The outrageous ad by Priorities USA Action, the Obama Super PAC–the one that accuses Mitt Romney of being responsible for a woman’s death from cancer, apparently on the theory that Romney was personally responsible for providing health insurance and health care services to family members of anyone who ever worked for a company in which Bain Capital invested, in perpetuity–has blown up in Obama’s face like an exploding cigar. The ad is outrageous on so many levels–the woman never worked for Bain Capital or any Bain-associated company; she died seven years after Romney left Bain, at a time when Bain was being run by a major Obama fundraiser; she had her own health insurance that had nothing to do with Bain, and her death had nothing to do with insurance anyway; she went to a hospital thinking she had pneumonia and turned out to be suffering from an incurable cancer–that it has horrified every halfway-objective observer.
So the Obama campaign has tried to distance itself from the ad. By lying. At Townhall, Guy Benson sums up the Obama campaign’s falsehoods:
Asked about the Priorities spot on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Robert Gibbs said he doesn’t “know the specifics” while Stephanie Cutter said on CNN: “I don’t know the facts about when Mr. Soptic’s wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance.” And Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One that “we don’t’ have any knowledge of the story of the family.”
Only it turns out that the Priorities USA ad was not Mr. Soptic’s first brush with the bright lights–even apart from the fact that he previously appeared in another Obama ad. No: in May, the Obama campaign itself peddled Mr. Soptic’s false story on a conference call with reporters:
But Cutter hosted an Obama campaign conference call in May in which Soptic told reporters the very story featured in the Priorities spot. Both the campaign and the Priorities USA Action said there was no coordination about Soptic’s appearances. In the campaign’s ad, Soptic speaks only about the plant. In the Priorities spot, he tells the personal story he relayed during the Obama campaign conference call. On the May 14 Obama campaign call, Soptic detailed his wife’s illness and death.
At the link, you can listen to Stephanie Cutter–the same Stephanie Cutter who now says “I don’t know the facts” about Soptic’s wife–thanking Soptic for “sharing his experiences” with reporters.
This afternoon, Twitter was abuzz with commentary on the fact that the Obama campaign feels the need to lie, blatantly, to distance itself from Priorities USA’s despicable behavior–the very same despicable behavior in which the Obama campaign itself engaged in May. (Coordination, anyone?) There is no point in asking whether Barack Obama and his team have no shame. We all know the answer to that question.
UPDATE: More from John Nolte, who is unhappy with Politico.
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