Much has been made about the nearly one billion dollars that outside groups will spend to try and defeat President Obama. But with far less money, Priorities USA Action — a Super PAC that supports the president — has so far been more successful in framing this election. By focusing on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, Priorities has stymied Romney’s effort to portray himself as a “job creator,” creating a climate in which Romney’s unfavorable rating keeps ticking up.
In its most recent ad, Priorities has found a way to do something most Democrats won’t even dare to try. Without mentioning the Affordable Care Act, it makes the case for the president’s health care reform and connects Romney’s opposition to the law to his profit-driven dealings at Bain. The central thesis: Romney doesn’t care about the plight of workers, just as he doesn’t care about the plight of the uninsured.
Henry Blodget of Business Insider frames the exact questions that Priorities hopes to raise in his post “Okay, But What Would Mitt Romney Actually Say To The Guy Whose Wife Died Of Cancer After He Got Canned?”
The Romney campaign recognizes the power of the ad and has pushed back, pointing out that the woman mentioned in the ad died years after Bain closed the factory. But that footnote won’t appear on the ad. The connection between Bain’s profit-first mentality and the pledge to repeal ObamaCare will.
Making the connection between Romney’s past and his agenda has been part of Priorities USA’s strategy since the campaign began. They have found that voters are unwilling to believe Romney would actually follow a budgetary scheme to gut Medicare so the rich get more tax breaks. What kind of person would do that? This ad attempts to answer that question.
