Per se

It has to be great to be President of the United States and yet have no responsibility for what happens. Remember Solyndra? Not Barack Obama's fault:

President Obama is defending government investment in companies trying to create new energy sources, while seeming to distance himself from one of the more controversial programs: Solyndra.

"This was not our program, per se," Obama said in an interview aired today on radio's Marketplace program, discussing the now-bankrupt solar company the president visited in 2010 to tout his new energy program.

So you have to wonder -- if Solyndra wasn't Obama's program, what was all this about?

Several key White House offices were involved with the Obama administration’s messaging plans and other preparations as the collapse of the taxpayer-backed solar company Solyndra was imminent, newly released documents show.

The latest White House documents delivered to House Republicans on Friday again highlight the extent to which senior administration officials braced for the fallout as Solyndra – a company President Obama had personally visited – was about to go under.

A White House memo that noted the danger of “imminent bankruptcy” at the end of August 2011 says, “OMB, DPC and NEC have been working with press and OLA to be prepared for this news to break.”

Acronym translation: OMB is the Office of Management and Budget, DPC is the Domestic Policy Council, NEC is the National Economic Council and OLA is the Office of Legal Affairs.

You'd assume that if Solyndra wasn't the Obama Administration's responsibility, per se, there wouldn't have been so much heavy lifting involved in "working with the press," doncha think?

I also wonder if Obama's successor will get to blame him for the first three years on his administration. Perhaps accountability is only for former presidents, per se.