chipflip

If it took Obama's PS this long to say so little, Obama probably meant what he said

Aide says Obama not anti-Vegas - RGT Online:

“I don’t think the president said don’t go to Las Vegas,” Gibbs said, according to a transcript of a White House press briefing. “What the president expressed some concern about was companies that are getting large amounts of public funding, taxpayer funding through a financial stabilization plan, that the president does have great concern with public money being used for that.”

The comment was an apparent response to outrage from a phalanx of travel boosters led by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

“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,” Obama told an audience in Elkhart, Ind., on Feb. 9.

Goodman and others took the remark as a warning shot from the Oval Office that businesses hosting conventions, meetings or other events in Las Vegas could be in line for a public shaming.

It came around the time CNN did a report titled “Keeping them honest” that was critical of a banking event held at The Venetian. In another instance, banking giant Wells Fargo backed out of 12-day event at Wynn Las Vegas that was symbolic of what critics called reckless spending. Others said incentive trips like the one Wells Fargo had planned are among the most cost-effective tools available for companies to motivate new sales.

Goldman Sachs bank later bailed out of an event at Mandalay Bay, only to pay a reported $600,000 cancellation fee and move the shindig to San Francisco.

In the weeks since, there have been dozens more cancellations of Las Vegas business events. While many were blamed on the suddenly stagnant global economy, meeting planners, hotel executives and convention industry leaders said comments from the president and other politicians exacerbated the problem.

Let us summarize:

• February 9: Obama attacks Las Vegas and the NFL.
• March 15: Obama’s press secretary says “well, I don’t think he said that.”

Um, okay, let me see if I understand all this.

• Obama makes record numbers of speeches, but doesn’t have the time to clarify “what he meant,” or dispatch his press secretary to do so.
• Obama’s administration said nothing when Goldman Sachs paid $600,000 to cancel their event at Mandalay Bay, then move the event to San Francisco, paying even more for their event than it was going to cost in Las Vegas in the first place.
• Obama’s administration has been silent as more companies cancel Las Vegas events whether or not they received federal aid.
• Why pick on Las Vegas? Didn’t the unions get him Nevada’s votes? You know, the group of people suffering the most from the lost convention business?
• It took five weeks for Obama’s press secretary to say “I don’t think he said that.” He could have done that in five days. Or five hours. And Obama himself has still said nothing since February.

If Obama really meant something other than what he said, he had what we call “plenty of time” to clarify.

But he hasn’t. Instead, his press secretary is saying “um, I don’t think he said that.” After five weeks, he isn’t sure? Have you talked to Obama about it? Has he explained to you what he meant? If so, couldn’t you just issue a statement for him?

But Gibbs can’t do that, because Obama meant what he said. There was nothing further to explain. This is Gibbs’s attempt at delinquent damage control.

Gibbs can gab all he wants. If Obama wasn’t anti-Vegas, he could have, and would have, said so a long time ago.