Due Diligence: An unfair attack on Mitt Romney

(CBS News) A Democratic-aligned video out this week ties Mitt Romney to the death of a woman whose husband's plant was closed by Bain Capital, the company Romney used to run.

The video comes from Priorities USA Action, an outside group backing President Obama. It features a steelworker who says his wife died from cancer after Bain Capital closed the plant where he worked.

"When Mitt Romney closed the plant I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care," the man says in the spot. "And a short time after that, my wife became ill. I don't know how long she was sick and I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance."

The story is certainly affecting, and it fits into the Obama camp's narrative that Romney doesn't care about working people. There's just one big problem: It's not true.

CNN spoke to the steelworker, Joe Soptic. He acknowledged that his wife had gotten her primary insurance from her own job, a job she held after Soptic was laid off. She eventually had to leave that job, and got sick a few years after that - five years after the plant was closed. The suggestion in the ad that there is a direct line between the plant closure and Soptic's wife's death is inaccurate and unfair.

Priorities USA Action can legally have no connection to the Obama campaign. But like many similar groups, it's overseen in part by someone with close ties to the candidate it supports - in this case, former Obama White House spokesman Bill Burton.

The new ad is the latest to raise questions about whether super PACs and campaigns are engaged in tacit collusion - the super PAC runs nasty ads like this one to inflict damage on an opponent, while the campaign (not entirely plausibly) maintains its innocence. Consider: Soptic has appeared in a previous Obama campaign ad, and the campaign itself shared the story of Soptic's wife with the press back in May. On Wednesday, senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs refused to condemn the ad, telling MSNBC that he isn't familiar with the specifics of it. But he did endorse the message.

"This is an ad by an entity not controlled by the campaign. I certainly don't know the specifics of this man's case," he said. "I do think there is a lot of concern in the country about what happens when people lose their jobs -- we know that when they lose their jobs, because of most of where people get their healthcare provided for is in their jobs, they do also lose their healthcare."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said he hadn't seen the ad, and thus couldn't comment on it. But he also made clear he isn't going to weigh in. Instead, the White House has pressed reporters to focus on another inaccurate ad out this week - a Romney campaign attack on President Obama over welfare.

But bad behavior by the Romney campaign does not excuse an unfair attack from Obama's backers. And the Obama campaign's refusal to disavow the spot speaks to just how nasty the campaign has already gotten - a full three months before Election Day.

Thanks for watching.

[nottblu]

Rollothenorman, Obviously you haven't bothered to actually read the article. Here is an important line from the article: "The story is certainly effective, and it fits into the Obama camp narrative. There's just one big problem: it's not true." Enough said!

[RollotheNorman]

Two things: 1) You obviously don't understand my point, it eludes sophomoric little RepubliCON twerps like yourself.

and

2) I'm really not that concerned with what Montopoli's opinion of the ad is. Everything that proceeds from the mouth of Montopoli is not the Word of God! Sometimes you have to think things through for yourself. Mommy and Daddy are paying good money for you to develop your critical thinking skills, and so far it looks like money down the drain.

[credibility2]

This ad has been proven as a lie and fabrication of the truth. Even the liberal media is calling the lies out. That the president tries to assert he can't do anything about the ad is yet another lie. I wonder how much this idiot got paid to lie in the ad in the name of his deceased wife, which Romney had nothing to do with?

[dikaslogos]

The accusation of lying comes forth full throat-ed and without any basis of fact. It is rather easy to fall back on calling a person a liar when the accuser does not have to prove the credibility of the charge. Perhaps you didn't read the article by Mr. Montopoli.

He wrote: "The suggestion in the ad that there is a direct line between the plant closure and Soptic's wife's death is inaccurate and unfair." It isn't a declaration of fact. It is a supposition, an imputation and one man's interpretation of the meaning of the language used in the narrative. If you want to overtly denigrate, hate and feel mean, I guess that's your privilege.

[yarnm]

Ok, the ad is probably stretching the truth. I'm not a fan of that tactic. Having said that, I am not a fan of Democrats sitting back being nice guys when Republicans spread ugly malicious lies which work up their base into fearful and racist feeding frenzies. So it feels kind of uncomfortable when the shoe is on the other foot, doesn't it? Of course that won't stop you insisting that Obama is a Muslim and a foreigner will it? Lies are much more fun when they tickle your hateful fantasies, aren't they?

[marychgo]

Was what Bain Capital did legal? Probably. Was it moral? I'd say "No," and I suspect Mr. Soptic would agree with me!

Lots of things that are legal are also immoral -- and that probably includes whatever it is in Mitt Romney's tax returns that make him so intent on keeping them undisclosed.

[TimeToEvolve]

Only a paranoid moron like Robmee and his klan could try to squirm away from the facts of the half wit he is. I guess Wall Street has become so lawless and clueless that they figure they can even appoint the complete idiot Romney as pResident. Maybe America has gone that far down the toilet.

[Ben37221]

It is not a lie that the man lost his job due to Romney's greed. That is not in dispute. It is a fact that Romney continue to profit from the company even after he claim he left Bain. He was still signing documents two, three years after he claim he left Bain. Why do you think he does not want to release his tax return- because he knows that if he releases his tax return, he will be cut in a big lie that will sink his presidential hope.
Romney is the wrong man for America.

[retmw1]

tweaver

Post your sources that he was offerd a buyout, also COBRA is only good for 18 months, post your sources he was offered COBRA. He wasn't laidoff he was terminated if the company went out of business so COBRA wasn't available.

[jay1jay1]

So you equate bad super pac ads to bad actual candidate saying "I approve this lying ad" you have a news obligation to add republican pac ads to the lying campaign also.

[ex-obama-dem]

How many of us got out and knocked on doors 4 years ago only to find out we got fooled again? What happened to the Obama we used to know? Was it all a lie or does absolute power corrupt even those with the best of intentions? OBAMA=W

[RollotheNorman]

Really weak there, RepubliCON weasel.

[retmw1]

So go knock on doors for romney and get fooled again. ROMNEY= Wx2

[Molly-Pchr]

Good grief, there's so much material from Governor Romney that could be used against Mitt Romney from Bain, and vice versa, that Obama doesn't need junk like this.

[Jaylah54200]

by nottblu August 9, 2012 4:18 PM EDT
When you call [people names] you become irrelevant. Why not take a few snippets out of your Koran and see if that should be taken litterally (sic) in it's complete context. Idiots like you have no place in a debate. You have nothing but false assertions, inuendo, insults, false partisan leftwing talking points and name calling, never anything of substance or relevance.

-------------

Wow, haven't looked in a mirror lately, have you?

[mysticpizza]

I'm 41 years old, and sometimes find it hard to believe that this is happening in the the United States of America, to the degree that it is in 2012.I haven't seen anything like it in my life time.Beyond the political campaigns themselves,we have fringe elements that have woven completely false narratives ,on things such as "Birtherism ","terror babies", "re-education camps",et.al, into the mainstream of public discourse .We have a large number of people who believe the president is a Muslim,although he isn't, with nothing to support that view.We have people in the United States Congress who say that a top aide to the Secretary of State, and others in our government ,have ties to a radical Islamic group.Just a few months ago, yet another U.S. Representative made the claim, with no evidence to support it( nor none demanded of him
), that there are between 78 and 81 Communists in the Congress.The list goes on.Most who perpetuate these myths feel no need to substantiate them, because we don't demand it of them.Instead of "connecting the dots" by being able to draw a straight line from A to B, B to C, C to D,.... in a logical, orderly fashion to prove their theories or charges; they believe that if they have A, Q ,J and M in any random order, that it equals a conspiracy; regardless of how much it defies rationality.This is antithetical to what we say we believe in,as a nation; and has a corrosive affect on us.It is also dangerous because it makes us susceptible to paranoia, sheer bigotry, and radical ideologies that have destroyed other nations from within.The proponents of these myths propagate them because they know that no one will hold them accountable.Politicians, the media, and the public are all to blame , and it's a shame; because we are better than this.

[RollotheNorman]

I have to agree. Unfortunately what has occurred over the last 30 years or so is that the SCOTUS has basically any political speech, including lies and slander is protected. Removing those protections and allowing civil suits in the political arena for slander and defamation would go a long, long way toward getting the lunatics out of politics, in my opinion.