Trying to turn a natural disaster to political advantage, the naked opportunism of the Romney/Ryan campaign.

I am beyond certain that the Romney/Ryan campaign is completely panic stricken by the fact that hurricane Sandy has, unfortunately for many, provided the necessity for the President to do his job, under the watchful gaze of the American voters. So while the President is proving to the voters why he IS the man they want in catastrophic times, Romney is left to jump up and down in the hopes of catching a reporter's attention.

I guess in the face of such a situation it can be expected that the campaign might become somewhat desperate, but seriously, this is just fucking pathetic!

Take Romney's campaign stop Storm Relief Event in Ohio yesterday:  

But even as Romney, clad in blue jeans and rolled-up sleeves, hustled around his area of the gym, shaking hands, thanking supporters, and stacking cases of bottled water on top of each other, signs of stagecraft remained. 

As supporters lined up to greet the candidate, a young volunteer in a Romney/Ryan T-shirt stood near the tables, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting, "You need a donation to get in line!" 

Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, "What if we dropped off our donations up front?" 

The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. "Just grab something," he said. 

Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their "donations" to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest "Thank you."

Not only THAT but many of the donations the supporters seemingly provided were not even something that that they themselves brought. This from the Atlantic Wire:

Mitt Romney was really concerned that his "Storm Relief Event" in Kettering, Ohio yesterday would look like a dud, so he and his team stocked their donation tables with $5,000 worth of supplies at Walmart. 

And as completely fake as THAT event was his running mate's event in Wisconsin was no less phony.

It was the second of Paul Ryan's photo ops in his home state today where the campaign made a show of helping storm victims however they could. At the first stop in La Crosse, the vice presidential nominee thanked supporters for coming, shaking hands with some standing in front of an American flag, where minutes before, aides arranged boxes of Cheerios and cans of corn in perfect order. 

In Hudson, the packing was proceeding too quickly, and the supporters wearing red "Team Wisconsin" t-shirts were given the order to slow down and then to stop to be sure there were still goods to be packed when Ryan entered. 

One by one the boxes were filled and loaded into a waiting U-Haul, and then they stopped to wait for the candidate. 

"Thanks a lot, thanks for doing all this," Ryan said to the supporters when he arrived. 

As Ryan walked back through the office to the motorcade volunteers finished packing the supplies, which are being driven to a Red Cross facility in New Jersey. 

As supporters walked out the door they were handed a flier about the GOP's election night party.

This of course should come as no surprise to many of us as Paul Ryan has a history of staging phony, self serving, and completely unhelpful photo ops.

Seriously this just makes me sick to my stomach. Especially since this the campaign of a man who calls federal spending on disaster relief "immoral,"

My personal opinion is that these sad attempts to appear presidential will not fool the majority of the voters, who are probably right now just waiting for their opportunity to vote THIS man back into office.

H/T to Democratic Underground

You know, the guy who trudges through sheets of pouring rain to return to his job of helping the American people, instead of staging a photo op PRETENDING to help the American people.

In fact the President is doing such an impressive job of attacking this terrible situation, and keeping politics out of it, that he even made a believer out of this guy.

Courtesy of the New York Times

 Let's see the Romney/Ryan campaign compete with that!

Update: Here is another picture of our President giving to those who are hurting in ways that others simply cannot do.

Photo courtesy of the Obama Diary