This just looks bad.

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan pops into a soup kitchen to help out. He’s just looking for good press, maybe to pick up a few votes. It’s a typical politician thing. You go to a local, down-home charity, help out for a little bit and get your photo taken. The press picks it up and a few people somewhere say, “Wow, that guy really cares.”

According to the Washington Post, Ryan, pressed for time, popped into a soup kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio, and volunteered to clean some dishes. However, Ryan’s 15-minute visit was after the soup kitchen had closed, patrons had left, and the dining hall had been cleaned. Photos and video attached to the story show Ryan and family washing dishes that appear to be clean. In one photo, Ryan’s watch is still on his wrist. I’ve washed dishes at various jobs since I got out of high school. I usually don’t wear a watch. I wouldn’t want it to get all soapy or grimy.

I understand the need for campaigns to get their image out in the community and attempt to sway people to vote for their candidate, but this is pretty dishonest. Why couldn’t Ryan do something useful for the place? Like their paperwork. He might know a thing or two about cooking the books, but certainly not the soup. He could at least find a soup kitchen that isn’t closed, unless he had a plane to catch of course.

I’m used to this kind of campaigning. Have you ever seen a politician kiss a baby? They aren’t expressing a love for small children. They are trying to win votes, at least the mother’s.

This recent goof by the Romney-Ryan campaign shows a detachment from the community, and not just the library or your favorite park. I don’t even want to start on the recent “47 percent” comments. This shows a detachment from one of the most basic community support institutions, the place that feeds people who have nothing and nowhere else to eat. Soup-gate (as I hereby name it) is a new low in political campaigning. Don’t worry. It will get lower soon.

I’m not saying Barack Obama is much better. He has the same kind of army of campaign workers dreaming up all kinds of different ways to nab votes. But I really don’t think Obama, especially with his background in community organizing would stoop this low.

The fact that Ryan did this doesn’t concern me. He and his campaign organizers made a mistake. Politicians and regular people do that. What concerns me is the similarity of the political campaign to big business marketing. The focus of a campaign has gone from “Let’s show people how great this guy is,” to “Let’s make people think this guy is great.” Think about any company that advertises. You can’t just show why your product is worth it. You have to compel people to want it.

To be fair, there are politicians who engage in this practice solely because it is the only way to get elected. Which is a problem. I hope and am willing to support the one who will come along and put a stop to it.

However, Romney and Ryan seem all too cool with this. In fact, they like it. If he had the chance, I don’t think Romney would sign the bill to end corporate funding for political campaigns or their big-business style marketing strategies. If this is what politicians are OK with doing to get in office, what else will they be OK with doing once there?