So here's what things looked like at the donation table at Mitt Romney's "storm relief" event before he arrived:



At least he didn't wash clean dishes. I guess.

And here's things nearly an hour later when Mitt Romney finally arrived:Not that there was ever any question about it, but those two images tell you everything you need to know in order to figure out that Romney's event today wasn't about helping hurricane victims: it was about making him look good. There was no practical reason to make people wait 40 minutes to donate their goods other than to create a photo-op of Mitt Romney collecting relief supplies.

It makes for a nice visual unless you realize that it was entirely staged to support Mitt Romney's personal political ambitions. And in case you have any remaining doubts, keep in mind that the Red Cross doesn't even want the stuff that Romney was urging people to donate:





@mitchellreports via web Red Cross tells us grateful for Romney donation but prefer people send money or donate blood dont collect goods NOT best way to help #Sandy

The problem is simply logistics: in the midst of a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, the last thing the Red Cross wants is to sort through a hodge podge of donations and figure out where things should go. But cash donations don't look as good on camera, so Romney asked for stuff that he thought would be more photogenic, even though it wasn't the best way to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy—because this event was about him, not about them.

And it turns out that he didn't even donate the stuff to the Red Cross:





@Ari_Shapiro via Twitter for iPhone Ppl pointing out that Red Cross wants $ not food. But food donations via Romney aren't going to RC. He's encouraging ppl to give $ to RC.



@Ari_Shapiro via Twitter for iPhone Folks asking where the food is going- days ago the campaign said VA but today Romney said NJ. Campaign bus to hand it out.

Instead, he's putting it on his campaign bus and handing it out:Talk about inefficiency.