Brillo Gate: Ryan Visit To Soup Kitchen Angers Ohio Charity

Saturday, VP candidate Ryan and his family dropped in without permission on a soup kitchen run by the St. Vincent DePaul Society.

On Monday, The Washington Post got in touch with the president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, which runs the kitchen. And he wasn't happy about the Ryans' drop-in.

Brillo Gate was born.

Brian J. Antal told the newspaper that the Republican campaign did not contact him beforehand; apparently, a volunteer gave the go-ahead Saturday morning.

"We're a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations," Antal told The Post. "They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors."

Antal went a step further with his local newspaper, The Vindicator. He called the visit a "publicity stunt."

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Paul Ryan's soup kitchen photo op in Youngstown prompts complaint from charity's president | cleveland.com

The article also suggests the Ryans were expensively dressed, may not have actually touched any dirty dishes and did not meet any actual poor people.

Whoopsie-daisy!

I'm a Ryan fan, but if this is true (and I have no reason to doubt it) then someone on the campaign staff needs to go.

All politicians do this crap, and I hate it every time I see it. Just example #1 million of what's wrong with our policial system.

Pinkie said:

Saturday, VP candidate Ryan and his family dropped in without permission on a soup kitchen run by the St. Vincent DePaul Society.



Paul Ryan's soup kitchen photo op in Youngstown prompts complaint from charity's president | cleveland.com

The article also suggests the Ryans were expensively dressed, may not have actually touched any dirty dishes and did not meet any actual poor people.

Whoopsie-daisy!

Click to expand...

Yea Ryan is the one out of touch or something with the poor

Yet another desperate lib's attempt at painting a Republican as "rich and out of touch" or something because they champion private markets.

OP might want to try less demagoguery next time. Just sayin ...

Yea Obama and Biden CARE about the poor and Romney/Ryan don't or something. If you honestly believe that than I pity you. Really I do.

African American Unemployment under Obama is 14.5%

1 in 6 Americans are poor under Obama's failed economic policies

More Americans on Food Stamps and Disability than ever before

President Obama's Lavish Vacations Are Under Scrutiny Again - Yahoo! News

These laughable tactics aren't going to work this election. Time to try something different from the used up playbook.

Bronson said:

Yea Ryan is the one out of touch or something with the poor

Yet another desperate lib's attempt at painting a Republican as "rich and out of touch" or something because they champion private markets.

OP might want to try less demagoguery next time. Just sayin ...

Yea Obama and Biden CARE about the poor and Romney/Ryan don't or something. If you honestly believe that than I pity you. Really I do.

African American Unemployment under Obama is 14.5%

1 in 6 Americans are poor under Obama's failed economic policies

More Americans on Food Stamps and Disability than ever before

President Obama's Lavish Vacations Are Under Scrutiny Again - Yahoo! News

These laughable tactics aren't going to work this election. Time to try something different from the used up playbook.

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Wow, you're hatred of Obama is palpable. It's just sad that it has skewered your perception so badly that you can't even admit that this was a publicity stunt gone wrong. Team Ryan is in the wrong here. This hurt his image and hopefully doesn't take away from the private donations that the soup kitchen is receiving.

Pinkie said:

Saturday, VP candidate Ryan and his family dropped in without permission on a soup kitchen run by the St. Vincent DePaul Society.



Paul Ryan's soup kitchen photo op in Youngstown prompts complaint from charity's president | cleveland.com

The article also suggests the Ryans were expensively dressed, may not have actually touched any dirty dishes and did not meet any actual poor people.

Whoopsie-daisy!

Click to expand...

Of course it was an outrageous publicity stunt, and exploitation of a private charity striving to be apolitical.

Unless, of course, he made a donation from his personal account, and/or spent time serving food and cleaning up, which I seriously doubt.

.....so, how about that state department employee killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan this past Saturday?


Seriously, man. I'm sick and tired of both sides harping over trivial bull**** unrelated to anything of importance in regards to our current state. The trip was a dumb photo op. Shouldn't have wasted their time and ours by doing it. But the nonsense controversy following it is even worse. So I have to ask: are y'all proud of the level of discourse? Is this really how we want to spend our last three weeks leading up to the election?

Bronson said:

Yea Ryan is the one out of touch or something with the poor

Yet another desperate lib's attempt at painting a Republican as "rich and out of touch" or something because they champion private markets.

Click to expand...

Oh, but the sad part is that Republicans don't champion private markets as much as you think they do. They champion wealth accumulation. They don't support small business, or they would be more in favor of protectionist economic policies in the US. They don't support free markets, or they'd want to allow Medicare part D to negotiate drug prices. They don't particularly like competition (a distinctly Capitalist characteristic), otherwise they'd want to enforce anti-trust laws. It's actually quite funny that the only anti-trust action republicans take are those that limit the ability of employees to group together to negotiate better wages and working conditions. Companies can group together and fix prices all they want, but god forbid that labor have that ability.

1 in 6 Americans are poor under Obama's failed economic policies

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The average American was poor under Bush as well, and Clinton, etc. It's getting worse, but Obama's "failed economic policies" aren't to blame for 30 years of declining income share for those in the middle and lower classes. THAT is the result of supply-side economics, which is something that Romney and Ryan champion.

tessaesque said:

.....so, how about that state department employee killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan this past Saturday?


Seriously, man. I'm sick and tired of both sides harping over trivial bull**** unrelated to anything of importance in regards to our current state. The trip was a dumb photo op. Shouldn't have wasted their time and ours by doing it. But the nonsense controversy following it is even worse. So I have to ask: are y'all proud of the level of discourse? Is this really how we want to spend our last three weeks leading up to the election?

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It seems to be the way the candidates want to spend the last three weeks leading up to the election.

Chaddelamancha said:

Wow, you're hatred of Obama is palpable. It's just sad that it has skewered your perception so badly that you can't even admit that this was a publicity stunt gone wrong. Team Ryan is in the wrong here. This hurt his image and hopefully doesn't take away from the private donations that the soup kitchen is receiving.

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Criticism of failed policies is hatred?

You are engaging in emotional reasoning. I don't bother with that.

Look it's not my problem if the OP wants you to think Romney/Ryan are this guy and you fall for it

Pinkie said:

Saturday, VP candidate Ryan and his family dropped in without permission on a soup kitchen run by the St. Vincent DePaul Society.

Paul Ryan's soup kitchen photo op in Youngstown prompts complaint from charity's president | cleveland.com

The article also suggests the Ryans were expensively dressed, may not have actually touched any dirty dishes and did not meet any actual poor people.

Whoopsie-daisy!

Click to expand...

This is tacky at best. Good God, how could a politician do that? (I'm serious.) Volunteer to serve a damned meal. Do it for real, for God's sake. Then take a picture. Having said that, I'm sure the tactic isn't owned by Republicans.

Bronson said:

Criticism of failed policies is hatred?

You are engaging in emotional reasoning. I don't bother with that.

Look it's not my problem if the OP wants you to think Romney/Ryan are this guy and you fall for it

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You entire avoidance of the OP, while all the while screaming, OH YEA LOOK WHAT OBAMA/BIDEN HAS DONE, just shows where your loyalties lie. Not with Romney/Ryan, but with anything other than Obama.

Is it really that hard to admit that this photo op was/is not a good thing for Ryan?

I feel like there is another side to the story that hasn't been told, like some Obama supporter with ties to the shelter has gotten bent out of shape over this so the shelter is making a fuss. I doubt that Ryan just randomly forced his way into the shelter with his family in tow for a photo-op. Somebody set this thing up ahead of time. A local fast food joint that Obama "just happened to randomly stop at" for a few minutes (maybe 20) in 2008, was inspected and cleared by the appropriate parties days in advance.

Pinkie said:

Saturday, VP candidate Ryan and his family dropped in without permission on a soup kitchen run by the St. Vincent DePaul Society.



Paul Ryan's soup kitchen photo op in Youngstown prompts complaint from charity's president | cleveland.com

The article also suggests the Ryans were expensively dressed, may not have actually touched any dirty dishes and did not meet any actual poor people.

Whoopsie-daisy!

Click to expand...

I saw a thread like this already, dang girl. Anyway, I think Ryan made a mistake taking part in this. He needs to keep it genuine.

Good idea, terrible execution. I know liberals and Democrats want to attack Ryan over this, but this is a campaign stumble of minor proportions. All the campaign staffers needed to do was locate a similar operation, contact the heads of the office to see if it was okay, and do it. Something tells me the last part was the problem for some staffers, and they probably took the opportunity from a random employee too eagerly. Ryan worked in the food service industry during college, and this only makes sense. It was a staffer fumble and should be only seen as such.

What an idiot.




At least if he dished out food to the homeless there would have been nothing to say at all.

I love the name "Brillo Gate." I was amused by this story, but I just watched the amazing video:



I'm amazed by how awkward this is. And it's also really annoying. But somebody said they'd bet he didn't even meet a homeless person. This video proves he accidentally talked to one (possibly homeless man, but he could have just helped out at the soup kitchen too), but was able to utilize his highly advanced method of continuing to walk past a person he is pretending to talk to.