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Romney ad accuses Obama campaign of using woman’s death for ‘political gain’

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Mitt Romney’s campaign took to the airwaves Friday to condemn an ad that ties  the Republican presidential candidate to a woman’s death, releasing a TV ad of  their own accusing President Obama’s campaign of trying to “use the tragedy of a  woman’s death for political gain.”

The White House, though, continued to deflect questions Friday, as Press  Secretary Jay Carney repeatedly said the president does not control  “third-party” ads and made no move to condemn the ad from the most prominent  pro-Obama super PAC.

The Obama administration’s response effectively has not changed since  Tuesday, despite bipartisan claims that the ad is misleading and accusations  that the president’s campaign aides lied about their familiarity with the  subject.

The Romney campaign signaled it had no intention of letting these concerns  fall by the wayside going into the weekend, however.

Its new TV ad  splashes negative news reports about the super PAC video on-screen, while the  narrator questions what the episode says about Obama’s integrity.

“What does it say about a president’s character when his campaign tries to  use the tragedy of a woman’s death for political gain?” the narrator says. “What  does it say about a president’s character when he had his campaign raise money  for the ad then stood by as his top aides were caught lying about it?”

The anti-Romney super PAC ad featured ex-steelworker Joe Soptic, who recounts  how his wife died of cancer after he lost his health insurance when his plant  was shuttered after a takeover by Bain Capital and other companies working with  the private equity firm.

The ad left out key details about the timeline, including that Soptic’s wife  died five years after the plant closed, and years after Romney left  Bain.

Obama campaign aides, shortly after the ad was unveiled, claimed to have  little knowledge about Soptic’s case. However, Soptic had been featured in Obama  campaign ads earlier in the year — and the Obama campaign even hosted a May  conference call in which he told his story.

The Obama campaign and the White House have stressed that the group,  Priorities USA, is as a super PAC a technically distinct group that is not  supposed to coordinate with the campaign. The group, though, was co-founded by  one of the president’s top former spokesmen.

Pressed repeatedly about the ad at Friday’s press briefing, Carney said he  still hadn’t discussed the issue with the president.

“We do not control third-party ads,” Carney said.

Far from backing down, Priorities USA announced a new ad Friday  in the same series on Bain Capital and Romney.

The ad features Joe Whitley, who worked at the same Kansas City steel company  as Soptic before losing his job and health benefits when it filed for  bankruptcy.

“They used us just like we were the scrap steel that we melted, you know, we  were just a means to an end,” Whitley said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/10/romney-ad-accuses-obama-campaign-using-woman-death-for-political-gain/#ixzz23Eb8Rhjk

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