Obama courts Vegas

Barack Obama declared his love for Las Vegas at the start of a Feb. 19 speech before the city’s chamber of commerce at Aria, a recently opened hotel at the $8.5 billion CityCenter development. The president’s attempted reconciliation with Las Vegas business and political leaders came after telling a New Hampshire town hall meeting: “You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman refused to meet President Obama on his visit, saying the president had a “real psychological hang-up about the entertainment capital of the world … I don’t know where his vendetta comes from but we won’t allow him to make his bones by lambasting Las Vegas.”

“Let me set the record straight: I love Vegas,” Obama said. There was applause and laughter when the president said he had cut the budget deficit in half after a good night on the poker table in the Bellagio casino. He promised to give the city a boost with a new tourism bill that will set aside money for promoting the U.S. in international markets.

“The fact that he addressed tourism issues was critical for us,” says Rossi Ralenkotter, chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “Tourism and the strength and health of the economy are related and linked.”