It's incredible to think that a canned food drive can cope with a massive natural disaster

[MrScorpio]

What kind of idiot comes up with this shit?

There are first responders rescuing people in the effected areas, there are power outages, destroyed homes… And Romney comes up with canned food?

He wants to get rid of FEMA… Just imagine a FEMA-less US Government response under Romney to any kind of natural disaster.

What a dangerously incompetent fuck.

[rightsideout]

1. Romney would throw canned food to a drowning man

[tanyev]

15. AT a drowning man

"Boom! Got him! Oh, now you don't want this flotation device? You unconscious or something?" *awkward chortle*

[malaise]

2. WilLIARd is a fucking joke

reminds me of that crazy woman in Nevada who was bartering checkens for medical care. Rmoney is at least a century behind the times

[Raster]

3. Maybe Ann can hold a bake sale?

And the boys can mow lawns.

I know, let's put on a show... the Relief Society can furnish the refreshments. Golly gee!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Hey, it was a whole campaign bus full!

Canned goods for at least -- oh, maybe 100 people? I think it was great for all those Republicans to dust off those old cans of white asparagus and pickled mushrooms and cream of celery soup that have been stuffed in the back of their pantries for three or four years and bring them to the Romney non-campaign event to be transported by bus over swamped, impassible roads to a few dozen people who wouldn't eat that crap if they still had some dog food.

[LeftInTX]

5. Yep, it will repair barrier islands, sea walls, roads, subways, railroads

[Mr. Ected]

6. This is EXACTLY how the private sector would battle disaster relief

Coupon Moms handing out BOGO coupons, bake sales, and potpourri.

[revolution breeze]

7. When Issac hit here in August

The Red Cross gave out ice, water and CANNED FOOD. I don't know, some people were glad to have that tuna fish

[magical thyme]

10. The Red Cross specifically asks that canned and other goods *not* be donated

because it is very inefficient use of their resources, requiring sorting and repackaging before distribution.

They can do better with money, which allows them to more quickly distribute massive amounts of pre-sorted and pre-packaged goods to where they are needed.

It also enables them to distribute *what* is needed. Ice is more important in summer than at the end of October. Fresh water always important. It sounds from descriptions that food is not the problem at the moment; shelter and transportation are. Especially transportation to get NY/NJ up and running again. Combined they are huge economies and the entire country depends on them for certain activities.

Canned goods to feed a meal to 100 or so isn't going to help a situation where you have to aid millions.

[Mariana]

12. Which they probably bought with donated cash.

I don't anyone has said that hungry people shouldn't be given canned food. It's that Rmoney isn't really helping with this. And he knows it, too.

The food drive concept can work on a small, local scale, but not for a huge disaster affecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people at once. Think of the expense, manpower and time it takes to collect small amounts of canned food from individuals and small groups all over the place, inspect every item for expiration dates and proper seals, sort it, transport it, and distribute it. It's incredibly inefficient, wasteful and worst of all, SLOW.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. They bought in as close to the zone as they could

Take my word on this, transporting it from WI is a logistical nightmare

They get ten bucks from me, and instead of getting this in San Diego, they will buy it and drive it in as close as they can to the distribution point. It primes the economy, and you save a lot in gas.

[bongbong]

8. Flip-Flopper's FEMA

Their emergency plans will consist entirely of this:

1) buy canned food from China as cheaply as possible
2) no inspections of the canned food
3) drop it from private planes, which charge the gov't $100,000 an hour to do that
4) cans all break open anyways on impact and are wasted
5) Galt rides again!

[HooptieWagon]

9. Its the pork and beans express bus.

Rolling into town for a photo-op. Romney trying to take credit for relief efforts, and demonstrate how "presidential" he is. Cheer up, DUers! This is likely to be an even bigger epic fail than his Olympic foreign policy gaffe-fest.

[DollarBillHines]

13. 'pub version of a Taco Truck

Driving around downtown Newark, tossing cans out the windows like Mardi Gras beads.

[Brickbat]

11. Dude could have at least organized a spaghetti feed at the Legion.

[progressivebydesign]

14. It's something a Boy Scout would do. Not a mega millionaire candidate.

Will go down in history as the WORST campaign idea, ever. Eclpses tanks, and wind-surfers, and choosing Palin.

[Nay]

16. Romney was playing to the Ayn Randers/Republicans who think the US is such a GENEROUS

NATION*trademark symbol* that every monumental problem can be solved by churches and charities. Idiots.

[spanone]

17. but, the media all showed up....

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. And made fun of it.

[libdem4life]

25. They never miss a good trainwreck.

[RainDog]

18. agreed. he's incompetent

because he has NO CLUE what it's like to not be born into wealth and doesn't think anyone who wasn't deserves any decent standard of life.

The Republican Party has turned into a bunch of freaking sociopaths and religious extremists.

Eisenhower and Lincoln would puke to see the party that they were once proud to acknowledge.

[bleever]

19. And you just know there a lots of cans of creamed corn

and beets and other things that languish at the very back of the cupboard.

Also: ancient cans of condensed milk.

[hootinholler]

20. A really big selfish one

The same kind of people who think a donation jar on a gas station counter is a good way for people to pay for cancer treatments.

[aletier_v]

21. "What a dangerously incompetent fuck"

Not unless he's elected.

Until then, he's simply an amusing yet disturbing freak of nature.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. In other cultures

These drives are effective, and intensely personnel intensive...these are places that don't have a mature banking system, or where people mostly don't have access to banks.

This little exercise....is not that.

[libdem4life]

23. Maybe he was trying out for a WalMart job... stocking shelves? Greeter? Def not PR material.