMAGINE that? How dare this billionaire blockhead think he can be the leader of the Free World without knowing the price of a box of those wholesome little O’s!

“I don’t know, I don’t eat Cheerios,” Schultz replied to Mika, revealing in that instant that he is NOT ONE OF US. He’s just an out-of-touch rich dude. After all, every regular American guy in his sixties has an encyclopedic knowledge of supermarket prices. Am I right? 

With that, Brzezinski had what she came for: A gotcha question. Designed  to make Schultz look stupid..

I mean, did anyone really think Mika wanted to know the price of Cheerios to make sure she had enough dough to pick some up on her way home from work?

Mika was also warning Schultz just a couple days after he announced that he might run for president. The press is not going to be kind to you, Buster. Run as a Democrat or not at all.

Mika’s insipid - mean-spirited, actually -  question suggests that presidential candidates should prep for campaigns by memorizing the prices on supermarket shelves rather than say, boning up on economics or foreign affairs. As if this were some sort of national game of Trivial Pursuit.

Yet I’ll bet Mika didn’t know the price of Cheerios either until she sent one of her minions to the local grocery to find out.

News flash: Most politicians - heck , most hugely rich and successful people - are not at the supermarket with the rest of us. If they are, they don’t worry about prices. They’re rich,  they buy what they want knowing their bank accounts are fat enough to cover any sum.

Does anyone - including Mika - think Hillary Clinton pushed a cart around the local Piggly Wiggly between coughing fits and Hollywood fundraisers in 2016 ? Hillary would have had no better idea of the price of Cheerios than Schultz or than Donald Trump,  had anyone asked.

So what?

These powerful people have important, time-consuming jobs and mountains of money. Unless they really enjoy waiting at the deli counter while the hairnets slice ham in slow motion, it’s a waste of their time to head to the supermarket. They have aides who perform such mundane tasks for them.

I wish I did.

Look, there may be a billion reasons Howard Schultz shouldn’t run for president. Not knowing the price of a cardboard box full of kids’ cereal isn’t one of them.