CAMPAIGN 2012

Romney Campaign Hits Obama on Solyndra

Updated: May 30, 2012 | 9:59 a.m.
May 29, 2012 | 6:32 a.m.

Exterior view of Solyndra Inc. in Fremont, Calif., on May 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

 

After weeks of getting hit on his business record at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney is flipping the script and attacking President Obama on his administration's performance helping green energy companies.

In its latest bruising Web video, the Romney campaign points to Solyndra, a solar energy company that filed for bankruptcy after receiving $535 million in loan guarantees from the federal government. The video points to several other companies, such as ECOtality and First Solar, that also lost money and cut jobs after receiving federal loan guarantees.

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“More than $16 billion have gone to companies like Solyndra that are linked to big Obama and Democrat donors,” the narrator says. “Obama is giving taxpayer money to big donors, and then watching them lose it. Good for them. Bad for us.”

Republicans in Congress have consistently hammered the Obama administration on Solyndra, but Romney has not followed this line of attack for several months. Back in January, Romney said that Obama was a “venture capitalist in Solyndra” and a “private equity guy in Chrysler and General Motors.”

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Republican operatives were singing the same tune on Tuesday, as the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC released a video that attacks Obama on both the auto bailout and Solyndra, calling him "Public Equity President Obama."

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