Perhaps there will be a worse political ad than the following during this campaign season, but I hope not. This one is insane.
A Harsh Anti-Romney Ad Sparks Criticism has the story:
"A new TV ad that suggests Mitt Romney's business dealings contributed to a
woman's death from cancer by depriving her of health insurance enraged
Republicans and left even some supporters of President Barack Obama troubled by
its tone.
The ad by Priorities USA Action drew protests from Republicans for suggesting
that Mr. Romney's leadership of Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he once
ran, played a role in the death of Ilyona Soptic at age 55.
The ad features Joe Soptic, 62, of Missouri, who lost his job when GST Steel
of Kansas City—owned by Bain and other investors for eight years—was closed. As
melancholy music plays, Mr. Soptic says that when the plant closed, he and his
family lost their health-care coverage and "a short time after that, my wife
became ill." Her illness was diagnosed five years later. "I don't think Mitt
Romney understands what he's done to people's lives by closing the plant," Mr.
Soptic says in the ad. . . .
Mr. Soptic said that his wife was receiving health insurance through her
employer at the time he lost his job at GST Steel, though she later suffered an
injury, left her job and lost her insurance coverage. {NOTE: She didn't work at and wasn't insured by GST Steel.}
He could not say precisely
when this occurred.
Mr. Soptic said that after he lost his job, he found work as a school
custodian about six months later and had the option to put her on his insurance
plan. But he opted not to, he said, because he could not afford the more than
$350 monthly premium on the $25,000 salary he was making, on top of paying his
mortgage and a daughter's college tuition. Ilyona Soptic was diagnosed with
cancer in 2006 and died that year.
Bill Burton, a former Obama White House aide who co-founded Priorities USA
Action, said the ad was running in five battleground states, including Ohio and
Florida. He said the ad was part of a $20 million project but would not say how
much of that money was devoted to putting the ad on the air.
When ads are
provocative, even a small investment in airtime can lead to outsize attention
from the media and viewers who watch the ad online.
Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee,
accused the super PAC of "exploiting the tragic death of a woman with cancer to
further their political agenda. Tactics like these show the lengths President
Obama and his allies will go to distract voters from Obama's failure to turn the
economy around."
Mr. Burton said the ad was fair, noting that Mr. Soptic couldn't afford
insurance for his wife after GST Steel closed. "Anyone who suggests the impact
of a factory shutting down isn't felt for years later is wrong,'' he said. . . .
The ad comes as the campaign rhetoric is coarsening, with Messrs. Obama and
Romney taking to name-calling. This week, President Obama trotted out a new
phrase to impugn Mr. Romney's tax plan: "reverse Romney Hood." The Republican
challenger retorted that Mr. Obama is full of "Obamaloney."
Mr. Soptic also appeared in a spot put out by the Obama campaign in May. In
it, he said that watching what happened to the steel company after Bain and
others took over "was like watching an old friend bleed to death."
Asked what Mr. Romney's responsibility was in the family's misfortunes, Mr.
Soptic said: "He was one of the investors [in the plant]. When they bought the
company, they guaranteed us that we would receive a full pension and health
care. And when [the company] filed for bankruptcy, I lost some of my pension and
all my health care. And if I've had that health care, her quality of life would
probably have been a little better.""
Summary
Politics sucks. It really sucks.
But politicians won't grow up unless and until We the People require them to do so.
That's my take.
Thanks. Bob.
No comments:
Post a Comment