Team Obama returned to its Chicago roots this week with a Super PAC ad that virtually accuses Mitt Romney of murder.
Just when you thought the mudslinging couldn’t get worse . . .
The star of the ad is Joe Soptic, who lost his job in 2001 when the Romney-founded firm Bain Capital shuttered the GST Steel plant in Kansas City, Mo.
“When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care,” Soptic says in the ad. “And a short time after that, my wife became ill” and couldn’t afford treatment. “She passed away in 22 days.”
Pity is due Soptic for his loss, but the ad is pure fiction. And Team Obama knows it.
Here’s a timeline of what really happened:
* Bain Capital buys the GST mill in 1993.
* Romney leaves Bain in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.
* Bain closes the mill in 2001.
* Joe Soptic loses his job, but his wife Renae retains her own health insurance through her job at Savers Thrift Store.
* In 2002, after sustaining an injury, Renae loses her job and her insurance.
* In 2006, a full five years after the steel plant closed, Renae is diagnosed with cancer and passes away soon after.
The ad hides all that — and essentially paints Romney as a cold-blooded killer.
Now, Obama & Co. have tried to distance themselves from the ad, saying it’s “by an entity . . . not controlled by the campaign.”
But they won’t denounce it. Their campaign has featured Soptic in at least three other promos. And Obama backers are urged to donate to the PAC.
Spin and manipulation, of course, are standard procedure in electoral bouts.
But you’ve got to wonder: Is nothing too sleazy for Team Obama?