NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Obama’s “Go” Should Have Been “No-Go”
President Barack Hussein Obama thinks he knows everything, so he disregarded warnings by Steve Westly, one of his fundraisers and a Silicon Valley investor, not to make that now-infamous trip to Solyndra’s spiffy new factory so as to avoid embarrassment when the company went bust. Westly’s memo to a senior Obama aide was amongst several e-mails released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating whether executives at the bankrupt solar-panel manufacturer misled the government about its viability or committed accounting fraud in connection with securing a government loan, The Washington Post reports:
“A number of us are concerned that the president is visiting Solyndra,” California investor and Obama fundraiser Steve Westly wrote to Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in May 2010. “Many of us believe the company’s cost structure will make it difficult for them to survive long term. … I just want to help protect the president from anything that could result in negative or unfair press.” …
Obama’s Energy Department had provided Solyndra with a $535 million government-backed loan in 2009 and wanted to highlight the investment to show taxpayers how their stimulus dollars had been put to work. Westly said that if Obama proceeded with the visit, he should be careful about touting the company’s future.
“If it’s too late to change/postpone the meeting, the president should be careful about unrealistic/optimistic forecasts that could haunt him in the next 18 months if Solyndra hits the wall, files for bankruptcy, etc.”
Westly’s concern, which proved to be prescient, was that the company’s outside auditors had warned the previous month that Solyndra was burning through cash rapidly and that they had doubts the company could remain a “going concern.” …
But Obama did visit Solyndra in May 2010, touting it in a national news conference as an “engine of economic growth” and a model of his administration’s $80 billion stimulus-funded investment in clean-energy technologies and companies.
In an e-mail exchange in December 2009 with then-National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, another Solyndra investor questioned the judgment of Department of Energy officials for investing more than half a billion dollars in the company, which had no profits and revenue of less than $100 million (“While that is good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money”). Here’s the kicker: Summers agreed that, as he put it, “gov is a crappy vc [venture capitalist].”
Can someone help Obama understand this?
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