E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during news conference in front the shuttered Solyndra solar power company's manufacturing facility Thursday.
SAN DIEGO -- The Romney campaign has moved quickly to exploit the candidate's unannounced visit to bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra, producing a web ad entitled "Symbol of Failure," designed to highlight the president's role in the failed business.
The ad intersperses audio from national news broadcasts' coverage of the bankruptcy and subsequent federal investigation of Solyndra (including NBC's coverage), with clips of Barack Obama visiting the plant in 2010, and Romney's press conference there Thursday.
Graphics highlight what the Romney campaign is presenting as the vital statistics of the Solyndra failure, which took place after a series of federal loan guarantees were put in place which Republicans decried as the height of cronyism: 1,100 employees laid off, $535 million in taxpayer dollars spent.
After Tuesday's Texas GOP primary, Mitt Romney was able to clinch the party's nomination with more than the 1,144 delegates needed. Vanity Fair's Carl Bernstein and the Washington Post's David Ignatius join a conversation on why the race between Romney and Obama is so close. The panel also discusses Romney's recent hits against Solyndra.
The quick-turnaround ad comes as the Romney and Obama campaigns are concluding a week spent battling over Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts, and the salience of his role as CEO of Bain Capital when it comes to expertise creating jobs -- not just wealth for investors.
Thursday, the political theater reached its zenith (or nadir - depending on your perspective) with dueling press conferences on the East and West coasts, as Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod attacked Romney's record as governor in Boston, and Romney attacked the president's record, standing on a highway median in front of the vacant Solyndra headquarters in Fremont.
“Two years ago, President Obama was here to tout this building and this business as a symbol of the success of his stimulus. Well you can see that it’s a symbol of something very different today. It’s a symbol not of success, but of failure,” Romney is shown saying near the close of the 1:38 second web video, as uplifting music begins to play.
"I can tell you that my experience in the economy tells me how it is businesses make decisions to hire people in America. I want to use that knowledge to get Americans working again. The idea of 23 million American families out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed is unacceptable and crony capitalism like this did not help,” the ad concludes.
Leave a Comment:
HealthNewsDigest.com) - Solyndra was a California-based maker of thin-film solar cells affixed to cylindrical panels that could deliver more energy than conventional flat photovoltaic panels. The company’s novel system mounted these flexible cells, made of copper, indium, gallium and diselenide (so-called CIGS), onto cylindrical tubes where they could absorb energy from any direction, including from indirect and reflected light.
<snip>
What caused this shooting star of alternative energy to burn out so spectacularly after just six years in business and such a large investment? Part of what made Solyndra’s technology so promising was its low cost compared to traditional photovoltaic panels that relied on once costlier silicon. “When Solyndra launched, processed silicon was selling at historic highs, which made CIGS a cheaper option,” reports Rachel Swaby in Wired Magazine. “But silicon producers overreacted to the price run-up and flooded the market.” The result was that silicon prices dropped 90 percent, eliminating CIGS’ initial price advantage.
Another problem for Solyndra was the falling price of natural gas—the cleanest of the readily available fossil fuels—as extractors implemented new technologies including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to get at formerly inaccessible domestic reserves in shale rock. In 2001 shale gas accounted for two percent of U.S. natural gas output, while today that number is closer to 30 percent. The result of this increased supply is that the price of natural gas has fallen by some 77 percent since 2008, meaning utilities can produce electricity from it much cheaper as well. “Renewables simply can’t compete,” adds Swaby.
The final blow to Solyndra was China’s creation of a $30 billion credit line for its nascent solar industry. “The result: Chinese firms went from making just six percent of the world’s solar cells in 2005 to manufacturing more than half of them today,” says Swaby. U.S. market share is now just seven percent.
Let's see if any republicans reading this are intelligent enough to read and understand your post.
Romney. What a douchebag.
He's not telling you that China's entire - and I'll type that word again in case you missed it - entire communist government is financially backing the Chinese solar industry.
Do you know what that means?
China wants to destroy all foreign competition by flooding the market with cheap product (sound familiar). Solyndra tried - at least tried - and got some backing to compete.
Would all of you pinning this failure (who, I might add, seem to not have bothered to do any homework on the issue - and, I'll shudder silently at this next thought - or, even worse, aren't intelligent enough to understand the story - wait, wait, my spinning head tells me that there's something even worse that makes me want to drive nails through my skull - or even worse than that, are proud in their ignorance and will line up behind this insidious shapeshifting thief no matter what he spews.
Businesses fail. The thing here - they fail after Romney and his vultures strip the carcass, and this time they didn't get the chance to do so.
Maybe that's what bothers him so much!
Are ya'll trying to apologize for Obama and his administration for not knowing about China?
obama ia a miserable FAILURE. I'm looking forward to November so we vote this muslim clown out of office.
Romney is CORRECT ... Obama shouldn't be trying to pick "winners" at either the "Sweet Sixteen" basketball tourney or manufacturers of politically-correct "green energy" companies... let's face it...he is a Chicago-area community organizer... NOT a serious President of the most powerful country in the world...
We elected, or I should say YOU elected the worst President in modern day history, GWB for the most powerful country in the world, the one that the GOP hopefuls prayed would never be brought up in the debates as a glowing example of GOP pathetic policies.
Obama/Kony 2012
Just like Reagans "Star Wars" program waisted billions of dollars. The Solyndra mistake is pennies on a dollar compared to that and the billions spent on big Navy submarines and carriers that are floating around somewhere collecting barnacles.
Hey Mitt, before you put your over sized foot into your undersized mouth, check out the position of the Chinese government and its relation to the solar panel industry. They control it, they undersell it, they provide what no other company can provide - a decent product for one hell of a cheap price. The attempt was made and it failed. Nothing ventured nothing gained MItt. And I want to see the list of your failures at Bain Mitt. Show us where you goofed, show a little humility and lose some face Mitt.
You are the guy who likes to fire, remember
Obama/Biden 2012
Subject: Fwd: 4TH GRADE TEACHER LETS OBAMA HAVE ITll
IF SHE GETS FIRED THEN THEY NEED TO REPLACE THE SCHOOL BOARD !!!!!!!!
A TEACHER FROM THE GREAT STATE OF MISSOURI WILL LOSE HER JOB FOR STANDING UP FOR
ALL OF US.
Give this teacher, a true American, a standing ovation.
This 4th grade teacher has said it all, and she was brave enough to attach her
name to it.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington , DC 20500
Mr. Obama:
I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your
recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate
representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.
You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you
have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of
America .. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States . You are
not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.
I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United
States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their
status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second
World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe ?
Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you
not understand or know the history of the 20th century?
Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does
not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of
Independence or the Constitution of the United States ? This country was
founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at
least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not
understand this?
Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our
President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia . You
didn't show Great Britain , our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect
they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia ... How dare you, sir!
How dare you!
You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because
you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey
. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more
respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What's the
matter with you? I am convinced that you and the members of your administration
have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed
of yourselves, all of you.
You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American
automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this
situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae
bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them?
Anything? I seriously doubt it.
What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their
staff members on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers
gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a
5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven't said anything about
that. Who authorized that? I surely didn't!
Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in
bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG
bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51
million not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your
outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have
right now?
I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring
about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting
increasingly fed up with all of you.
I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and
say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will
work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms
destroying my beautiful country.
Sincerely,
Every real American
P.S. I rarely ask that emails be 'passed around'.................PLEASE SEND
THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST......it's past time for all Americans to wake up!
Ms Kathleen Lyday
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy . C
I guess she was not a history teacher.
Bain Capital had an approximately 50% success rate in their acquisitions.
Solyndra failed. That does not change a few fundamental facts.
1. Other nations are investing in alternative energy. If we do not, we will be even farther behind, still chasing dionsaurs.
2. Solyndra was not a left-wing crony deal, unless someone argues that Bush was left-wing, since the deal began during his administration.
,
Romney can simply say ..... Obama SUCKS !
You obviously have Selective Googling Syndrome, tunanut.
list of obama accomplishments
obama successes list
obama successes and failures
obama accomplishments
Was that too difficult to follow, t?
Surprise media....It is not just Romney who claims tha Solyndra is Obamas symbol of failure.....Millions and millions of us feel that way.....