In last night’s episode of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah showed a clip from the senatorial debate in Iowa in which the moderator challenged the two candidates whether they knew the break-even price of corn and soybeans. Given that corn and soybean farming are big business in Iowa, a candidate unfamiliar with commodity prices might be considered out of touch. In 1992, George H. W. Bush was asked in a debate how much a gallon of milk costs, and that he didn’t know was considered a sign that he was out of touch. (FYI, here is a BBC News story about why and whether it’s relevant that a candidate knows the price of a gallon of milk.)
Trevor followed up the Iowa debate clip with jokes that in Nevada, candidates would be expected to know the price of a gambling license while in New Jersey they would be expected to know the price of a hit man.
So anyone want to speculate on similar examples for other states, cities or regions? Perhaps a candidate from New York City would be expected to know the subway fare.
Rather famously, although a billionaire, Mayor Bloomberg took the subway to work.
It might be more difficult to come up with a question for New York State in general. Upstaters are more likely to know the tolls on the New York State Thruway than the subway fare.
I recall some fuss over John Kerry ordering a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss cheese on it in 2004, although Philadelphia was a heavily-blue city anyway so it probably had no effect.
Wasn’t George Bush (Sr.) portrayed as out of touch for acting amazed at how a barcode scanner could scan things (despite the fact he was actually being shown a scanner that could scan obscured bar codes?)
Man, I have no idea what milk costs. Couple of bucks and if pinned I’d say $2.5 but even with two small kids at home who go through a gallon a week I’ve got no idea. I guess that means I’m not in touch or something.
In our current senate race in Colorado both candidates have had to profess their love for craft beer so not being able to name a craft brewery would probably be disqualifing.
Part of the reason Joni Ernst got nailed for that was her opponent got the answer correct for corn, and partly because she’s running partly on the idea that she’s a farmer from a farm family.
Ernst has used her family’s background farming corn, soybeans, and hogs as part of her re-election campaign. Despite her personal and professional experience in the industry, her inability to deliver an accurate answer during the debate was quickly recognized as a huge blind-spot about the daily reality for thousands of Iowans.
We don’t know the Thruway tolls anymore since the onset of FastPass. I used to know it took something like $7 in tolls to get back to see my folks in Maine. Haven’t got a clue now.
I’m struggling to think of something for Missouri. Perhaps for a St. Louis area race you could ask “what school did you go to?” and if they answer with anything other than their high school (say, a university or something) you know they aren’t a local.
Beer is a good one too - like if someone running for office in MO claimed to be a big Miller fan, or Coors or something.
In Spain the Socialist (European style: don’t panic!) candidate Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was asked what a cup of coffee costs and he said 80 cents, which was a very low price indeed. Usually a cup of coffee did cost at least double that amount, or even 3 or 4 € in some posh places or at the airport (don’t get me going about Starbucks and their price policy). Out of touch, no doubt. Actually, the price in the bar in the Congress was probably around that amount, because heavily subsidized: those politicians can’t get enough. But never mind that. Next morning an enormous share of bars in Spain offered “socialist coffee” or “Zapatero’s coffee” for 80 cents a cup. And he went on to win the election.
Yeah, I share the grocery shopping duties in our household and I have no idea what a gallon of milk costs. I throw it in the cart and I pay for it along with everything else.
The BBC News article I linked to suggested that might be a valid reason why one might not know; that you’re prosperous enough that you don’t really pay attention to the per-gallon price. Or perhaps someone else in the household buys the milk. So it’s not a perfect test.
I buy groceries, and basically always buy milk by the gallon and half-and-half by the quart, but I don’t pay much attention to the price and would be hard pressed to recall it. I’d guess $2-3 offhand for milk and under $2 for half and half. If I go to Food Lion’s site I’m right ($2.89 milk and $1.49 half and half), but if I check Harris Teeter I’m at less than half what they list ($5.99 milk and $3.19 half and half). The article says Giuliani got the price wrong by 50% and implies that it shows he was out of touch, but there’s more than a 50% variance in stores near me without going to any super-discount store, high end ‘Whole Paycheck’, or marked up convenience store. Similarly with bread, I pay anywhere from under $1 for a loaf (the cheapest Aldi brand) to $5 (Dave’s Bread) without delving into fresh bread or bakeries or a discount bread store.
If people are guessing ‘a quarter’ or ‘fifty dollars’ for a gallon of milk, I’ll agree that they’re pretty clueless about money matters. But I don’t think being off by half or double is actually significant, since the price varies by that much just in regular grocery stores. For some items, you can get more than a five times spread of prices. And remembering the specific price of one relatively cheap item that’s usually bought with a cartload of other items doesn’t seem like much of a test of anything.
I lived and worked in STL for a national-scale company based there for about 20 years. I and the large majority of my immediate co-workers did not grow up there. We all marveled at the ubiquitous “Which high school?” meme. One of my waggish whitebread pals learned enough to answer “Vashon. You?” He said the responses were priceless. See also
For Missouri taken as a whole there’s only one right answer to “Royals or Cards?” Sadly either answer will piss off about half your state-wide voters.
Here in Central New York, a politician who goes to the New York State Fair better get a sausage, peppers, and onions sandwich, or he/she gets lambasted.
And the politicians make a show of it for the photographers.