5 new political ads that stretch the truth
The key quote: "Did Romney pay 10 percent in taxes? Five percent? Zero?" a narrator asks in the spot. "We don't know."
The problem?: Seizing on Mitt Romney's refusal to release more than two years of his tax returns to the public, a new ad by the Obama campaign questions just how little he might have been paying over the years. "Did Romney pay 10 percent in taxes? Five percent? Zero?" a narrator asks in the spot. "We don't know." It's certainly not a new line of attack: Romney's reticence to disclose a more extensive sample of his tax history has invited speculation from all corners about the possibility that he paid a low rate in recent years. But like everyone else, the Obama campaign has no way of proving that charge. Is the question grounding the ad a lie? No. But it certainly aims to plant in voters' minds an idea with no known factual basis.
The ad: "Right Choice," by Romney for President
The key quote: "On July 12th, President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements. Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."
The problem?: According to a new Romney ad, the Obama administration's recent tweaks to former President Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform act eliminates the bill's work requirements, opting instead to just "send you your welfare check." That, according to Clinton, the Obama administration, and numerous news outlets and fact-checking websites, is false. According to Health and Human Services (HHS), the new adjustments allow states more flexibility in meeting reporting requirements directed at proving they're successfully sending welfare recipients back to work. The move, according to HHS, is aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing red tape, but the laws guiding welfare-to-work requirements remain strict. Romney's claim, according to Politifact, is "a drastic distortion of the planned changes" to the law.
The ad: "Understands," by Priorities USA Action
The key quote: Joe Soptic, former employee at GST Steel in Kansas City, Kansas: "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 she passed away in 22 days."
The problem?: According to the super PAC that created this ad, it wasn't meant to link Mitt Romney to the death of Joe Soptic's wife. Watching the video, however, would seem to suggest otherwise. As Joe Soptic tells it, after Bain Capital shut down the steel plant at which he worked, "I lost my healthcare, and my family lost their healthcare. And a short time after that my wife became ill." Not long after, she died. According to various reports, however, Bain shut the plant down five years before Soptic's wife was diagnosed with cancer. And his wife also allegedly had health insurance through another employer during at least part of that period. According to Burton, founder of the super PAC that produced the ad, it wasn't meant to pin the death of Soptic's wife's on Romney: "The point of this ad is that -- you know, it's to tell the story of one guy, Joe Soptic, and the impact on his life that happened for years, and to this day, as a result of decisions that Mitt Romney made," he said. Soptic too, has since said he wasn't trying to blame Romney for his wife's death. True or false, the Priorities ad certainly doesn't make it look that way.
The ad: "Be Not Afraid," by Romney for President
The key quote: "President Obama used his healthcare plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith."
The problem?: In an apparent effort to remind voters of one of the year's most divisive political battles, this recent Romney ad seemingly references a White House measure, which requires most employers to provide their employers with access to cost-free contraceptive care, as part of the administration's "war on religion." The measure, announced in February, was met with vociferous protest by conservatives, who argued that it violated faith-based institutions' right to moral objection. After some negotiation, however, the White Housed hammered out various exemptions for religious institutions, including for places of worship and religiously-affiliated institutions like schools and hospitals, none of which could now be forced to pay for their employers' contraceptive care. (Some had been exempt from the start.) It's difficult to pinpoint the extent to which the Romney campaign's claim is dubious, however, because the ad never overtly specifies which part of the health care plan to which it refers.
The key quote: "I think he stole my birth control!"
The problem?: This ad, produced by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, accuses Mitt Romney of pushing an economic plan that will "take money out of your pocket" - a notion it illustrates in the most exaggerated sense: Throughout the video, a rogue "Mitt Romney" hand (played by a hand model wearing a comically gaudy gold watch) attempts to pickpocket various innocent bystanders. "Mitt Romney, get your hand out of my pocket!" says one woman, as a hand enters the shot and indiscreetly tries to open her purse. Later, another exclaims: "I think he stole my birth control, too!" Metaphors aside - Romney is not, to CBS News' knowledge, trolling the streets robbing Americans of their petty cash and contraception - the suggestion that Romney wants to strip women of birth control is an exaggeration, at best. The candidate has said he would not ban contraception if president, although he does oppose the HHS mandate requiring most employers to cover it and has pledged to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood.
