President Obama’s reelection team released a campaign ad this morning that features this graphic, touting the supposed “jobs created by President Obama’s clean energy initiatives.”
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As the Obama campaign acknowledges, the very graphic is ripped off a Department of Energy website. Here’s the original map, with the former energy company Solyndra pin-pointed:
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Solyndra, as the map reveals, cost American taxpayers $535 million, and though the company once employed several thousand, it is now defunct. “The Energy Department finalized a loan guarantee of $535 million to Solyndra on Sept. 3, 2009, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – better known as the $787 billion stimulus,” CNS reported. “On Aug. 31, 2011, Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 allows a debtor company to restructure and work out agreements with creditors without being liquidated.” Which means: The government won’t get the money it loaned Solyndra back.
And here, more closely, is Solyndra on the Energy Department’s map:
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But in the graphic used by the Obama campaign in today’s ad, that Solyndra dot has been scrubbed:
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It’s as though Solyndra never happened! If only the Obama team could scrub the minds of the American electorate as easily as they can their own websites.
Watch the whole ad here.