OBAMA: Picking On Vegas Again!

by vegaswatchdogdotcom | May 26, 2009 at 11:52 am

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Las Vegas, Nevada .....February 2, 2010

Tuesday at a high school in North Nashua, N.H., United States President Obama lashed out one more targeted blow to the City of Las Vegas, Nevada.

This follows his same tone and definite pointing of the finger toward The Entertainment Capital of the World. According to Associated Press Writer, Oskar Garcia, Obama stated, "When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage," . You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices."

In the Silver State, tempers rose up quickly as Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman fired back with his disapproval of the President specifically targeting Las Vegas. Goodman assured everyone that he would do all he could to see Obama got the boot from office next time around. And the Mayor even stated that he would no longer welcome the President when and if Mr. Obama visits.

Why the President is so specific in picking on a city which depends heavily on tourism, only Mr. Obama knows. But with the unemployment rate slowly climbing past 13%, residents of Sin City are not at all happy with a Commander-in-Chief who uses Las Vegas for a whipping post in speeches about the economy.

In the past it has been noted that President Obama did not mention cities like his own Chicago, Miami, New York, San Francisco or Seattle as places to avoid when considering a vacation. Why Vegas? To the residents of the internationally known gambling mecca, the popularity of a leader who continually tries to point people away from coming to Las Vegas and demonizes anyone who even suggests a trip for business or pleasure to Sin City is not what Las Vegans expected in the promised "Hope and Change" theme of the President's campaign in 2008.

It makes this writer wonder when Mr. Obama makes his upcoming visit to Vegas to promote Harry Reid's re-election, will Harrahs Entertainment be willing to put his name up on the Caesars Palace marquee like they did in May of 2009 when the President last appeared in support of Senate Majority Leader Reid? Only time and close observation of Mr. Obama's future speeches will be the determining factors.

Las Vegas, Nevada When I heard President Obama was going to appear at Caesars Palace, I immediately wondered how big his name and image would be on the marquee. So I gave Harrah's Entertainment folks up to the night before the big event to erect a promotional structure worthy of the President Of The United States.headlining in the Caesars Showroom.

Less than 24 hours before the show was to start I videoed the ONLY graphic representation U could find on the Caesars Property of this historic event. The powers that be had put together a very humble little red, white and blue generic text announcement to be played 3 or 4 times an hour on their giant Jumbotron sign facing both the north and south ends of the Strip.

One actually had to strain and focus to even see the name President Obama in the text displayed electronically. Oh, there was some canned patriotic music in the background but the overall video graphic promo could have easily been created on the Movie Maker software that comes with most PCs. However, this promo was mixed in with dozens of other Caesars offerings including a 2 minute display of CHER in her undies and Bette Midler strutting her stuff with scenes from her show.

The first sign of an African-American face popped up on the screen and I breathed a sigh of relief. The face did look much fuller than what I had remembered of the President. Then I realized that this was an ad for comedian George Wallace appearing across the street at The Flamingo. I think I was confused because Mr. Wallace had billboards all over Vegas last year saying he was running for President.

And while I waited for the President's Promo one more time, up came a video ad for Jerry Sienfeld's Show there at Caesars. All these folks got top billing and live video in their ads. But if someone were not looking for the President Obama ad, I promise you it would have never been seen. Even more unreal is directly across the street from the Obama tiny text screen message are two 25 story size faces of Donny and Marie covering the entire side of the Flamingo Hotel building that faces Caesars. But they had to wait over 20 years for that kind of exposure. Could this be that this is the price one pays for the President saying "not too kind things" about Sin City earlier this year during all the executive bailout scandals?

It may not be nice to fool "Mother Nature" as the TV ad once stated. But it is NEVER nice to downplay the significance of Glitter City in our country in public statements because you never know when you will be headlining in a major showroom on the Strip. Don't worry, Mr. President. I am sure they will take up the option to re-book you again. And this time your agent should demand at least equal billing with Sienfeld and George Wallace.