In news from Massachusetts, it appears that not every potential 2008 GOP presidential candidate has completed the coursework at the George W. Bush School of Faking Ordinariness When You're Stinking Rich:

It's a burden for more than 600,000 of Governor Mitt Romney's constituents: the cost of a subway ride.

But asked at a news conference yesterday about the price of a token, Romney stumbled.

"A buck," he gamely responded.

That was the correct price -- in 2003. Informed of the $1.25 it now costs, Romney told reporters "OK, I'll give you a quarter," then laughed and descended into Park Street Station....

Now, you'd think Romney might remember the fare -- after all, he approved the last fare increase in 2003.

But I guess he thinks that a a rich entrepeneur turned pol doesn't need to know this. (Then again, the mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, a Republican Republicans love to hate, is an even richer entrepreneur, and he rides the NYC subway on a regular basis. (Incidentally, thirty years ago I rode the subway once with then-governor Michael Dukakis, who's not rich.)

Romney was also asked by a reporter yesterday about when he last rode the subway. He could only recall recent press events at T stops.

"Let's see it was, we did it with the Charlie card and then also the ... it was with [Senate] President [Robert E.] Travaglini -- I'm trying to recall," he said, asking aloud, "We were at a station, what was it ... Ashmont station? Ashmont station, it was Ashmont station ... It's not my regular commute."

There's something almost ... well, Alan Keyesian about Romney and his ability to control the message:

The rest of Romney's day didn't go quite as planned, either. First, a homeless man harassed him on the way to the Park Street T, loudly demanding at the news conference: "Are you running for president?" Later came the "cat lady" -- Heidi Erickson, locally infamous for allegedly hoarding cat carcasses in her Beacon Hill apartment -- who screamed, "You killed my cats," and scuffled with transit police as Romney spoke at Park Street Station.

Yeah -- I really want the Dems to run against this guy.

(Link via DU.)