Nevada Blasts Obama for Vegas Quips

(AP)  Lawmakers in the state of Nevada lashed out at President Barack Obama on Tuesday after he made another reference to Las Vegas while explaining how people should make tough choices on spending.

The issue is sensitive to Las Vegas because its economy is largely based on tourism, and several lawmakers said they were shocked that Obama singled out Las Vegas again after commenting one year ago about bailed-out banks holding meetings here.

"When times are tough, you tighten your belts," Obama said, according to a White House transcript of his appearance Tuesday at a high school in North Nashua, New Hampshire.

"You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage," Obama said. "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices."

The comments quickly sparked a flurry of reaction from federal, state and local lawmakers in Nevada, which had an unemployment rate of 13 percent in December.

"I'll do everything I can to give him the boot," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said during a hastily called news conference, adding that he was incensed when he heard about the comments and said he would no longer welcome the president here if he visits.

"This president is a real slow learner," said Goodman, who is not affiliated with a political party.

"Enough is enough!" Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley said in a statement. "President Obama needs to stop picking on Las Vegas and he needs to let Americans decide for themselves how and where to spend their hard earned vacation dollars."

Nevada's economy has been hit hard with foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcies during the past two years as consumers everywhere tighten leisure spending and companies spend less on meetings and conventions.

Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader and one of Obama's closest allies, issued a statement headlined "Reid to Obama: 'Lay off Las Vegas,"' and was unusually blunt in his reaction.

"The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money," Reid said.

"To truly re-energize our economy, we need people to travel to Las Vegas," Reid said. "I would much rather tourists and business travelers spend their money in Las Vegas than spend it overseas."

Reid later released a letter he received from Obama in which the president said he "wasn't saying anything negative about Las Vegas."

"I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun," Obama said, according to the letter. "There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country's great destinations."

Obama said he always enjoys his visits to Las Vegas.

A White House spokesman referred to Obama's letter to Reid and said the administration had no further comment.

Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, complained that Obama "failed to grasp the weight that his words carry."

"Once again he has threatened the struggling economy of Las Vegas," Ensign said, recalling what he characterized as Obama's "irresponsible" comment in February 2009.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Dean Heller, both Republicans, and Democratic Rep. Dina Titus also disparaged the president's remarks, while Republican candidates hoping to unseat Reid this year called for an apology.

One year ago, Obama commented during a town hall meeting in the state of Indiana, that corporations shouldn't use federal bailout money for trips to Las Vegas, the Super Bowl or corporate jets. Tourism and casino officials said the comment hurt the city as companies canceled meetings in Las Vegas and rescheduled them elsewhere.

Obama later said during a May 2009 trip to Nellis Air Force Base outside of Las Vegas that it was nice to get out of Washington and "there's nothing like a quick trip to Vegas in the middle of the week."

Goodman said he thought Obama had a "psychological hang-up" of using Las Vegas as an example of excessive spending, and that this time, an apology wouldn't be enough.

"He has to step up right away and say, you know, he wasn't thinking," Goodman said. "Sometimes when he's not using his monitors and reading what he says, he doesn't think. And this is one of those times he didn't think, and he should straighten out the record because he's been here, he knows Las Vegas is a great place."

[cdme4]

My comment comes from this angle...my family is fed, clothed, a roof put over their head and provided HEALTH INSURANCE by the boating industry. I have a feeling if Obama had said "you don't run out and buy a new car."..the auto industry and unions would not be happy...but then again...the govt. owns the Am. auto industry. I find it to be an outrage...the people working in the boating industry are Americans who bust their butts in factories, service shops, sales floors, boat motor factories/sales. everyday...the very people he is supposed to be helping....the working man. He just screwed the working man with those comments. The industry is struggling as it is. No one is bailing them out, people are losing jobs, companies are downsizing, employees are making sacrafices in pay and bonuses to help keep the companies in business. I speak from personal experience. Keeping in mind when the boating industry fails, so do many other businesses that are connected in one way or another. The point being this, he very well could have said, don't go to Disney World or don't buy a motorcycle...all of which would have been WRONG...why is the President of the United States dogging any city or industry in this country? My thoughts...if you are a moron and buy a boat and can't make your house payment, then you deserve to be on the streets. If you gamble your money in Las Vegas, then you look at your kid and tell them no college. It's not the damn president's job to tell anyone in this country how it is going to be...Obama works for the people of the United States of America...not the other way around. Right now it is a struggle in the boating industry, we don't need any help from the President advising Americans on their recreational needs.

[erb0087]

...they decide to "be the Russians" and "nuke Las Vegas."

=======================================

Here it is, with German subtitles. Wahnsinn !!

At 5:04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLJ3zcdPtl8

[erb0087]

There.

Las Vegas had a bad reputation even then, when that film was made.

That was 1983, before Barack Obama was even born.

[fxr60]

Obama needs to take some of his own advice. All his partying at the White House with the $150.00 a pound steak dinner and booze he had going at his Christmas party. $4000.00 a night villa in Hawaii. All the people he sent to the "climate change" in Denmark-at the cost of $6000.00 an hour per airplane and it's a 12 hour round trip. Each Rep. could take a guest and of course they all had limo's and stayed in a 5 star hotel and eat the best of food. That cost the taxpayers a "pretty penny". What about all the bribes and pay offs if healthcare goes through? Will he pony up on those? And several more!!!

[erb0087]

Las Vegas has a certain cultural reputation. That isn't Obama's fault.

In the 1983 film WarGames, Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy hack into the Defense Department supercomputer that controls the nuclear arsenal, and mistaking it for a mere computer game, they decide to "be the Russians" and "nuke Las Vegas." ("Yeah, give 'em the works!", Ally shouts.)

Later, when they realize they've accidentally triggered a potential global thermonuclear war, they desperately track down the system's designer, who remarks,

"I loved it when you nuked Las Vegas. Suitably biblical ending to the place, don't you think ?"

[erb0087]

Harry Reid, to no one's surprise, is in the pocket of the Nevada gambling industry.

He was actually inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2001, where he joined such pillars of the community as Don King and Frank Sinatra.

"The Gaming Hall of Fame was established in 1989 by the American Gaming [read, Gambling] Association to recognize individuals who have played a significant role in the gaming-entertainment industry."

[erb0087]

"A research study that found Las Vegas residents are 40% less likely to commit suicide if they leave Las Vegas and visitors are twice as likely to commit suicide there as elsewhere..."

Obama may actually have saved lives with his advice.

This should make him a hero to the Pro-Life movement.

[erb0087]

"When times are tough, you tighten your belts," Obama said, according to a White House transcript of his appearance Tuesday at a high school in North Nashua, New Hampshire.
=====================================================

The very idea that President Obama would advise impressionable high school kids not to use money they can't afford to lose, to gamble in Las Vegas...

And telling them to "tighten their belts" -- how can they possibly enjoy the company of those wholesome young women at Nevada's Chicken Ranch Brothel, if they have their belts on too tight ?

The last thing America needs now, is a President who leads young people astray with such bad and reckless advice.

[ffoulkes-2009]

..If he's talking to High Schoolers, he can't be talking about gambling in LasVegas. You have to be 21. Must be talking about taking in shows, and going to Circus Circus, and other younger venues, right?

[Empire-George-]

by erb0087 February 3, 2010 12:54 PM EST
by Empire-George- February 3, 2010 12:34 PM EST

Do the American people really NEED advice from the community organizer with zero experience ? This isn't some experienced businessman talking, it's a rank amateur opening his big mouth, spewing his class warfare rhetoric, period.
==================================================

Folks, don't listen to Impure-George and his ignorant opinions

[AmazingRuss]

"The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money," Reid said.

What business does the president have dispensing good advice? Why, the very idea threatens the livelihoods of millions of hard working Americans in non-productive industries!

[erb0087]

"Las Vegas has one of the highest suicide and divorce rates of the U.S. A research study that found Las Vegas residents are 40% less likely to commit suicide if they leave Las Vegas and visitors are twice as likely to commit suicide there as elsewhere was published in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper in 2008, breaking a long-time taboo on discussion of suicide in Las Vegas. The city's high divorce rate is not wholly due to Las Vegans themselves getting divorced. Since divorce is easier in Nevada than most other states, many people come from across the country for the easier process."

[erb0087]

"Las Vegas has one of the highest suicide and divorce rates of the U.S. A research study that found Las Vegas residents are 40% less likely to commit suicide if they leave Las Vegas and visitors are twice as likely to commit suicide there as elsewhere..."

Not hard to surmise what the main factor is.