For someone involved in the energy industry, I probably haven't paid as much attention to the Solyndra and subsequent scandals as I should. But to paraphrase an infamous quote, "one Solyndra is a scandal, a thousand Solyndra's are a statistic."
The problem isn't that some politicians steered some government money toward a few favored donors, it is that the whole enterprise is misguided.
Today, Walter Russell Mead posts on his blog about the subject, "Time To Change Course on Green Jobs." where he asks the question,
"Is there something about the word ‘green’ that makes people go weak in the head?"
Adding, "What three months ago was widely hailed by the establishment press as a sign of the futurism and forward-thinking of the Obama Administration now, post-Solyndra, is increasingly seen for the bone headed blunder it was."
Also today, the Wall Street Journal has an editorial on the issue ("Solyndra Without the Tears," subscription required) covering the energy scandal du jour, the now-bankrupt Beacon Power Corp. The editors ask an interesting question,
"Would the Obama Administration's record be better or worse if it tried to pick losers instead of winners?" The world will never know.
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