Epic Fail

A Lesson in Bad Optics

This is so shameless, rude, crass, douchey, and fake it leaves me damn near speechless.

Paul Ryan posed for a photo-op while cleaning a pot at a Youngstown, Ohio soup kitchen on Saturday. And that may sound like a kind gesture until you read what really happened.

Brian J. Antag, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.

"We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antag said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.”

He added: “The photo op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”

Ryan had stopped by the soup kitchen for about 15 minutes on his way to the airport after his Saturday morning town hall in Youngstown. By the time he arrived, the food had already been served, the patrons had left and the hall had been cleaned.

The pot Paul Ryan was seen cleaning in the photo was already clean.

Because of Paul Ryan's impromptu visit, the president of the soup kitchen is reportedly concerned he may lose funding from private donors if it even appears that he endorsed a candidate. And Paul Ryan did not have his permission to shoot a photo-op during his visit. A visit wherein he "did nothing."

Thanks a lot, Paul Ryan.

The sick irony is that Paul Ryan's policies, if they were ever implemented, would more than likely send more people to the very same soup kitchen he endangered today.