The price of gasoline is rising and may reach $4 a gallon, which is considered critical in the minds of consumers and political consultants worrying about how to seduce them. In an economy that is otherwise stalled in the weakest recovery since World War II – real wages in decline, job growth anemic to non-existent, etc. – an increase in the price of unavoidable purchases is a hard thing for consumers/voters to take. Worse, in the minds of those political consultants, is the fact that those prices are on display everywhere. So you don’t have to fill up to be reminded. Gasoline prices are posted in front of convenience stores, at just about every intersection.