Shameless and crass
Mitt Romney claimed to be suspending his campaign during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which devastated the East Coast last night and continues to impose its wrath. However, that’s pretty much NOT what he did. Instead, an Ohio campaign event was hurriedly renamed a “relief charity event”. As the event began, the standard Romney bio video was shown on a huge screen. The press was invited, too. As John Aravosis at AMERICAblog points out, why invite the press if this is for charity???
Somebody forgot to change the sign on the door:
Sign at the Romney storm relief event in Kettering Ohio this AM. twitter.com/mikiebarb/stat…
— Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) October 30, 2012
The press passes still called it a “Victory Rally”:
Press badge for today’s “storm relief event” in Ohio: twitter.com/Ari_Shapiro/st…
— Ari Shapiro (@Ari_Shapiro) October 30, 2012
Inside, attendees’ donations of canned goods were assembled into a nice photo op for the multimillionaire.
Ryan staff and supporters arranging goods for a photo op
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) October 30, 2012
So, without putting too fine a point on it, while President Obama coordinated the efforts of relief agencies including FEMA, Mitt Romney was staging a campaign event in a crucial swing state that was meant to look like he was “doing something”. The problem is, what is needed isn’t canned goods. It’s money.
Red Cross tells us grateful for Romney donation but prefer people send money or donate blood dont collect goods NOT best way to help #Sandy
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) October 30, 2012
A man worth upwards of $250 million (that we know about) made a big show of sending donations of things given by others when what is really needed is cash donations. (The Red Cross can make a dollar go WAY farther than the average American can at the grocery store.)
What next? #AnnRomney organizes bake sale to raise money for hurricane victims of #Sandy #P2
— Anne C. Savage (@Anne_Savage) October 30, 2012
Ben White from Politico was pretty direct about it:
Romney is doing a “storm relief” event in Ohio? Why not come to NYC and give us a hand.
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) October 30, 2012
Fine by me if candidates want to go back to campaigning, just patronizing to pretend it’s something else.
— Ben White (@morningmoneyben) October 30, 2012
With this, Mitt Romney has effectively earned himself Scumbag Steve status:
It’s worth noting that, during the Republican primary, Mitt Romney suggested doing away with FEMA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTSHxR_4rc8
When asked about that today, he ignored reporters’ questions. 14 times.
In other Republican Fail news, the Gothamist ran a piece today with a title that could be off the pages of The Onion: “Bush’s FEMA Director, Michael Brown, Criticizes Obama for Responding to Sandy Too Quickly”.
Republicans have really left town for Surrealville, haven’t they? Or may Crasshypocrisytown…
