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Sin City Seethes Over 2nd Obama Diss

Vegas defenders: This time sorry isn't good enough

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 3, 2010 8:39 AM CST
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(Newser) – When President Obama said yesterday that families saving for college shouldn't blow money in Vegas, it was the second time he'd singled out Sin City as an example of excessive spending—and his words came as salt in the wounds of a tourism-dependent city hit hard by the recession. "I'll do everything I can to give him the boot," the Las Vegas mayor told the AP. "This president is a real slow learner."

"The president needs to lay off Las Vegas," says Harry Reid, usually a close ally of Obama. Defending yesterday's comments in a letter to Reid, Obama wrote, "I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun." Nevada, currently facing 13% unemployment, was also dismayed last February when Obama said bailed-out banks shouldn't go to Las Vegas with taxpayer money.

President Barack Obama rolls-up his shirt sleeves as he prepares to take questions during his town hall meeting at Nashua High School North in Nashua, N.H.,Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010.
President Barack Obama rolls-up his shirt sleeves as he prepares to take questions during his town hall meeting at Nashua High School North in Nashua, N.H.,Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Work at the construction site of MGM Mirage's CityCenter in Las Vegas, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Las Vegas would like to hold on to one myth in particular these days: Gambling is recession proof.
Work at the construction site of MGM Mirage's CityCenter in Las Vegas, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Las Vegas would like to hold on to one myth in particular these days: Gambling is recession proof.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 52 comments
Cher
Feb 4, 2010 12:36 PM CST
Obama needs to heed his own words. He is a spending fool himself. I guess it's OK when it's OPM (other peoples money).
inky
Feb 4, 2010 12:32 PM CST
Gamblers gamble. It's what they do, especially the ones with a problem. If they won't listen to their wives, or kids or anyone else who tells them it's a bad idea, what makes you think they're going to stay home because the POTUS made some off-handed remark?
Lioness
Feb 4, 2010 12:25 PM CST
I live in Las Vegas. And I'm 100% in agreement with geneparmesan- the mayor needs to grow a pair and stop trying to blame his woes on two sentences the President said. Las Vegas has the highest rate of foreclosures in the country because greedy banks practiced A LOT of predatory lending here, not because Obama said save your money and go to Vegas another time. Casino-based economy suffering?? It's bound to in hard times. Diversify, and ask yourself what else can be done. Las Vegas has to anyway, if it wants to consider itself a major city in the future. College is expensive, and the President has a point. He's not "picking on" Vegas.
Politics • US

 
tourism • Harry Reid • gambling • Las Vegas • recession • Nevada • President Obama • excessive spending

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