Republicans are complaining that President Obama offered nothing new in his interminable campaign speech today in Ohio.
However, they might not have noticed his pledge to “get rid of pet projects and government boondoggles and bridges to nowhere.”
This is a welcome shift. Only yesterday, after all, the President had directed his administration to invest heavily in pet projects and boondoggles, and some of those pet projects and boondoggles have become rather well known. Solyndra, the very green and now very bankrupt solar-power panel company, is the most famous Obamadoggle of them all.
Still, after pledging to end such government profligacy, the President proceeded to proclaim his intention “to invest more in the clean energy that we can make right here in America.” He explained that we have “to become the global leader in renewable energy, wind and solar and the next generation of biofuels, in electric cars and energy efficient buildings.”
This is exactly the kind of governmental picking of winners and losers that led to the Solyndra fiasco. When it comes to the inherent contradictions not only in his policies, but in his own speeches, Barack Obama seems curiously blind.
