Via Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed, who reminds us that O’s attempt to disclaim responsibility for the ad under ye olde “I don’t control my Super PAC” dodge is perhaps undermined by the fact that his own campaign used the story of the steelworker’s wife too. Remember? Joe Soptic did a conference call with Stephanie Cutter and everything. The whole Hopenchange operation owns this smear, and regretlessly so. In fact, even Obama’s gesture towards civility here in exculpating Romney for Soptic’s wife’s death is a feint: Bill Burton, who runs the Super PAC, ludicrously said that he too doesn’t think Romney is to blame for what happened even though the whole point of the ad is to suggest that he is. It’s pure Orwellian “up = down” doublespeak, driven by their need to manage a key contradiction — that they’re fully prepared to slime Romney in the interests of winning but also desperate to hold on to the sunny Hopenchange brand that won them the election four years ago. The solution is to fight dirty while insisting to everyone who’ll listen that, no matter what your eyes and ears are telling you, they’re not fighting dirty. They wouldn’t do that; they’re nice guys. Unlike Mitt Romney, who enjoys giving cancer to blue-collar families.