[h=3]By DANNY YADRON[/h] The Player: Priorities USA Action, the pro-Obama super PAC
THE Play: Going from negative to inflammatory
The Strategy: Negative campaigning has been a central feature of the presidential contest for months. This week, the campaign turned to outright name-calling, as President Barack Obama labeled his opponent's economic plan as "Robin Hood in reverse." Mitt Romney coined the term "Obamaloney." An ad this week from Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Mr. Obama, darkened the tone of the debate.
Prior Democratic ads had asserted that workers lost their jobs due to investment decisions made by Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Mr. Romney once led. The new ad went further, asserting that Mr. Romney's business dealings contributed to a woman's death. In the spot, Joe Soptic, 62 years old, says he lost his job and health insurance at GST Steel of Kansas City, co-owned by Bain. "A short time after that, my wife became ill,'' he says.
In fact, interviews with Mr. Soptic showed, his wife, Ilyona, was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2006, five years after the plant closed. When it closed, Ilyona Soptic had health insurance through her job, which she later left. Mr. Soptic later became a school custodian but said he could not afford to put his wife on his insurance plan.
The ad provoked outrage from Republicans and push-back even from some Democrats. Joe Sestak, a former Democratic congressman, said it "goes over the edge.'' While the ad was from a super PAC, not the Obama campaign, Republicans pointed out that top aides to Mr. Obama had helped raise money for the PAC and that Mr. Soptic had appeared in a less inflammatory Obama TV ad. The Romney campaign said the episode had "diminished'' the Obama presidency.
Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, said it did not coordinate with the PAC but that "workers around the country have stories to tell'' about their experience with Bain.
The Result: The ad proved that a combustible claim, dropped into a heated pre-election environment, can draw outsize attention.
The ad was posted online but had not appeared as a paid spot on television as of Friday, a Priorities aide said. But it had run many times as part of news coverage on cable TV. It had also been watched a half-million times on YouTube as of Friday morning.
The question raised by the new ad is what price, if any, a campaign pays when it goes negative.
Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, said the Priorities ad presented dangers to Mr. Obama, because it could "broadcast to swing voters who are generally on the fence" that the president would "do anything'' to win. At the same time, she said, voters tend to "glom onto negatives," and the anti-Bain ads could hurt Mr. Romney.
Strategists in both parties say that the sheer volume spent on mostly negative TV ads gives an opportunity for either candidate to distinguish himself with a more uplifting message.
"The drone of the negative ads is so loud a positive ad is a lot more likely to pop through the clutter," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist was not criticizing the Obama campaign.
Write to Danny Yadron at [email protected]
THE Play: Going from negative to inflammatory
The Strategy: Negative campaigning has been a central feature of the presidential contest for months. This week, the campaign turned to outright name-calling, as President Barack Obama labeled his opponent's economic plan as "Robin Hood in reverse." Mitt Romney coined the term "Obamaloney." An ad this week from Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Mr. Obama, darkened the tone of the debate.
Prior Democratic ads had asserted that workers lost their jobs due to investment decisions made by Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Mr. Romney once led. The new ad went further, asserting that Mr. Romney's business dealings contributed to a woman's death. In the spot, Joe Soptic, 62 years old, says he lost his job and health insurance at GST Steel of Kansas City, co-owned by Bain. "A short time after that, my wife became ill,'' he says.
In fact, interviews with Mr. Soptic showed, his wife, Ilyona, was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2006, five years after the plant closed. When it closed, Ilyona Soptic had health insurance through her job, which she later left. Mr. Soptic later became a school custodian but said he could not afford to put his wife on his insurance plan.
The ad provoked outrage from Republicans and push-back even from some Democrats. Joe Sestak, a former Democratic congressman, said it "goes over the edge.'' While the ad was from a super PAC, not the Obama campaign, Republicans pointed out that top aides to Mr. Obama had helped raise money for the PAC and that Mr. Soptic had appeared in a less inflammatory Obama TV ad. The Romney campaign said the episode had "diminished'' the Obama presidency.
Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, said it did not coordinate with the PAC but that "workers around the country have stories to tell'' about their experience with Bain.
The Result: The ad proved that a combustible claim, dropped into a heated pre-election environment, can draw outsize attention.
The ad was posted online but had not appeared as a paid spot on television as of Friday, a Priorities aide said. But it had run many times as part of news coverage on cable TV. It had also been watched a half-million times on YouTube as of Friday morning.
The question raised by the new ad is what price, if any, a campaign pays when it goes negative.
Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, said the Priorities ad presented dangers to Mr. Obama, because it could "broadcast to swing voters who are generally on the fence" that the president would "do anything'' to win. At the same time, she said, voters tend to "glom onto negatives," and the anti-Bain ads could hurt Mr. Romney.
Strategists in both parties say that the sheer volume spent on mostly negative TV ads gives an opportunity for either candidate to distinguish himself with a more uplifting message.
"The drone of the negative ads is so loud a positive ad is a lot more likely to pop through the clutter," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist was not criticizing the Obama campaign.
Write to Danny Yadron at [email protected]