(Olivier Knox) A pro-Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action, unleashed what may be the most vicious and personal attack ad of the 2012 election cycle to date, effectively blaming Mitt Romney for the death of a laid-off steelworker's wife from cancer. The Romney campaign hit back hard, calling the charge "dishonest" and "contemptible."
The stark, minute-long commercial — entitled "Understands" -- features Joe Soptic, who lost his job and his health benefits after Romney's Bain Capital closed the GST Steel plant in Kansas City, Kansas — a move that has been the subject of pro-Obama ads before.
"I don't think Mitt Romney understands what he's done to people's lives by closing the plant," says Soptic, echoing recurring Democratic attacks on the former Massachusetts governor's tenure at Bain.
But here is the rest of the script:
"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my healthcare, and my family lost their healthcare. 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 that we couldn't afford the insurance. And then one day she became ill and I took her up to the Jackson County Hospital and admitted her for pneumonia and that's when they found the cancer and by then it was stage four. It was, there was nothing they could do for her. And she passed away in 22 days. I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."
