I suspect the real fallout from the Obama administration's disastrous support and promotion of Solyndra as a green jobs creator has yet to surface. The last thing a candidate for re-election in these times needs is to have to answer for yet another waste of taxpayer dollars in the form of a $500+ million loan to finance a company which was clearly undeserving.
Beyond clearly supportable speculation over whether Solyndra even had a feasible business model - questions will have to be answered surrounding the means by which the obvious fast-track financing decisions were reached. And explanations so far do not look overly viable on the surface. I would not say the allegations of "crony capitalism" appear at all far fetched.
Some blame Solyndra's failure on Chinese unfair competitive cost advantages and all that involves. But that does not address the relative inefficiencies of the company's solar panel designs. What kind of true due diligence was actually done here before so proudly handing over the money? To be specific, was it ever determined how they would spend a significant portion of it? Did the Obama administration realize that they would build a 300,000 square foot state of the art facility with the extra cash? Did they realize that it would include robots whistling Disney tunes, spa-like showers with LCD displays of water temperature and glass walled conference rooms? (seemingly missing only necessities such as $15k umbrella stands). The facility was even described as the Taj Mahal of production plants. Boy, it must have been fun to work there - as long as one was not bothered by the constantly building and unshipped inventory.
The Solyndra debacle has already left a sour taste before the republican party and its presidential candidate have even had a chance to really feast on it. And feast on it they will, along with poor economic leadership in the environment of a clearly unacceptable ~9.0% unemployment rate. Joined by an escalating schism between the fortunes of the wealthy elite and the expanding poor and those barely scraping by living paycheck-to-paycheck with just an unexpected expense or financial setback or pink slip separating them from the abyss. It would be far less than shocking if Solyndra ultimately costs Obama re-election.
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Meanwhile, the Republican cavalcade of clowns candidates are doing the best they can to make Solyndra a harmless irritant. You have Rick Perry effectively ending his chances by delivering the crowning blow to his debate ineptitude. One had to be in awe of his forceful statement that he would eliminate three government departments - followed by his comical inability to remember more than two of them. Could you envision an actual President delivering such a dunce routine? We need a convincing leader, not comic relief.
Then you have Herman Cain trotting out the old "Clarence Thomas defense" against several sexual harassment allegations in his so-far amateur hour denials. (And never forget how Clarence Thomas and some Supreme Court bullies helped get the 21st century ball rolling when George W. Bush and his gang of "weapons of mass destruction" war mongers, after being handed the election, initiated the never ending military contractor-feeding military occupations of oil-strategic countries. You know, to foster our fabulous democratic values on others while ignoring the class inequality and broken political structure leading to the growing Occupy/99% protests against our own dysfunctional government).
Mitt Romney has shown even less dynamicism than the terminally droll Dukakis and Kerry in arousing any enthusiasm. And his pre-politician career with leveraged buyout specialist Bain Capital does not particularly speak well when such outfits have been known to perceive employees as "liabilities rather than assets" in search of return on investment.
Don't even waste your time considering the antics of Michelle Bachman or Newt Gingrich unless you value wasting your time.
Meanwhile, the main stream media continues with its mission to shut out Ron Paul, despite many feeling he has acquitted himself well. Personally, I have not eliminated him based solely on his long standing position on the poisonous entity known as the Federal Reserve.
This leaves the basically not yet recognized candidacy of Jon Huntsman. I'm fairly impressed with him to this point. But he must get some momentum or he's toast. The man made a very good decision by forgoing the Nevada debate and being the foremost proponent of opposing Nevada moving their presidential caucus ahead of the New Hampshire primary. In doing so, he greatly enhanced his chances of a good showing to propel himself back into the race. Remember that many NH independents and democrats feel betrayed by Obama's policies and selection of Wall Street connected advisers. The NH primary is an open one, meaning that independents can participate. This NH poster is strongly considering temporarily changing my party affiliation from democrat to republican to vote for Huntsman in this one primary. Because I would like to see a process which eliminates the pretenders and promotes the legitimate contenders. At least for one more round until America decides it needs to establish a third party devoted to democratic principles truly responsive to the needs and desires of the electorate.
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