Mayor Goodman defends misunderstood Vegas against bully Obama

In case some haven't noticed, Las Vegas has a global reputation as a place where millions run off to do things out of the sight of anyone who knows them. But just look at the place. What, besides neon breasts and $10 beers, would suggest anyone other than each individual patron was paying the tab?

Las Vegas' image is an exaggeration fueled by media stereotypes, self-serving politicians and multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. Seriously, why would any Cedar Rapids Rotary Club member care if his familiar pickup truck was spotted there outside the Re-Nude Kit-Kat Club? So why go to Vegas?

Thus, it was perfectly puzzling earlier this week when that wild 'n' crazy guy Barack Obama started going off on bailed-out bankers overly-bonusing themselves and said:

"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."

The president of these United States objecting to people cheating on expense accounts or balance sheets to taxpayers' detriment? Where does he get off demanding accountability in modern America at a time when everyone needs to rip off as much as possible from anything in sight? Like Obama's never filched a White House towel!

Thank goodness, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman (shown above conferring with aides) was on duty to blow the whistle on this Illinois guy who talks so unreasonably reasonable only after getting union votes from Clark County hotel workers.

"That's outrageous," Goodman said. "And he owes us an apology. He owes us a retraction."

Thanks to his high approval ratings, Obama may have been over-confident, thinking he could handle Iran's tough-talkers. But he forgot about the backyard.

"What's a better place, as I say," Goodman said, "than for them to come here?" As ubiquitous Nevada writer/TV host Jon Ralston often observes, Goodman is normally the shy, reclusive type.

But unless cable channels come up with a plane crash or missing cheerleader pretty quickly this morning, you may notice the mayor in coming hours all over TV, which can only take so much black-and-white Abe Lincoln stuff in one day.

Look, Goodman controlled himself. He didn't whisper, Tony Rezko. He didn't point out that Obama's White House Super Bowl party was taxpayer-financed. Clearly, Goodman is merely a man defending his city's honor against false charges and urban myths. He's no small-city politician manufacturing a fight to get priceless millions in free publicity perhaps for his future campaign donors.

Thank goodness Nevada has Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. Yes, sure, he's from Searchlight, which is small potatoes. But the veteran Reid handled the Rod Blagojevich-Roland Burris empty Obama Senate seat business so smoothly and adroitly last month that he'll probably step in as mediator and deliver Obama for a quick Las Vegas visit this spring sometime.

Reid has his own reelection campaign next year. And Republicans would love to knock him off as they did in '04 to the last Democratic Majority Leader, Tom Daschle. But that's got nothing to do with anything.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credits: NBA / Getty Images (Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman confers with unidentified aides); Vegas.com (A Las Vegas neon sign).

Comments

[jnl]

No one outside of Nevada really cares, or thinks Obama owes Las Vegas an apology. Everyone understands the metaphor he was using, and what values Vegas represents.

[DC]

It is easy to get a giggle out of teasing Las Vegas. But the reality is these corporate cancellations have put thousands of hard working Nevadan's out of work. Is it really a better use of corporate money to go to meetings in San Francisco or New York? The costs are probably higher. Las Vegas is set up as a convention and meeting destination with reasonable prices. Not everyone who visits here goes to strip joints or gambles the family retirement. But many do in every city in America. We are just not hypocritical about it. So, visit Las Vegas. Come for the show girls; stay for the pie....

[Puablo]

This is a joke, right? Obama just used Vegas as a random for blasting executives who would use taxpayer money for a junket. If I went on a trip, I'd go to Vegas too. It's not the destination, it's using our tax dollars to pay for it.

[Dean]

LOL You're not a mayor of a city - you're the main custodian of a shiny garbage can. And you just made an @ss of yourself in front of the nation.

Take your medication and go back to bed.

[Ed]

Are you really comparing the assumed stealing of a hotel towel to running and fueling a private jet?

Wow.

[Rick]

Good for Oscar Goodman in his defense of his beloved city. Shame on certain folks and a few media outlets for pushing out so much false information about the meetings and convention industry. By these actions, countless vital meetings are being cancelled across the United States. These cancellations cost MILLIONS to the local communities in which they were to take place not to mention the countless thousands of jobs that will be lost through hotel workers, taxi drivers, airline employees, restaurant workers....all who benefit from the convention industry. Cities across America need to stand up with each other and fight this craziness. Without meetings and conventions many cities and communities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington and New York City would die a slow death.

[Anthony Esposito]

Yesterday's comments in reference to Las Vegas was tremendously out of line. He owes Las Vegas an apology.

We are hard working individuals who rely on visitors including business people and conventions.

I understand his basis for the remark, but Las Vegas isn't a source of wasteful spending, it is a deal closer and exibitioner of 100's of thousand of companies that are marketing or introducing their products at meetings and conventions, which in turn create the future economy and spending.

He should concentrate on the money thrown away at "bonuses" rewarding executives for companies that are in failure, or not providing their companies with the numbers they are responsible for producing.

The money spent on bonuses should be given to charities and economic rescue packages across the country. The companies would still get a tax benefit and get rewarding publicity.

[Jen]

Will Obama use taxpayers money if he builds a basketball court at the white house?

[Dan]

I like how the LA Times comes to the story four days late and then doesn't even have the latest. the mayor was just on tv saying he shouldn't have asked for an apology, that he really just wants a clarification. but that's what ya get for covering Vegas from California.

[M Smith]

I think that the mayor of Las Vegas should also be angry after all Las Vegas is one of the biggest victims of the housing mess created by the bankers.

The mayor is being a little too sensitive especially from a town that professes that “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” which sort of implies that anything goes without retribution.

The real outrage in Las Vegas is that the mayor has not taken major steps to diversify its economy and all the uncollected trash on the side of the highway as you come into Las Vegas from L.A.

[Arlene B. Toledo]

President Obama being the head othe United States of America needs our support, even the whole wide worlld who love justice and who love liberty. He is not god for he is just a man who needs our cooperation in attaining his agenda which is also our agenda, for him to be more inspired and move with vigor and inspiration.

I love the president. I am supporting him.

[Joe6pac]

Las Vegas' Mayor is right, shame on Obama. Businesses being bailed out by the feds have every right to blow the money in Vegas if they want, right? Obama wasn't trying to tell businesses to pay for their own perks out of their own pockets not on the citizen's dime right? Are you sensing the sarcasm yet, 'cause I'm laying it on pretty thick?

[j wageman]

Instead of worry about what our president has to say about your city, etc. etc. etc., perhaps it would be prudent to get your damned freeway work behind you. That's what keeps me and my friends from coming there for entertainment. Damn, I've been going through Las Vegas for over seven years and I've yet to travel through there that there hasn't been road work going on the freeway system. Use your brains for a change instead of thinking with that whiskey nose of yours. Just finish up the mess on your freeway system and you'll increase your Las Vegas business ten fold.