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And yes, the Massachusetts governor at the time was one Mitt Romney. As a presidential candidate, he's ridiculed the idea of government's "picking winners and losers" as Solyndra economics--the antithesis of free enterprise. But the truth is that the government has always played a role in nurturing industries of the future, from railroads to aerospace, from info tech to biotech. On June 1, a day after Romney visited Solyndra to criticize Obama's stimulus, another beneficiary of Romney's government largesse--the Massachusetts solar company Konarka Technologies--declared bankruptcy and laid off its 85 employees.
Konarka wasn't Romney's only Solyndra, so he's taking flak for being hypocritical. But he shouldn't take flak for supporting innovative clean-tech firms that needed a push to compete with fossil fuels. And neither should Obama. The stimulus poured $90 billion into all kinds of green-energy ventures so they could all fight it out in the marketplace.
There have been losers like Solyndra and Konarka and winners like BigBelly Solar. Apologists for the status quo will always claim that if change were really needed, the market would have already made it happen. BigBellys are a reminder: that's garbage.