MSNBC manufactures Romney gaffe, creates PR windfall for convenience store

Today, left-leaning blogs are trying to declare the refreshing moment of (what appears to be) genuine enthusiasm a gaffe. In fact, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell said it might be his “super market scanner” moment—referring to George H.W. Bush’s supposed astonishment over a scanner during his 1992 reelection campaign—offering a glimpse of how out of touch Romney is with the rest of America.

Or maybe the guy’s just geeked out about touchscreen order—it is pretty cool.

Either way, the term “Wawa-gate” is starting to gain traction on social media.

So the statement might—and it’s an enormous might—be a slight setback for Mitt Romney, but it’s a PR windfall for Wawa. Not only did the name of the store become a trending topic on Twitter nationwide, but also sparked hundreds of media articles on the store. As one journalist on Twitter pointed out, Wawa was a Twitter trending topic locally in Los Angeles—thousands of miles from the nearest location.

The official Wawa Twitter account has not weighed in yet.