There has been a lot of buzz about the new Priorities USA ad, which is a pro-Obama PAC, that has Joe Soptic speaking about the consequences that occurred when his plant was closed down by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. There are quite a few people on the right and on the left who argue the ad and Soptic implies Romney and Bain killed his wife. I went to the Priorities USA YouTube site and watched and listened to the ad numerous times.

All the talking heads who say the ad implies Romney is a killer are wrong. The ad never said outright or implied Romney or Bain killed his wife. Joe Soptic never said he blames Romney or Bain for the death of his wife. What he and the ad talked about were the consequences that occurred to Soptic and his family when the plant was shut down and how that disrupted his life. The truth is other people who worked at the plant might have had different experiences. The ad dealt with one person, Joe Soptic, and the results that happened to him. The thing that always annoys me about the responses to anything this election season is every pundit and commentator is looking to make a knock out blow in response to every political ad. Calm and rational discussion seems to take a back seat to vitriolic comments and cheap laughs to get airtime and coverage for themselves. This is done by both the right and the left. In this case they took what they thought Soptic said, because the ad is a pro-Obama ad, and put meaning to his words that were never said. They have been quick to say the ad implies something, but that assumption of implication is faulty when you look take the ad and Joe Soptic's comments at face value.

Soptic said the plant was closed and it was struggle for he and his family to get back on their feet. It took him some time to find a job. it paid almost half of his previous salary and had no health insurance. When his wife got sick a few years later, by the time they could take her to the hospital for what they thought might be pneumonia turned out to be stage 4 cancer. In less than a month she died.

You can say Soptic may be interpreting thing wrong, you may even say he is overreacting, but people go through hardships in this economy and more and more they feel unable to control their life. Let's be a bit blunt here. If I had a job that had healthcare, then lost that job only to find one that paid less than the previous one with no healthcare, then find out I was sick and didn't have a way of being able to pay to get better, so I got worse, I'm going to look for someone to blame. A lot of people are in the same boat as Soptic. They go to their jobs, they work hard for the company, they pay taxes, respect authority and believe in the American dream. When that is taken away and they realize why it was done was because it could make a few people rich, they get angry. They don't have millions of dollars to have as a nest egg. They have to struggle with bills that can't be paid, kids that can't be fed. They have to deal with the harsh consequences of losing a job while the people who shut down their work continue to prosper.

That's what Joe Soptic meant when he said Romney didn't care about the consequences of the plant closing. As many people will see it, there were hundreds of people like Sotic who had to scramble and struggle when the plant was closed while Romney and Bain made millions and lived the good life. That's the message that hits with Americans that bother to listen to th ad, not the scare tactics pundits attribute to the ad.

Ironically, one person who responded to the ad and gave a refreshingly honest assessment of it was Romney's press secretary Andrea Saul. Noticed I said honest and not necessarily the answer that would help Romney. While other talking heads for Romney were bashing the ad on false pretenses, Saul said that if the Soptics lived in Massachusetts they would have been able to take advantage of Romney's healthcare plan in the state. Of course she is correct, but Romney and the Republicans are running away from his policies and Governor of the state because it is the plan President Obama has implemented for the country, and of course if it's good for Obama it's bad for America in their eyes. The backlash to her statement was more over the top than comments made about the ad. There are some on the right who feel her comment was the death knell to the campaign. Some have demanded she be fired. Again, a statement is made and instead of thinking through or discussing the statement rationally, pundits and commentators rub their hands in glee or shout to the heavens in anger. No talk just theatrics.

Romney didn't kill Soptic's wife and any way shape or form and Joe Soptic doesn't accuse the Republican candidate of doing that. He pointed out the human factor isn't thought about in the business practices of Romney and Bain. When a plant is closed down and restructured, there are real people effected by it. The shutting down of the plant left Soptic and many of his co-workers without jobs, ultimately with lower wages and a lot of stress in their lives. That is the message from the ad but unfortunately many will see parts of the ad, hear the histrionic commentary and will get a distorted version of events.

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Pundits Eyes Lie - August 10, 2012
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