Merli: Solyndra: Obama's green humiliation

One of the more tell­ing signs the Obama administration has been a bit more political in nature than some originally thought, amid criticism that the president has been far too "professorial" for his own good, is the still-unrav­eling Solyndra fiasco.

Put the word "green" in front of almost anything these days and it's bound to garner substantial sup­port from a host of backers, regardless of real-world facts. Put "green" and "new jobs" in the same sentence and Uncle Sam himself may finance that business venture, with few questions asked.

As detailed in numerous accounts in recent weeks, Solyndra was a new solar panel start-up in California that received a half-billion dollar federal loan, and an accompanying visit by Presi­dent Barack Obama himself in 2010. It turns out that visit — along with a groundbreaking ceremony with Vice President Joe Biden timed to tout the White House jobs recovery plan — had been ill­advised for several reasons.

Administration officials and outside advisors had warned in emails and confidential communiques that Solyndra's business plan (and, thus, its future) faced some serious challenges, certainly enough to reconsider a pending $535 million federal loan, not to mention a personal stopover and implicit endorsement by the president.

Now comes word this week in still more detailed emails released by the Democratic members of the House En­ergy & Commerce Commit­tee — which is looking into the bad loan — that despite earlier general approval by both the Bush and Obama governments, some serious red flags were being raised prior to granting the loan.

Among others, private busi­ness experts asked to weigh in on the venture voiced con­cerns whether the company could sustain itself in "the long run." As it turned out, it was in "the short run" that the firmwas forced to declare bankruptcy five weeks ago — which resulted in the loss of 1,100 "green" jobs.

Much of this is hardly breaking news, but I was curious to see how the presi­dent would eventually react to the matter, if at all, since it was only this week that he was even asked about it. Sad­ly, his reaction was right out of the grand old Politics 101 Playbook, one more piece of evidence the next general election campaign has begun months earlier than usual.

On Monday, when ABC News asked him to respond to the Solyndra mess, Obama proved again that he's as big a part of "politics as usual" in Washington as the next guy. Did he regret commit­ting more than a half-billion bucks in taxpayer funds for a questionable loan gone terribly awry? No, he said, he does not regret the loan or his tacit endorsement of the company by paying it a rarified personal visit. Then he underscored his response with this tired chestnut: "Now there are going to be some failures. Hindsight is always 20/20. It went through the normal review process, and people thought this was a good idea."

People thought this was a good idea? Give us a break.

When some of your clos­est economic confidants and outside experts express wariness over a loan, and White House staffers email hopes that Solyndra "doesn't default before" the Obama factory visit, that's hardly us­ing "hindsight" after the fact. What this sorry episode re­ally lacked wasn't hindsight, but foresight.

John Merli, a Prince William resident since 1984, has been a columnist for this newspaper since 1985. He has worked in the media for more than 30 years.

Email j.merli@comcast.net.