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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.
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Solyndra was a HUGE mistake, But it wasn't Obama's mistake, He wasn't Prez at the time
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/solyndra-loan-guarantee-time-line
Research Bo.............not parrot. Solyndras application was rejected by the Bush administration.......spin all you want the only "accolades" you will get for your efforts is from "fisty and crew", but I guess if that meets your "needs"......go for it!
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/solyndra-loan-guarantee-time-line
Refusing to read facts does not change the facts, Solyndra was NOT started under Obama and had it's funding well before Obama was in office
Jan. 20, 2009
Obama Administration takes office
Jan. 30, 2009
DOE formalizes agreement with RW Beck for Independent Market Consultant’s Report
Feb. 17, 2009
Sec. 1705 Loan Guarantee Program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Feb. 27, 2009
Final draft of Independent Engineer’s report submitted
Sept. 3, 2009
DOE formally issues the loan guarantee to Solyndra (i.e., the deal reaches financial close)
It is very unfortunate no doubt. Solyndra may have had a bright future had China not decided to target solar paneling as a strategic manufacturing sector and sold its products below cost, where US firms cannot compete.
What Romney fails to acknowledge is that this was an unforseeable development related to a strategic technology, one that would have created much needed jobs during a terrible recession. Just as the auto bailout was hugely sucessful (and one that Romney weirdly takes credit for even though he reailed against it), this one was unsucessful due to circumstances beyond anyone's control.
It was a mistake made with the best intentions for the American people, unlike Romney's agenda for the 1%.
Politics is politics though and Romney wold be foolish not to use this as a prop, just as Obama would be foolish not to use Romney's vulture investments as a similar prop.
If Romney was in charge, he would have just fired everyone involved, and sold the assets so he could buy another yacht....yeah, that's the guy we need as President....that's what we need- more of THAT......
All these green jobs are breaking us up and has put no one to work as I know of...only out of work like Solyndra.....but they sound good to some people. We need jobs like building homes and commercial buildings, these are real jobs and puts all the different contractors to work. Green jobs might be good but lets put people to work first on work that most know how to do.
tell me about it. We have a wind farm just outside of our town. Hardly ever used!! One blew apart the other week, now they are shut down for investigation. On the flip side of that, it decreases home and property value and they are hardly ever turning!! Total waste of money!!
Just after Solyndra was given the $535 million in loan guarantees, China responded by giving $20 Billion to their solar industry. China crushed it's competition and remains the largest manufacturer of solar technology in the world.
Mr etch-a-sketch man wants everyone to forget what the Republicans did the last time they were in power.
They redistributed wealth upwards to the already rich, destroyed America's credibility with the other countries of the world, doubled the debt and drove the world into the deepest recession since the Great depression of the '30's. (not to mention the severe restriction on freedoms throuogh the patriot act).
If you make less than $200K a year, the Republicans are not working for your best interests.
Even if you make $200k like I do....They do not represent my best interest's anymore than someone making 30K.
You know why? They have done everything to destroy the middleclass - when the middleclass is gone there goes the demand - demand is gone there goes the economy.
All us $200 k'ers; you know the small business people need the demand from the middleclass to survive and make a profit; once that's gone so are we.
Signed,
Ex-Republican.
Those running the Republican agenda can't sceme to see past their own personal self interest. They have been running a war against unions for 30 years which has destroyed the middle class.
I'm sorry that your business has been adversely affected by this.
I live in the most exclusive enclave in my city and my business caters to the needs of my ultra rich neighbors. There has been no recession for me, they have plenty of money to spend.
The real question here is from which side of his mouth Romney is spouting this theatrical nonsense. In one breath, when asked about the success or failure of Bain "rescuing" companies his responase was sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
Now to the casual observer, and if the shoe were on the other foot, one might call this the height of hypocrisy. I'm just sayin'...
Interesting and shameful that MSNBC doesn't mention that Romney told a Bald Face Lie when he said that the Inspector General linked the Solyndra failure to Obama who fed tax payer dollars to family and friends. The IG never said such a thing. In fact, the IG said there was no evidence of wrong doing on the part of the President. Of course, that part will not make much head way and won't even be mentioned on the corporate media or Faux News.
Republicans lie and lie and lie and lie and lie. They will do or say anything to grab the power to make themselves richer.
Couple of things I respect about President Obama.
He has tackled some of the leading causes of being gouged pricewise from both the Heath care industry and the Energy industry.
What has the Republicans ever done to fix these issues.......Nothing!
Ohh... They gave us Enron....that worked out so well especially for CA.
Ok so Solyndra Failed, it cost the tax payers $535 million.
How does the GOP and the Republicans in Congress defend the 500 Billion in subsities given to a profitable industry such as oil? That's 10 Solyndra's .....but they're ok with that.
Solyndra was a wholey owned US Company - The Oil industries in Multi National....So the bottom line is the Republic's think it's ok to give 10 times the money to Foreign Business's but NOT 1/10th to an American Company.
This clearly shows they do not care about America.
Hypocrits all.
Republicans Penny wise and Dollar Foolish.
The ONLY "investment" the Bush administration made in Solyndra was what was spent to "investigate" whether or not it was a VIABLE investment. Solyndras request for a loan was REJECTED...period. You can SPIN all you want to that Solyndra requested a loan under the Bush administration "time line", but sorry BO spin all you want, IT DOESN'T STICK. Solyndra RECEIVED "approval" for the loan from OBAMA.......FACT. It is just another FAILED attempt by the left to tie and blame OBAMAS failures to Bush.......sad and pathetic.
You know if Obama and the left would only OWN UP to its failures, America could atleast RESPECT that. But the fact that instead your policy seems to be try and SHIFT the blame to "the other guy" is just..................pathetic.
Leaders take responsibility. Losers place blame.
when Business fails they lose their own money, when Government fails, they waste our money. Unless you are the 50% who pay no taxes.
I thought bankrupting companies was standard operating procedure for Republican business types.
Mark another libral "parrot". 80% of the FAILING companies that HIRED Bain to save them from bankruptcy were SAVED. 0% of the "green" companies the Obama administration invested taxpayer money in SUCCEEDED. 100% filed BANKRUPTCY............fact.
Any honest liberal would have to admit Obama has been a huge disppointment from what they expected from him. I have liberal friends who quietly say they wish they had selected Hillary in the primaries. With an old geezers like McCain running for the GOP, a Bob Dole clone, it was a golden opportunity to elect the first woman president, but the Democrat voters couldn't handle a strong woman, so they went once again for a man. Have you noticed long-time Democrats like Barney Frank who are not running for re-election have some harsh words for Obama? He not screwed all the Democrats in their re-election bids in 2010 with ObamaCare, but his focus on healthcare instead of the economy in his first two years have all but killed the Democrats' chance at a liberal majority on the Supreme Court come 2013.
for some reason it is hard for the libs to own it.
Thats because they have ADHD (Acute Democrat Habitual Denial syndrome)
....or at least Romney WOULD LIKE it to be that symbol.
He needs something to point at.
To quote a famous Mormon visionary,..."One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl" -Osmond
Given the smouldering pile of cr*p that GW Bush handed Obama,...and the unprecedentedly OBSTRUCTIONST GOP he faces, he has done exceptionally well.
Try again,...slimy profiteer with no clue of how to run a nation rather than a business.
NEWSFLASH: This just in,...a "Nation" and a "Business" are NOT,...reapt "ARE NOT" the same thing, and take different strategies, skill sets and priorities to get them to run well.
If we need a business run,...we'll call Willard.
Solandra was 500 million once. Big OIL gets 4 billion of our dollars EVERY year. $4,000,000,000.00 every year. So we give, supposedly very profitable oil companies, 8 times as much as Solandra costs only we give them that every year.
But Big Oil actually makes something that we can afford and willing to buy. Solyndra, well, they make toys for the rich liberal elites to go along wiht their $75,000 electric car.
Guy, It's over 5 Billion.
Road Warrior - So your ok with being gouged at the pump and have your tax dollars given to companies that make record profits every qtr?
To further make this wrong - America finances the money given away. How in any sane world can this be right?
Kevin,
If you think paying $3.50 for a gallon of gas is "gouging", then you have no idea what goes into producing, refining and transporting a gallon of gas.
Roas....Last month the GOP was saying gas prices were too high. Gingrich had a plan for 2 dollar gas.
BIG OIL makes billions and billions a year raping the American people. Then we give them 4 BILLION more dollars every year.
What are your grandchildren going to run their cars on?
Really, I have a close freind that was only my Best Man at my wedding that is currently the operator of the largest Refiner in the Midwest. My first job was in maintenance in that facility - was Standard oil in Whiting and now is BP.
Whjat i Know about refining gas in one finger outways your total knowledge of the subject that you could possibly learn in the next ten years.
The retail cost of gas is more dependent on speculation than the operating costs plus the raw material of oil together.
You have no clue.
guy,
Our grandchildren will have plenty of oil, coal, gas and nuclear. The work "billion" for profits seem to get you libs all riled up. But if you look at the volume of gas that the oil companies produce and the public consumes, it is no surprise. You and every American consume 20 million barrels of oil per DAY. Maybe if people stop demanding their products, they wouldn't make those obscene "billions".
Kevin,
If you are what you say you are, then you should know $3.50 for a galon of gas is a bargain. I spent the first twelve years of my work in oil and gas, Exxon Baytown, Fluor Ocean Services Houston and Mobil Erath.
Kevin/Road....Then why was the GOP complaining that Obama's policies were driving up gas prices and why do they need to be subsidized when they are making such large profits. It is obvious we need more regs on wall street to cut down on the speculation.
About the tax cuts that created the massive debt:
George W. Bush claimed , during his campaign that " By far the vast majority of the benefits go to the lower end of the spectrum". In fact only 14% did.
Romney wants more of the same. Giving more money to the already rich does not create jobs. There's 30 years of evidence to support this. Yet, Romney and the Republicans keep trying to force feed the public their discredited ideological economic theories that only benefit the alreay rich.
Class warfare has been happening for a long time, and the rich are winning big time.
No more wealth redistribution upwards to the already rich.
But, but Obama extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich the first chance he had. In his words, they are "necessary for economic recovery".
He did not - The Republicans held the American people that were out of work hostage - to extend the un-employment time he had to trade for the continueing the current tax status.
Did he or did he not? Sounds like the man throws out his principles to get a deal, just like the Patriot Act.
All the Bush tax cuts need to expire like they were meant too. All they did was increase borrowing.
Solyndra was not only pushed through by the Bush administration for over two years (first company to apply under the 1703 program in 2006, created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and approved by the Bush administration 1703 loan guarantee committee), it was run by a Republican CEO and COO who lied to the Obama administration about how well the company was doing.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/us-solyndra-idUSTRE78S4JL20110929
"Concerned about a House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation that had begun in February, the solar company's lawyer in mid-July e-mailed Republican investigators with what he called an "upbeat letter" with "current data on Solyndra's positive economic and job situation." The company's lawyer in the e-mail chided investigators for continuing "to perpetuate an incorrect picture of Solyndra's condition.""
The GOP made Solyndra into an Obama witch hunt to deflect their own failure.
Then why did Obama stand on the floor of Solyndra and proclaim it a green energy success and a model for the future six months before it went belly up. Didn't he do his homework? The idea started with Bush, but when the numbers were crunched, they decided not to go forward. Obama on the other hand ignore the numbers and went ahead to pay back his donors knowing full well it would fail because the prices of China solar panels were much cheaper. He threw away money which he knew was for a failed venture. BTW, the Reuter piece was not very informative because all it had was a blank page.
Road Warrior
Obama threw that money away, but some of it was that new boomerang money, it came back to him in the form of campaign donations. Funny how all these big loans for green companies just happen to be owned by Obama campaign donors.
Funny how the right wing is up in arms about a 500 million one shot deal but love giving BIG OIL 5 billion a year EVERY year. Thats Billion with a B.
I have total faith that Romney has made plenty of bad deals that need to be exposed to the public as this one with Obama. I believe in solar energy and feel it needs to be pursued. If that is all he has on Obama, it seems lame.
Solyndra was run by republicans so it's no surprise it failed. The biggest mistake was giving money to republicans to run a company and expecting it to succeed.
I've never seen any proof to this statement but's it's a good theory; and I wouldn't doubt it at all.
I'd say someone should look into where the money went - because what I know about Republicans is it wouldn't surprise me one bit that it was squirelled away to the Caymans.
In the case of the Obama administration, and the whole DOE loan program, it is based on pushing a political agenda, not in following sound business and marketing practices. $500mm may fall off the table in Washington, but that is a ton of money which more viable businesses could have used to generate a lot more than the 1,000 short-term jobs at Solyndra. In short, the government and Solyndra scammed the U.S. taxpayer.
Exlax ETCH-A-SKETCH isn't even intelligent enough to know that IT WAS HIS CORRUPT REPUBLICAN OIL & FINANCIAL CORPORATES THAT ARE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ECONOMIC MESS! 8 PREVIOUS YEARS OF FAILED REPUBLICAN RULE! Our illustrious President Obama HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR MESS & DID HIS VERY BEST with ZERO COOPERATION from the corrupt Republican corporates' "HAND-PICKED" political puppets like ETCH-A-SKETCH & John Bonehead! They have ZERO time for the 99% American People! Their ONLY CONCERN is for their CORPORATES and we, the 99% American People, ARE PAYING THEIR WAY!! This jerk thinks that we would even consider electing him! ELECT THEM? SO THEY CAN CONTINUE MAKING SLAVES OF US?
99% American People, vote 100% DEMOCRATIC, the lives you save WILL be YOURS & your CHILDREN! Let's rid ourselves of ALL these CORRUPT REPUBLICAN CORPORATE "HAND-PICKED" political puppets once and for all!!
Romney lied about the Inspector General's statement. Solyndra is a memorial to Romney's total lack of integrity, exhibited again yesterday. The President was not an investment banker like Mitt and the actual failure was not an intentional investor rip-off. Mitt, have you no memory of the auto industry bail out and your promise to "bring back the American automobile industry" made to Michigan auto workers just before you recommended killing it? You knew there was nowhere near the private investment capital available to save Chrysler or general Motors and save a million jobs. You didn't just flip-flop, you lied as usual.
General Motors is the number one automobile manufacturer. Romney is the number one liar in the history of presidential campaigns.
Maybe Mittens should check the earnings of almost every publicly traded solar company over the past (1) to (2) years. Deep in the red. Look at First Solar, Evergreen, Trina, Sunpower, Suntech, Canadian Solar and the list goes on. The downturn is across the entire industry and these publicly traded companies have been issuing more shares and debt to offset the losses. Educate yourself or be played for a fool by Mittens.
The Chinese gov't put $20 Billion into solar just after the Solyndra loan so their firms could crush the competition and they did. The Solyndra failure has more to do with China than Obama.
Romney told a lie ....at this event....and the so called news media barely called him on it.
This man is nearly 70 and has ran for president several times, he has no backbone and clearly
very little morals......his world does not include minorities or those with a different view. He's a stiff, entitled liar and his gimmicks won't work.
The media rarely calls out republicans on their lies and often misquotes Democrats to create the impression that they lied (BUSH GORE). Proof that the media has a right leaning bias. The right lies about this as well.
When a President has to spend 85 million or more to get elected again ....he hasn't done to good a job ....has he?
Economy adds 69,000 jobs in May, below expectations; jobless rate
up to 8.2%
The recovery isn't as good as we'd like, but far, far better than had we employed the republican plan of sit on our hands, DO NOTHING and hope things to improve on their own.
Yes, of course this is Obama's fault...My favorite is when our governor, Eric Cartman, blames Obama for unemployment, after he fired thousands of state workers. Dammit, Jim, it's not unemployment.....it's unemployment. Faith, when it comes to your religion, is a good thing. The problem with Republicans is that it spills over into everything else.....some subjects require FACTS..."I believe" isn't good enough....
Rant at the news I just copied and pasted it...LMAO...People dont like to hear the truth.
@ksw62118"Yes but in Solyndra it is
the taxpayers who got screwed as well as the workers that lost their jobs. That
is the difference between private equity and public equity." WRONG!
Romney's company received millions in tax subsidies and as they ripped off
employee’s pensions guesses who was left to pay that bill? That’s right tax
payers paid for all the pensions Romney pocketed & he did because he knew
that the government will pick up the tab. My, doesn’t that sound like a welfare
queen without the dignity of work he yaps about all the time. Even his Olympics
claim, when you look closer at the stubborn facts you will know that Romney was
failing at being able to manage the Olympics UNTIL the federal government came
in and provided funds which then saved the Olympics. Romney is a coddled
government leech. His claims of his father being poor are a lie as well. Romney’s
father had a damn pony at the age of 5 for Pete’s sake. His family received
refugee funds given out by the government when they escaped Mexico’s wars. Romney’s
grandfather used that money to make a home for himself then start a profitable
home building company. Romney’s family also SUED the Mexican government &
was awarded compensation. All of Romney’s life the government has had his back
and provided a stepping stone to become successful. Now a day Romney says screws
everyone else. Government money is only for the rich.
I agree....and "supply-side" economics is the Republican symbol of failure.....I think the Republicans win this round, in terms of scope of utter destruction....