Romney Killed a Woman? Okay, Priorities USA May Have Gone a Little Too Far With This One [Updated]
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Perhaps emboldened by the success of their recent ‘Stage’ attack ad (it’s pretty powerful — take a look), the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA has now unleashed an even more aggressive ad. In this one, Mitt Romney basically kills a woman. No, seriously. Whereas in the ‘Stage’ ad, Priorities USA used an effective emotional anecdote relating to Bain Capital’s closing of a factory to demonstrate Romney’s insensitivity to everyday Americans, this ad just goes full retard. You never go full retard.
Okay, in addition to the fact that it’s unclear whether this is an attack on Bain Capital or a defense of Obamacare, isn’t the relationship between Bain’s actions and this woman’s death a bit attenuated? A company formerly headed by Mitt Romney closed down a plant, which in turn caused this man to lose his job, which in turn caused this woman to lose her health insurance, which in turn caused this woman not to get regular health check-ups, which in turn led her cancer to grow undiagnosed, which in turn caused her to die? And therefore, what, Mitt Romney is a murderer?
And it’s also relevant to note that this woman died in 2006. Priorities USA strategist Bill Burton explained that even though the woman died as Romney was finishing up his term as governor — well after he had anything to do with Bain Capital — the connection between Romney’s actions and her death was still a valid basis for attack:
“We’re illustrating how long it took for communities and individuals to recover from the closing of these businesses. 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.”
That sounds like a decent line of reasoning — and to be fair, the ‘Stage’ ad is also attenuated since it wasn’t actually Romney who told those guys to build the stage — but…still. The problem with Mitt Romney is that he is running on his experience at Bain Capital, and the problem with Bain Capital is that it caused a lot of people to lose their jobs while making a small number of privileged individuals very rich. When the plant got shut down, everyone was running around all “Oh my God, we’re all going to be unemployed” not “Oh my God, we’re all gonna die!!“ So let’s maybe stick with the fairer line of attack: Romney wants to enact policies that will lead to unemployment, further inequality, and less freedom of opportunity. He’s not going to try to kill people. That we know of.
[Update: We know you're going to be very surprised by this, but it took Red State roughly 2.4 seconds to call Obama a "murderer" in response. The title of the article is "Barack Obama is a Murderer," or alternatively, "I know you are, but what am I?"]
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Appellate attorney, admirer of funny people, Dolt.
Latest posts by Linda (The Daily Dolt) (see all)
Sam-R-I
August 8, 2012 at 4:49 am
The real question is… will swing voters be convinced by this? Or just turned off?
Linda the Dolt
August 8, 2012 at 5:05 am
I'm kind of curious about that myself.
Lizard
August 8, 2012 at 6:55 am
So… Mitt Romney is evil because he sabotaged the time machine that would have let this woman have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act two years before Barack Obama was elected? Is that the conclusion I'm supposed to draw? Or is anyone who ever fired anyone, causing them to not have health insurance, guilty of murder? What about just not hiring them in the first place? If I get hired instead of someone else,and that person then dies because they didn't have the job, did I kill them, or did the guy who hired me, or was it still somehow Mitt's fault?
I think it was Hilary Clinton's fault. She came off as so cold and unlikable in the early 1990s that no one wanted the health care plan she masterminded. There you go. Blame assigned. See, if she'd baked better cookies (remember cookiegate?), she'd have been seen as warm and nurturing, and her health care plan would have passed Congress back in 1992.
But, wait! Clinton was only elected because of how Bush screwed up the economy, so it's Bush's fault.
Except that Bush inherited problems from Reagan, so, it's Reagan's fault.
But Reagan was only elected because Carter was seen as weak, so it's Carter's fault.
But Carter was seen as weak because of the hostage crisis, so it's Ayatollah Khomeni(sp)'s fault.
But the Ayatollah rose to power because the CIA-back Shah was unpopular, so it's the CIA's fault.
Who authorized the creation of the CIA? It must be their fault this woman died of cancer. Blame them.
(I can go back to Cro-Magnon man, if you want, but I think the point has been beaten to death…)
Linda the Dolt
August 8, 2012 at 8:03 am
Yeah, there are a million things to attack Romney on legitimately. This kind of Butterfly Effect attack doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
axollot
August 12, 2012 at 8:19 am
Not bad – the fault lies with our policy. We have bad trade policy [costing jobs] we have poor health care policy [costing lives] we have a for profit prison system that makes us the prison capital of the world. Policy after policy since the start of the Cold War. Which is when the CIA started and ya they share a lot of the blame.
Lance
August 8, 2012 at 8:42 am
What I see is that the ad doesn't say Romney killed her (or anyone) – it just says he doesn't care about middle-class people, at all. That's a fair statement.
Linda the Dolt
August 8, 2012 at 9:56 am
I agree 100% that Romney is unconcerned with the middle-class, but the implication of the ad is that his actions at Bain led to this woman's death. I think there are more honest ways of demonstrating that Romney doesn't care about the middle-class than to draw a connection between the lay-offs and her death, which is a bit of a Rube Goldberg.
And yes, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say the ad was saying he "killed" her, but we've never shied away from hyperbole for effect here (see, for example… well pretty much every article we've ever written). It is a humor site, after all, even if we're not always funny. The implication that the Bain lay-offs led to this woman's death just seemed ridiculous to me — even as a liberal — which is why I used that term.
sixpounder
August 9, 2012 at 8:49 am
All one needs to know about the aptly named, Daily Dolt:
…the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA released an ad linking Mitt Romney to a woman’s death from cancer, which we would rate as “Technically Not False But Really Misleading And Kind Of Unfair.”
Linda the Dolt
August 9, 2012 at 9:10 am
And…?