Posted on 08/07/2012 11:01:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action lobbed a heavy-duty attack at Mitt Romney this morning, airing an ad that links the closure of a GST Steel plant in Kansas City to the loss of a family’s health insurance — and the death of a woman some time later.
The man speaking in the ad, Joe Soptic, says, “Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care and my family lost their health care. And a short time after that my wife became ill.” Soptic explains he’s not exactly sure when his wife became sick, but that when he took her to the hospital she had undetected, advanced cancer and died 22 days later.
The Romney campaign has pushed back on other GST Steel-related attacks by arguing that the plant in Kansas City closed after he stepped away from his management job at Bain. (Democrats counter that Romney was still listed as a top executive at Bain through 2002, and that he built up the private equity firm during the time it invested in GST Steel.)
In the case of this particularly jarring super PAC ad, it may also be relevant that Soptic’s wife died in 2006, years after the GST factory closed down.
A 2006 story in the Kansas City Star reported the death of Ranae Soptic, a former champion roller skater: “Soptic went to the hospital for pneumonia, but doctors found signs of very advanced cancer, and she died two weeks later on June 22.”
I asked Priorities USA strategist Bill Burton to explain the connection between Romney, Bain and a cancer fatality that happened near the end of Romney’s tenure as governor of Massachusetts. The lapse in time between the plant closing and Soptic’s death doesn’t mean the ad is invalid, but it raises questions about the cause and effect relationship here.
“We’re illustrating how long it took for communities and individuals to recover from the closing of these businesses,” Burton responded. “Families and individuals had to find new jobs, new sources of health insurance and a way to make up for the pensions they lost. Mitt Romney has had an enduring impact on the lives of thousands of men and women and for many of them, that impact has been devastating.”
Like most of the outside-group ads in the 2012 race, the fairness of this one is open to interpretation. But both the Priorities attack and the new welfare-themed hit on Obama from the Romney campaign are provoking more intense outrage — both publicly and privately — than most of the other spots we’ve seen this summer.
Now that I think of it. There were Obituaries in the Boston newspapers every day that Romney was governor.
If he didn’t have health care why did he take her to the hospital? I know, I know.......
So Romney, the felon, is now responsible for causing cancer - in between masquerading as Romneyhood.
And yet Obama’s radical background can not be touched.
I saw this movie in 2008. I know how it ends.
You mean to tell me that pond scum Romney and Bain Capital do not convey immortality on anyone who works for them and their families?
So if anyone who worked at Solyndra, or any of their dependents die before 2016, we can blame it on Obama.
By now someone must have documented the loss of jobs, health care, retirement benefits of those new car dealerships closed by Obama; and the same losses of the non-union GM employees as a result of GM being “saved” by Obama.
What am I missing here? The article doesn’t make sense. If the husband was unemployed and w/o health insurance, the family could have been put on Medicaid.
This is one of the two areas Romney is vulnerable, the other being Romneycare. For the last 20 years it has been the accepted general business practice to close US based operations and move offshore and I am sure that Bain did their share. Romney needs to figure out how to handle this or the liberals will beat him to death with it. Santorum tried to bring this up many times.
I read recently that 20,000 non-union GMers lost their
pensions as BHO stole GM from the owners and gave it to the UAW.
Conveniently unspoken in this whole GST Steel thing is that Bain CARRIED THEM FOR EIGHT FREAKIN’ YEARS before finally pulling the plug!!!!!
So, help me figure out what the democrats are saying here.....
If someone loses a job and dies years later, the ex-employer is now considered a murderer?
Uh.....we've had over 8% unemployment for almost 4 years now because of democrat policies. How many people have died in the last 4 years? Wouldn't that make Oboma a mass murderer?
“If he didn’t have health care why did he take her to the hospital”
That is a good point. She thought she had pneumonia and he took her to the hospital and she was admitted. While checking out the pneumonia they found out she had an advanced stage of cancer. The whole charge about Mitt is absurd.
“Soptic explains he’s not exactly sure when his wife became sick, but that when he took her to the hospital she had undetected, advanced cancer and died 22 days later.”
It’s a mistake for the GOP to not take this ad and fire it right back at the Dems.
Cancer aside, under Obamacare, if he wasn’t carrying the mandated insurance the IRS would come looking for him to fine him.
Yes, but surely that had to be George Bush's fault.
So when someone in WV, PA or another coal state who has lost their job dies we can blame Obama?
Romney ad in response: Mitt holding poster of a cute dog. “This is Skippy. Skippy is no longer with us because Obama ate him. Yes, Obama is a dog eater. Re-elect him and he may eat your dog. Come to think of it . . the cops have been shooting a lot of dogs lately. Why is that?”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.