Ad Criticizing Obama for Cancer Insinuation Scores Points for Romney

A Mitt Romney ad that hits back at a President Barack Obama attack ad insinuating that he was responsible for the death of a cancer patient is driving down Obama’s numbers among independents for the first time in the campaign ad cycle, The Hill reported.

Romney's "America Deserves Better" ad moved "pure independents" who remained undecided some 6 percentage points in Romney’s favor, a new study by Vanderbilt University found, The Hill reported.

"What is new here is that the 'America Deserves Better' ad seems to score points for Romney," Vanderbilt political science professor John Geer said, The Hill reported.

"It was the first time among all the ads we have studied where a Romney attack moves down the president's numbers among pure independents," he said.

The Romney ad, released earlier this month, challenges Obama's integrity over the Priorities USA Action spot that linked Romney to the death of a woman from cancer. The Romney ad was first broadcast in Iowa to coincide with Obama’s three-day visit there.

"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?" says the narrator in Romney’s ad. “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 Priorities USA ad showed a worker, Joe Soptic, who was laid off from a company owned by Bain Capital and lost his healthcare coverage. He then watched his wife die of cancer. Bain is the private equity firm co-founded by Romney.

Soptic’s wife died six years after Bain bought her husband’s company and that she had health coverage through her own employer. Romney wasn’t working at Bain when Soptic lost his job.

“Doesn’t America deserve better than a president who will say or do anything to stay in power?” the Romney ad concludes.