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.
This lady was diagnosed in 2006.
The United Steelworkers have a health and welfare fund for their unemployed members, which this family likely had access to.
Under the circumstances described, it seems unlikely that being insured would have made a meaningful difference in survivability.
This ad seems like even more of scam than usual.
She had it on absolute authority that it was a plot by the Reagan administration to reduce the population of minorities, third world people and people of non-traditional sexual orientations. (Seriously, that was the term she used like it was something new instead of something which dated back to the days of Lot and Abraham).
Rather than argue with her head on, I asked her if she believed the scientific data that AIDS originated in Africa. She replied that she did.
Then I asked her how AIDS moved from Africa to the United States. She said that a Reagan Administration funded scientist got it from a monkey and brought it over.
"Through sexual contact?", I asked. "Of course", she replied. "Sex, drug use and blood transfusions were the only way to spread the AIDS virus and sexual contact is the most efficient."
"Interesting", I replied. "How did they know? Did the scientist confess? Did the monkey confess? Or did someone catch them in the act?"
2006?
Well in THAT case it is obvious then that it is...(drum roll)...
BUSH'S FAULT!!
So why didn't this guy buy health insurance with his severance checks? It's not like he didn't have an income.
So, if it had not been for Romney, GST Steel would still be a viable and thriving company and the woman would still be alive because she would have had health care?BS!
Well, I think you need to reexamine your facts. I never said anything about Romney as head of Bain. Romney was working with Bain until 1998. Off shoring began in the mid 80’s and the practice spread like wildfire throughout the 90’s. I have no proof, or interest, of his role but this is politics and the point is he MUST be able to handle this besides responding with “it was his fault” or Romney will loose this election. There are simply too many votes that do not trust him.
“OBAMA MYTH: Bankrupting a successful steel mill in Kansas City, MO.
REALITY: The GS Technologies plant that Barack Obama has used to attack Mitt Romney was scheduled to be closed if Romney and his colleagues hadn’t bought the plant and tried to help turn it around.
In 1993, GS Technologies, a company Bain Capital had invested in, purchased a struggling Kansas City steel plant from Armco. Prior to this investment, Armco announced plans to close the Kansas City plant if a buyer could not be found.
This investment – and $170 million in upgrades – kept the Kansas City plant competitive in a tough international market and saved the steel workers’ jobs for eight years.
Two years after Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the GS Technologies plant was closed because of foreign steel dumping into the U.S. market. Thirty-one other steel companies declared bankruptcy during the same period.”
Yep he sounds like a lousy husband to boot. What husband doesn’t know when his wife is sickly? And why didn’t he get off his ass and get a new job with insurance in order to provide for his family? He sounds like a first class loser to me. We weren’t in a recession then. He was probably sitting on his ass collecting unemployment.
The ad is vile and BS, but this new info doesn’t discredit it any more than it has already discredited itself:
Just do a little thinking here:
1) If the woman fell sick just after her husband got laid off, she clearly had cancer while she was insured and didn’t go to a routine checkup WHILE insured.
2) if she contracted cancer AFTER he was laid off and it spread for 4 years that she couldn’t go to a routine checkup, that would help the twisted logic in the commercial.
Bottom line - If you can’t afford $283 per month insurance that is one thing. But one uninsured trip to the doctor for a routine checkup would not cost $300 * 48 months= $14,400. She could have gone once or twice in that time period without breaking the bank.
Plus the whole premise is BS: “She felt sick and didn’t want to go to the Doctor and then she got sick and she went to the Doctor and that’s how we found out”.
Bottom line “she didn’t feel sick and didn’t go to the Doctor and then LATER felt sick AND THEN went to the Doctor, but it was way too late”
Maybe a guy “wouldn’t go to the doctor” but women go when they feel sick.
The whole ad is a scam ( as is most of Obama’s other ads ).
So the plant was taken over by Bain in 1993, kept runing until 2001. This man’s unfortunate wife died in 2006, shortly after diagnosis.
What was the husband doing from 2001-2006? When did he get laid off? Was he unemployed during that period?
How often did his wife get checkups while he was employed?
Facts don’t count much when you are making a purely emotional atack.
Don’t forget that Romney hates animals and treats them with disdain...well, except for horses, who he will treat better than humans...
No, we watched a different movie in 2008. In that one, the main character didn’t even want to fight whatsoever. In this one, the main character often hits the bad guy, hard. So, no, we don’t know how this one will end.
And the HIPAA laws will conveniently prohibit those who have the actual facts of this case from disclosing them.
BTW, I think that Romney should SEAL his Federal and State Tax Records.
And the wife died of lung cancer, I do not know if she smoked.
Do we yet know how this guy is connected to the Democrat Party? Union officer, voter fraud specialist, general chisler?
Buy a clue. Romney had been gone from Bain for years and the company was controlled by and Obama money launderer.
This in NOTHING but a LIE. There is NOTHING here except duplicitous crap. It is amazing fools still believe anything these LIARS say, anything.
Here, let me illustrate:
(sad violin music swells up)
Joe Soptic: “Mitt Romney and Bain closed my plant, I lost my job, I lost my health care and my family lost their health care. And a short time after that my wife became ill.”
".....when I took her to the hospital she had undetected, advanced pancreatic cancer and died 22 days later."
"She told me on her death bed that she had voted for Mitt Romney in the last election."
(Booming Voiceover as Soptic cries: "SHE VOTED FOR ROMNEY. THEN SHE GOT PANCREATIC CANCER AND DIED."
"DON'T GET PANCREATIC CANCER AND DIE. VOTE OBAMA IN 2012.""I'm Barack Obama, and if you don't vote for me, I approve the probability that you will get pancreatic cancer and die."
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.