On the stump in Iowa Saturday evening, Rick Perry made made yet another spectacular gaffe. According to CNN, the Texas governor tried to accuse President Obama of ‘picking winners and losers,’ but ended up saying something a little different:
“I want to say it was over $500 million that went to the country Solynda.”
Solyndra, of course, is the solar panel-production company which went bankrupt despite loans from the Department of Energy. Republicans have been using the incident as an example of ‘crony capitalism’ and has become a favorite faux-scandal Republicans have used to attack the administration. Solyndra received $535 million in federal loan guarantees.
Perry can’t seem to catch a break. This latest misstatement comes in a long string of mistakes, beginning with the infamous moment in which he could only name two of three federal agencies he wanted to eliminate. More recently, Perry noted that there were eight — not nine — justices on the Supreme Court, and blanked on Justice Sotomayor’s name. “Montemayor?” he mumbled. Before that, of course, Perry forgot the voting age, asking everyone at a New Hampshire speech 21 and older to give him their vote.
The Solyndra gaffe is especially comical given Perry’s promise, uttered in a previous debate, that as President he would zero out the foreign aid budget.
Pema Levy
Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.
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