by Mark Silva
The Republican governor of Nevada is complaining that President Barack Obama is happy to go to Las Vegas to raise money for the Democrats while driving the city's convention business down.
The complaint of Gov. Jim Gibbons goes back to those remarks that Obama made about bailed out bankers taking corporate junkets, as Obama told an audience in Indiana earlier this year: "You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime."
It seems the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has reported the cancellations of over 400 conventions and business meetings scheduled there, costing the city 111,800 visitors, more than 250,000 "room-nights'' and $100 million - not to mention lost gambling money.
Could have a lot more to do with the state of the economy than any off-handed presidential remark about Vegas, of course.
Obama plans a trip to Vegas early next week to serve as the headliner for a fundraiser that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is staging in his home state. Bette Midler and Sheryl Crow will entertain the crowd at the Colloseum at Caesar's Palace Tuesday evening.
""I am disappointed at the hypocrisy shown by this administration," Gov. Gibbons complains. "President Obama is coming to Las Vegas.... for a political fundraiser, but he will not help the struggling families in Las Vegas and Nevada who are out of work because of his reckless comments.
"President Obama is coming to Las Vegas to raise campaign cash for Sen. Harry Reid -- apparently our money is good enough for the president, but our tourism, jobs, and economic future are not." Gibbons adds. "This is politics, pure and simple, President Obama stood for change, but all he has done is brought negative economic change to Nevada."
The sheer size of the advance teams and traveling contingent of the president, however, should help offset some of those lost room-nights that Vegas is complaining about. They just might lay a little change at the casino windows while they're there.
Comments
Another pug tard trying to use propoganda on people that are warry of such crap. He will get his clue in the next election that people do not believe that one sentence from Obama caused Nevada's economic problems. People are smarter than your pug lies Jimmy-boy. Don't you have some more fake fear to spread around....
Posted by: Xcellentform | May 19, 2009 12:10 PM
and just whose dime is obama going to las vegas on?? his own...LOL yeah, right...another of his do as i say, not as i do tactics...IT'S ALRIGHT FOR ME TO SPEND THEIR MONEY, JUST NO ONE ELSE...creep
Posted by: elly mae | May 19, 2009 12:11 PM
Vegas is hardly the only gambling designation which has seen a return to sanity by these addicts. The governor would be better served to spend his time on developing a real economy rather than sitting there feasting off the bad habits of his fellow citizens. The town needs shrinking in any event as there is not enough water to flush the toilets as it is and Lake Mead is at an all time low.
Posted by: FER | May 19, 2009 12:23 PM
It's the hypocricy that is appalling.
Also appalling is your word choice, which slants this article. Instead of using "said," or "pointed out," you have the GOP governor "complaining." Totally different slant on things.
But we all know that in your eyes, whatever Obama does is wonderful and anyone who complains about it is a whiner...
Posted by: Beth | May 19, 2009 12:27 PM
Yo, Mark,how about doing a little research before you besmirch the Nevada governor. Obama's comments did spook companies, whether they were getting federal dollars or not, from going to places like Vegas. I fact, I believe your own newspaper even had an article on that. Also, the Vegas mayor (a Democrat) and the governor of Hawaii have sent letters to the White House pleading with them to stop discouraging seminars, conferences and other business forums. The economy has a little to do with it, but the White House and media demonization of such forums has had a lot more to do with the drop in business. Drop in business equals lost hotel, restaurant, travel and convention jobs. The media and the Dems: destroyers of America and the American dream.
Posted by: John D | May 19, 2009 12:49 PM
Republicans... the party of whine.
Posted by: mort | May 19, 2009 1:41 PM
Fact is, every part of the economy Obama touches (the auto industry, for example) turns to dust. Except government, which is the one growth industry in this economy.
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic | May 19, 2009 1:42 PM