In case you can't tell, we're in that limbo season in which political reporters have to prove that they're worth their paychecks by digging up any 2012-related story they can. Case in point: The New York Times interviews La Jolla residents about the many ways in which Mitt Romney is a bad neighbor:

But many of the residents of this exclusive tract in La Jolla say they are rankled by what they see from their decks and patios as the Romneys’ blindness to their impact on the neighborhood. And personal politics is fueling their frustration as much as anything else, several days of interviews with about a dozen residents suggest.

It turns out that Mr. Romney — who has likened President Obama’s policies to socialism, called for cutting back on federal funding to PBS and wants to outlaw same-sex marriage — has moved into a neighborhood that evokes “Modern Family” far more than “All in the Family.” (There are six gay households within a three-block radius of his house, neighbors said.)

I'm not saying this is an inessential story—I think you can learn a lot about someone from the way they treat their neighbors, and the Romneys sound like douches—but I am saying it's not going to change anyone's vote.