Both CNN and Wapo's The Fact Checker have rated a pro-Obama superPAC ad which attempts to link Mitt Romney and Bain Capitol with the death of a woman from cancer, both "inaccurate" and given a "Four Pinocchios." More importantly when asked about it, Obama’s campaign adviser Robert Gibbs, opens the door to the discussion that should be on the table but which Obama doesn't want to talk about..... Unemployment.
First, about that ad.
Via the CNN link:
It's a very heart-wrenching story, but it’s not accurate. Here is the actual timeline:
Romney stopped his day-to-day oversight at Bain Capital in 1999 when he left to run the Salt Lake City Olympics, though he officially remained CEO until 2002. Bain Capital shut down GST Steel in 2001, costing Soptic his job.
According to Mr. Soptic, his wife received her primary insurance through her employer – a local thrift store called Savers – and retained it even after his layoff. Soptic's policy through GST Steel was her secondary coverage.
In 2002, Mitt Romney formally left Bain. Sometime in 2002 or 2003, Mr. Soptic says his wife injured her rotator cuff and was forced to leave her job. As a result she lost her health insurance coverage and Mr. Soptic's new job as a janitor did not provide coverage for his spouse.
It was a few years later, in 2006, that Ilyona Soptic went to the hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer and passed away just days later.
Via The Fact Checker:
Lay aside the question of whether Romney left active management of Bain in 1999 or 2001. The fact that Soptic’s wife died five years after the closure of the plant—and that she had had her own health insurance for a period after he lost his job—makes her passing largely irrelevant to Romney’s involvement in this transaction.
[...]
As we noted, a case could be made that Bain’s involvement extended the life of a dying steel plant, in which case Soptic kept his insurance longer than he might have expected.
Soptic is welcome to his opinion on possible reasons for his wife’s death, but that does not mean Obama supporters should exploit it. On just every level, this ad stretches the bounds of common sense and decency.
Ironically, Obama’s campaign adviser Robert Gibbs, in declining to criticize the ad, which is his right to do, inadvertently opened the door to the discussion Team Obama has been ttempting to avoid at all costs.
“This is an ad by an entity that’s not controlled by the campaign,” Gibbs said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I certainly don’t know the specifics of this man’s case. I do think there is a lot of concern in the country about what happens when people lose their jobs.”
Yes, please, let's discuss what is happening to the 23.6 million workers that are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work (U6 Total unemployment- 15.2 percent for July 2012).
Let's discuss the 8.3 percent official unemployment rate and the fact that unemployment has been over 8 percent for 42 straight months.
Let's discuss what is happening to the 10.3 percent of Hispanics that are unemployed under Obama. The 14.1 percent of African-Americans unemployed under Obama. (Source- United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary)
Let's discuss how food stamp usage and welfare beneficiaries remains at an all-time high because of all those unemployed workers under Obama.
Let's discuss how many people are losing their homes because they cannot afford them.
Let's discuss how U.S. poverty levels are on track to rise to the highest levels since the 1960's, under Obama.
Finally a topic Conservatives can agree with an Obama official on, by all means Mr. Gibbs, let's discuss "what happens when people lose their jobs."
