Talk about bad timing! This week President Obama returned from vacation tanned and rested and ready to fulfill his pre-trip promise to reveal his “jobs plan”. His first misstep was to plan a speech to both houses of Congress on the very day and time of a long planned Republican presidential candidate debate. House Speaker Boehner said, “Thanks but no thanks,” so the speech was rescheduled to the same time as the first regular season NFL game. Is that better?
Then, today news broke that Solyndra, a solar company in Fremont, California, is closing its doors, filing Chapter 11 and laying off 1,100 people.
Why is that important? Because just last year the president visited Solyndra’s shiny new factory, built with a half BILLION dollars it borrowed from taxpayers (and won’t be able to pay back), and famously held the company up as symbolic of the promise of the “Green Jobs” that have been the centerpiece of his “Hope and Change” economic agenda.
Apparently it takes more than “Hope” and good intentions to succeed in business. You must also produce a product or service people want at a competitive price. In spite of $1 billion in investment and another $500,000-plus in tax money, the company couldn’t be competitive with Chinese companies.
Like the Chevy Volt, which the president also trumpeted but has sold less than 3,000 in the first seven months, Solyndra has failed to live up to the promise of a new paradigm of clean, green jobs. As Linus said in the pumpkin patch when the Great Pumpkin failed to appear, “How can we fail when we’re so sincere?”
So, this couldn’t come at a worse time, since the loss of these 1,100 highest-possible-profile jobs will still be fresh in our minds when the president reveals his anticipated jobs plan.
I wonder if Solyndra was unionized? That would explain a lot.
[…] in March I wrote about the Volt (The Miracle Car Nobody Wants) and again in September (Timing Is Everything). Then General Motors was planning to build 15,000 in 2011. That number was since revised to 10,000 […]