White House officials discussed the political ramifications of a likely default by a troubled solar energy company that received more than $500 million in federal loans, recently released emails show.
Emails released Thursday night show that Obama administration confidentially worried about the effect of a default by Solyndra Inc on the president's re-election campaign.
"The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad," an representative from the Office of Management and Budget wrote in a Jan 31 email to a senior OMB official, "The timing will possible coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up."
