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President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid embrace during a fundraiser at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in May 2009.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Obama speaks at Caesars
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Obama Arrives in Las Vegas
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President Barack Obama arrived at McCarran International Airport Tuesday afternoon for a two-day stay in Las Vegas.
Knockout Punch?
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Sun coverage
Prepared remarks
Sun Coverage
On a Wednesday in early February, Majority Leader Harry Reid stepped onto the Senate floor to announce that President Barack Obama had just accepted his invitation to return to Las Vegas.
The timing for such a rock-star get was superb. Days earlier Obama made the unscripted remark that companies receiving bailout money shouldn’t go to Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime, whipping city boosters into all shades of outrage.
Apologies were demanded. Deep concerns were raised over lost tourist dollars. Reid, as the top-ranking member of his state’s delegation in Washington, would need to say something.
Within 48 hours, Reid stepped into the fray with the calming promise that Obama would be visiting Nevada, paying his respect if you will, to a state that helped elect him by a wider margin than any Democrat since FDR.
Reid had the president’s back. And the president had Reid’s.
Such has been the mutually beneficial relationship between the two most powerful Democratic leaders in Washington as they forge a working bond unlike any in recent memory.
Nowhere was that symbiosis more apparent than Tuesday night at Caesars Palace as Obama made his promised return.
The president strode onto the stage before a sold-out crowd at the Colosseum at an event that raised close to $2 million for Reid’s 2010 reelection campaign.
Stars Sheryl Crow and Bette Midler sang a few songs each, but the top billing went to the president.
And when it came time to make a campaign stop for a member of Congress, Obama saved it for the man who escorts his ambitious policy agenda through the unruly Senate.
“In the last few years Harry has done an extraordinary job as leader of the U.S. Senate, and that’s not easy,” Obama remarked in his 20-minute speech. ”Harry has consistently fought on those issues that matter, not just to Democrats but to middle-class families ... He makes decisions and chooses battles based on the values he was raised with in Searchlight, Nev.
“That’s why we need to keep Harry Reid exactly where he belongs,” Obama said. “That’s why you are here tonight. I know you’ll be at the polls next November, making those phone calls and knocking on those doors, so Harry Reid can continue his service to this great state. That’s why I’m here tonight. I can’t bring the change I promised all by myself.”
In introducing the president, Reid said “I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”
To many, Obama and Reid seem the unlikely match — the president who speaks poetry that inspires the masses and the majority leader who puts them to sleep.
Yet the two share a history as sons of hard times. Early on, Reid pulled an unsure Obama aside in the Senate and encouraged him to run for president.
By fall’s election, they were speaking almost daily. When Reid needed to call candidates off the trail for important votes in the Senate, Obama was there.
A generation apart, the two men both employ an efficiency at work. They’re famously brief on the phone together, as Reid writes in his autobiography. At some point one wonders, who hangs up on whom?
But together they have engaged in a legislative sprint since Obama took office in January, moving bills at a pace that Washington has not seen in years.
The Senate is known as the place where legislation goes to die. If Obama’s ambitious agenda is to be enacted, it will be Reid’s job to see it through.
“They’ve had a great run,” said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes the Senate for the Cook Political Report.
The legislation so far: Equal pay for women. An expansion of children’s health insurance. The largest public lands bill in a generation. The massive economic recovery package. Housing help and credit card reform.
“The one thing Obama seems to appreciate, and I think Reid does, too, is political capital has a shelf life and you’ve got to use it or it’s going to expire,” Duffy said. “They don’t put anything on the back burner and deal with it later.”
Democrats know their electoral fate is tied to Obama’s fortunes, especially on turning the economy around. If the economy is humming by 2010, their reelection chances improve.
Perhaps the greatest test of the Reid-Obama alliance so far was in passage of the $800 billion economic recovery package — the signature bill of the early administration.
Reid and congressional Democrats secured an extremely delicate compromise in the face of nearly monolithic Republican opposition. Unlike House rules by which the majority reigns, one senator can hold up a vote. Reid’s expanded majority in the chamber means a more politically diverse caucus that can be difficult to unify.
Reid stayed until 11 the night of the stimulus vote, watching over the bill as the final vote was cast.
Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University who studies Congress, said as Obama’s agenda moves forward into the more difficult terrain of energy and health care policy, the president will rely on Reid to bring as many players to the table as possible.
“It’s going to be really important to Obama to have as solid a Democratic majority behind him as possible,” Baker said. “This is a relationship of mutual convenience and mutual necessity.”
But leadership has taken its toll on Reid. Polling conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., for the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows his support among Nevadans has been slipping since he became the first highly critical Democratic leader during the Bush administration.
His approval rating sits at 38 percent now, no better than it did in November. More troubling, almost half those surveyed, 45 percent, said they’d like to replace him.
Reid knew back in 2004 — as his colleague Tom Daschle of South Dakota, then the majority leader, lost reelection — that he would need to prepare for the worst.
Reid built up the state party in Nevada, drawing the early presidential caucus to the state in 2008 that was a voter registration boom. The swing state had a 100,000-voter registration advantage for Democrats by Election Day.
But whether those Democrats will return in 2010 to vote for Reid remains unknown.
Eric Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Reid needs to shore up support among party ranks.
Indeed, 20 percent of Democrats surveyed in last week’s poll said they would vote to replace the majority leader. Another 19 percent said they would either consider voting for a challenger or weren’t sure to whom they would throw their support.
“The Democrats would be outright delusional to think every one of those new voters is first a Democrat and second an Obama voter,” Herzik said.
“Many of them are Obama voters who happened to register as Democrats,” Herzik said. “And Harry Reid knows that.”
To wit: In the November election, Obama won Washoe County by nearly 13 points while Democratic congressional candidate Jill Derby lost by less than 1 point.
The state Democratic Party hoped to maintain the infrastructure established by the Obama campaign, but results so far have been mixed.
Some of the campaign’s most active volunteers have expressed a sense of disappointment that the organization’s efforts to influence the state Legislature mostly fell flat.
Still, there are some bright spots: Many activists and volunteers remained active and transferred their energy to local races. More than 350 people attended an organizing convention for Reid’s campaign last month — a full 18 months before Election Day.
All of which makes the Obama visit important beyond civic pride.
As Herzik put it, Reid can bask in Obama’s “reflective glow.”
The take from the Caesars event will help build Reid’s $25 million war chest against a candidate who has not yet been determined.
One by one, potential Republican challengers have fallen by the wayside. One potential challenger, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, blames Reid for engineering an indictment over his handling of a state scholarship program while state treasurer — a claim Reid denies.
Among those potential candidates now being discussed is Republican Rep. Dean Heller, the former secretary of state in his second term in the House. Last week’s poll showed he is not widely known.
“If ever the axiom ‘you can’t beat somebody with nobody’ ever applied it was in Nevada in 2010,” Baker said.
Republicans insist they will have a candidate.
Until then, Obama and Reid will continue their mutually beneficial relationship.
Today the president will visit Nellis Air Force Base to discuss the economic recovery package, no doubt a shout out to his efforts to help the state — with Reid’s assist.
Duffy sees the benefits for both. “Choosing Nevada to celebrate the Hallmark holiday of 100 days of stimulus package,” she said, “is not a bad thing.”
Transport yourself to the opulent and excessive Roman Empire at Caesars Palace. But the ever-changing Caesars Palace is far from ancient. The hotel and casino is constantly raising the bar for what visitors can expect in a Vegas resort experience.
Caesars Palace features 3,348 rooms and suites in five towers, including the new luxury boutique Nobu Hotel and Restaurant, which opened Feb. 4, 2013, in the totally remodeled Centurian Tower. Caesars features 129,000 square feet of gaming space, including the Strip’s largest poker room and a 250-seat sports book. Other amenities include about two dozen restaurants, a four-level shopping mall, four pools, a spa, Pure and Poetry nightclubs and Pussycat Dolls.
Dining options include restaurants from world-renown chefs Guy Savoy, Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay and, on Feb. 4, 2013, Nobu Matsuhisa.
You never know what characters you’ll run into at Caesars with regular performers like Jerry Seinfeld, Bette Midler, Elton John and maybe even the emperor himself.
Mascaro reported from Washington, D.C.
OBAMA HAS NO QUALIFICATIONS TO BE "PRESIDENT" OF THE U.S.:
Obviously, Hussein Obama has no economic education and no economic experience whatsoever, and still he spends trillions of taxpayer dollars in stupid unnecessary programs which will not improve the economy and which will not raise the living standard of Americans. Obama who was raised in muslim countries and went to muslim schools which are all anti-American and anti-Capitalism, and Obama who sat two decades under a racist anti-American preacher "Wright" and Obama who read more about Karl Marx than rarely anyone in a capitalistic society, this guy, Obama calls himself now the "President" of the United States.
And after all, Obama has hired a group of over 200 lawyers fighting lawsuits in all 50 States that question his eligibility to be even a presidential candidate in the U.S. as evidence shows that he was born in Kenya, and so far, Obama has not produced a qualified birth certificate.
In the meanwhile, this communist is bankrupting the U.S. left and right, having no clue how Wall Street or the economy works, ... how should he, he has no education and no professional experience in economics. As Americans were deceived by the lies of Obama, they're getting exactly what they deserve, but eventually capitalism will prevail over communism as history has shown. Eventually a qualified leader who is a true capitalist will rise from the "ashes" and will restore America to its glory and undo the terrible Obama regime mess that has and will devastate our precious nation. It's time to impeach Obama.
This guy needs $25 million to run against a phantom in a little state like this?!~
Sounds just a wee bit schitzo to me.....
Reid stockpiling millions for re-election is the smart thing to do. Once the Republicans scrounge up somebody to run against him, they will spare nothing to defeat him. As Reid said a while back they will waste a ton and still lose.
Reid is one of the most valuable Democrats we have to pass Obama's agenda---he knows every arcane Senate rule, everything about getting a bill through, knows the psychology of every Senator. He, and Obama, are playing 3-dimensional chess and they're winning.
Seems to me Nevada ought to stick to its own knitting. And Nevada papers ought to pay more attention to state stuff, such as AB99 - the vote to make judges more special. Nationally, about two judges are murdered every ten years. . . with women being murdered by the thousands. So why is the Nevada legislature interested in passing legislation so judges can be super protected instead of women?
See www.FamilylawCourts.com/domestic.html
The Nevada legislature is working hard to make judges elite at the Expense of women, who are killed by the hundreds in Nevada, yearly. Why isn't the legislature concerned with judges instead of women?
The right wing in vegas is so funny! Obama is a "communist"? Really? Do you even know what that word means Schef?
Reading these boards is a constant reminder how terrible the public education system in Nevada really is.
Hey all you in the Hanity nation... bet your buying ammo running scared.. The socialist are comming...the people who run your party have nothing but fear to drive you...and I have to agree with the IQ level of most on the right.Is at an all time low.. Except for Mike Savage at least he has a brain.. sound bites inflamatory statements is all the right has......its sad one day if this kind of thing keeps up Civil war will break out again..... Obama is a good president period its just all the racists are too scared to come out and say they hate for his color.. so they buy all the scare tactic BS and run with it..if your racist be a man a say it..quit hiding coward!.. Bush sucked this country dry and let all his Corp. Backers run wild over the common man all the while keeping us scared.. and now we are left with this huge mess to clean up while the rich who already pocketed the money.. are asking for bail out and we are backed into a corner....I'm not a huge democrate but...this man is trying to fix such a huge mess what do think John Mcain would do? I'm sorry I dont want some 80 year old guy who cant remeber what he had fro breakfast trying to fix this mess.. whith the help of that mindless alaskan prom queen.. think about how that would go..
Rocco, these bozo's who post these idiotic statements don't have a clue.
They listen to Shammity, Limpballs, Glenn Suck & BillO the Clown.......all 4 would have been right under Goebels in Hitlers Germany in the 1930's......hate spewing propagandists with one agenda.
The right wingnut pundits had their boy (GWB) and congress for 12+ years and they made a clusterphuk of the country.
Time for the reeking stench of the bush idiocy to be washed form the US!!!
Rocco, I want to thank you for the priceless post. You comment on the IQ level of the "right," yet you have at least 11 misspelled words and almost as many grammatical errors in your post -- not to mention the fact that you have no grasp of punctuation or the proper use of "its" vs. "it's."
All I can surmise from your illiterate rambling is that 1) you must have dropped out of school in the third grade and 2) you must not have a library within walking distance of your trailer park.
The fact that Reid encouraged Obama to run for President is more than enough reason to vote him out of office.
in truth I have a masters degree from Umass I write from my office at work were I have a few other things on my mind besides grammer and punctuation. I have always been a crappy speller..Its a sure bet buddy my standing in life and my intelect far exceeds yours ..address the thought idiot.. and if I did live in a trailer park. that would be ok too but i live on the beach in california... Never mind what I said...Thanks for the grade on my paper lol
As long as Harry Reid is alive and well in Las Vegas you can be sure my company will not be spending any $$. In fact we will not set foot in Las Vgas until Harry Reid is out....wake up people...vote him out of office and many folks will return to America's playground!
Good reason to Vote Reid in again.....so Hannah's company can go to some indian casino!!
Harry Reid will win reelection in 2010.....you heard it here first!
I find it interesting that the Republican Party in Nevada don't as yet have a candidate to run againt Harry. Maybe they can talk Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck into throwing their hats into the ring.....at least most people have heard of them.
Look at the GOP nationally.....they're becoming a thing of the past. They have NO leadership & they have moved way too far to the right to have even a slim chance of winning back control of the House or Senate come 2010.... That's what got them beat this last time around. They had nothing to offer main stream American voters except a long list of wedge issues......prayer in schools, opposition to same sex marriage, anti-abortion views, gun control issues,and opposition to stem cell research......
Nevada is a small state in terms of population, and having Harry Reid as the majority leader of the Senate, gives Nevada equal clout with the larger states such as New York, California, and Texas.
In other words, a vote for Harry is a vote for the future of Nevada.
How can you report this event as 'sold out?' In the pic I saw there were quite a few empty seats with folks spread out to try to show more people. Tickets were even being given away on one website.
Of course the Sun is a wee bit biased, is it not?
Reid is one head of a vicious hydra devoted to bringing this country to its knees to bow before a dictator type leader. This hydra must be stopped before we, the people, have no freedoms left at all.
Obama is great at campaigning but not so good at actually performing the job he's elected to do. Just check out his Senate record: many of the bills he supposedly brought forth were actually presented by others with his name added. I am sick and tired to the adulation shown this sham and his compadres.
BTW, Rocco and you other liberals: I'm not a Repub (I'm an Independent) and I don't listen to Hannity, etc. I simply have a brain to think for myself and do research on my own. I've found way more than I needed to know to NOT vote for O and Company, nor blindly suffer what they dish out!