Obama camp denies knowledge of cancer tale it told in May

[Dave]

The Obama campaign may be in a bit of trouble even though they didn't produce this ad. While it was a Super-Pac that produced the ad, members of the Obama campaign have denied any knowledge of the person in the ad... one small problem, at least one of the people in the campaign not only was aware of the guy in the ad and his story, she took part in a conference call with the guy. Because of this, their could be some legal issues to deal with as its illegal for a campaign to have any contact with Super-Pac's if it can be shown that there was a connection... that remains to be seen. Past that, the ad was a new low really.. obviously the point of the ad is to suggest that because of Mitt Romney that this guys wife died from lack of insurance coverage because of the guy being let go from his job that was at a company that Bain Capitol had owned. When you dig down into the facts though, this guys wife actually had her own health insurance after he got canned so from the get go this ad is extremely misleading. Also in the ad, the guy makes it sound like he was surprised that she got sick when he took her to the hospital yet when you listen to the recording of the conference call he took part in, he already knew she had cancer when he took her to the hospital.

I know most political campaigns are going to resort to mud slinging and all that, its the nature of the beast at this point, but there should be some sort of retribution to any campaign or Super-Pac that puts out this sort of slop.. be it a fine or having their PAC classification revoked if that's possible.

Oops? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign washed its hands Wednesday of an independent group's vicious (and misleading) ad effectively blaming Mitt Romney for the death of a laid-off steelworker's wife from cancer. Campaign officials flatly denied any knowledge of the facts in the case—but it turns out the widower told the same story on an Obama campaign conference call in mid-May. (The Obama campaign responded late in the day: See update below).

"We have nothing, no involvement, with any ads that are done by Priorities USA. We don't have any knowledge of the story of the family," Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday.

The ad features Joe Soptic, who lost his job and his health benefits after Romney's Bain Capital closed the GST Steel plant in Kansas City, Mo., in 2001. Soptic later told CNN that his wife had health insurance through her own employer from that point to 2002 or 2003, when she left that job because of an injury—a detail that undermines the ad's heartbreaking narrative.

"I don't know the facts about when Mr. Soptic's wife got sick, or the facts about his health insurance," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told CNN on Wednesday.

But there's a problem. As Politico first reported, Soptic told essentially the same story in a May 14, 2012, conference call hosted by the Obama campaign. Here's what he said then, according to a partial recording of the call passed along by a Republican official:

After we lost our jobs, we found out that we were going to lose our health insurance, and that our pensions hadn't been funded like Bain promised they would be. I was lucky to find another job as a custodian in a local school district. They gave me some health insurance, but I couldn't afford to buy it for my wife. A little while later she was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had to put her in a county hospital because she didn't have health care, and when the cancer took her away, all I got was an enormous bill. That put a lot of stress on me: I thought I'd be paying it off until I died myself. That probably wouldn't have happened if Bain kept its promise and I was allowed to keep our health insurance.

"It's upsetting what Mitt Romney and his partners did to us," he added.

The revelation drew an immediate rebuke from Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams, who said Obama and his campaign "are willing to say and do anything to hide the president's disappointing record."

"But they're not entitled to repeatedly mislead voters," he said.

The Obama campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But aides earlier had sought to shift the conversation away from the independent ad to the Romney campaign's misleading attack on Obama's record on welfare, essentially labeling the discussion over the Priorities ad a distraction.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, speaking to reporters alongside Psaki, blasted "the categorically false and blatantly dishonest advertisement from the Romney campaign—not a third-party group—from the Romney campaign with regards to the president's policy on welfare reform."

"While we're talking about this ad, which we all know we had no involvement in, Mitt Romney's team is running a dishonest ad, an ad that is a big, bold-faced lie that even President Clinton has said was disappointing and inaccurate," Psaki agreed.

"And that's an ad that they should be held accountable for and on the facts, because right now they're out there running it across the country as if this is a true policy when in fact it's not," she said. "So that's a conversation we feel like we should be having."

UPDATE, 5:51 pm: Reached for comment, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt reiterated that the campaign "didn't produce" the ad and tried to shift the attention to Democratic criticisms of Romney's business record.

"Joe Soptic suffered when he lost his job in the aftermath of the GST Steel plant closing, and no one is denying that he discussed that when he appeared in a campaign advertisement and on a conference call," LaBolt said by email.

"The important point here is that Mitt Romney's campaign is based solely on his experience as a corporate buyout specialist, and while he has been quick to claim he created jobs, he refuses to accept responsibility for the jobs that were lost and workers that were impacted," the spokesman said.

[Willy]

Good post Dave.

[Dave]

Here's audio from the conference call...

Its a shame that this guy hates Mitt Romney for what he perceives he thinks Bain Capitol did to his company. Maybe Bain did come in and make a bunch of money and maybe they didn't... I think this guy forgets that not every company can be saved. I believe I recall when the Obama ad that also featured this guy came out that it was mentioned that the company was already in trouble before Bain took over and also that Bain sold off the company a few years before it actually went belly up. As much as Bain I'm sure would of loved to had this guys company be successful, sometimes you just can't save every business. The guy here has really impeached his credibility in my opinion as its obvious though by allowing this ad to be released and presented as it was. I mean this guys wife had her own insurance, was never under his insurance but you wouldn't know that from the ad. Karma is a nasty thing at times and I got a feeling this guy is about to feel its wrath.

[XLFD]

Soptic was lucky he didn't lose all his pension benefits, like the non-union employees in the other story you posted today.  And who caused that--- lying members of the Obama Administration.  

[Dave]

I've since heard that this Soptic guy was actually offered a buyout by Bain, something that from what I understand is actually uncommon in the business world for the type of business and Soptic opted to hope that the company would rebound... which of course it didn't... along with many other steel companies that went belly up mostly because of foreign imports of steel. Its really his own fault he didn't take the buy out and start looking for other work earlier, he might of ended up with a better job then being a janitor.

[XLFD]

I heard that in the background tonight as well.  Here is a link with a video by Soptic that confirms it: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/08/09/star_of_cancer...  

[Dave]

Its sad that there are people defending the ad. Watched a few minutes of the ED show on MSNBC tonight (that was about all I could stomach) and ED was talking about the ad and the aftermath. ED has basically turned it into a discussion about healthcare and then to be even more far out in asking his question of the day "Will republicans continue to lie to win the election?". I almost laughed out loud when I saw that. Apparently he isn't familiar with democrats lying. Quickest thing that comes to mind to show that they lie as much as anyone was of course the ad in question. ED is crazier then a room full of rabid dogs although not quite as smart. Its no wonder intelligent people don't take him serious.