President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, weren’t the only national election candidates who made headlines Tuesday night.
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was in the news for his alleged photo-op at an Ohio soup kitchen.
The president of the charity that runs the soup kitchen, Brian Antal, told The Washington Post the Romney campaign members “ramrodded their way into the group’s soup kitchen” so Ryan could get a photograph of himself washing dishes.
Ryan’s blunder was embarrassing, coming off as artificial in a video his visit. Antal’s statements further suggest that Ryan was at the soup kitchen just for the sake of making an appearance.
However, this matter does not deserve such intense scrutiny from the press. The media’s handling of this story is inappropriate. The photo-op was a misstep, but the press is treating it like a scandal.
Kissing babies and scrubbing dishes is what politicians do to garner more votes. It makes them seem sincere and humble.The intense scrutiny from the media is unnecessary and distracts people from the real issues of the campaign.
The election is not even three weeks away. The media should be focused on how well Ryan can govern instead of how sincere or insincere he was about scrubbing pots.
Hopefully, this incident encourages people to reevaluate what traits they want to see in their political candidates. Do we really need more images of candidates kissing babies? Probably not.
There are bigger issues to be scrutinized over, such as how well a candidate’s tax plan will hold up.
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