Not only is Mitt Romney an arrogant rich guy hopelessly out of touch with middle- class Americans, his upper-class neighbors in seaside La Jolla, Calif. don't like his politics, either.
 

That's the clear and obviously intended message of a hatchet-job story on the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in Thursday's New York Times, titled "The Candidate Next Door."

The 1,800-word piece is based upon "several days of interviews with about a dozen residents" of the exclusive Romney neighborhood, according to Times reporter Michael Barbaro, who wrote the article. It appeared on the front page of the Thursday Home and Garden section of The Times, reserved for mostly lighter lifestyle pieces for readers getting into a weekend mood.  But while the feature might have been masked as another spread on the homes of the rich and famous which The Times customarily highlights there, this one was transparently political in its intent.