Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Jon Ralston:

Playing political tour guide for our visiting president

Welcome to Southern Nevada, Mr. President.

I know you have plenty of folks who have given you the lay of the land, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents (that’s all you get, not a bunch of cash) to help guide you through your day.

Let’s start with the Bellagio, where you came after hobnobbing with those mostly out-of-state rich folks at Palms owner George Maloof’s Spanish Trail pad. (By the way, I sure hope the media doesn’t keep printing that those attendees paid $30,000 a person to see you — might start some of that elitist talk again. Not such a good image when you alight in a state with double-digit unemployment and in a city that happens to be the foreclosure capital of America. So I won’t mention it.)

A nice touch might be to say how much you admire Steve Wynn for his vision in building the Bellagio. Make an Ocean’s Eleven-Twelve-Thirteen reference. Say he is more suave than Andy Garcia. It might mute Wynn’s appearances on Fox essentially saying you should be defenestrated for your economic policies. Can’t hurt.

Next stop is Green Valley High School, which is not actually in Las Vegas, in case you haven’t been told. It’s in Henderson — Oscar Goodman has no jurisdiction there (by the way, he doesn’t on the Strip, either, which drives him crazy.)

The mayor in Henderson is a more sedate fellow named Andy Hafen, whom you will find to be the anti-Goodman — quite dedicated, laid-back, no phoniness. Speaking of Goodman, did you happen to notice, Mr. President, what he said Thursday at his weekly bloviation to reporters?

“I’d like him (that’s you) to say that he made a mistake, that he realizes Las Vegas is in very difficult times ... that he’s sorry that he caused us pain,” Goodman said about your New Hampshire remarks in which you urged folks not to blow cash in Vegas instead of saving for their kids’ college tuition. He went on, too, Mr. President — he does go on.

“I don’t want to be arrogant about this,” Goodman said. “I am just telling you my terms.”

I know what you’re thinking, Mr. President: No big-city mayor in the country would set terms to be seen by a president, no matter the party, just to get attention. You are thinking: This guy is a buffoon.

Yes, he is. But he is beloved by the benighted, who love his colorful nastiness and faux courage. And Republicans here have taken to him for taking you on for what he said was an “aspersion” cast on the city, especially after last year’s incident in Elkhart, Ind.

Yes, Mr. President, no one with a triple-digit IQ thought you were intentionally denigrating Las Vegas. But did you get amnesia? Did you forget what happened a year ago? Did it slip your mind that you are supposed to help Sen. Harry Reid, not hurt him?

So I assume you will not bow to Goodman’s demand for an apology but will, in your disarming way, talk about how much you love Las Vegas and that all you were saying was people need to be careful how they spend their money (as if they need to be told that, sir).

I am surprised Gov. Jim Gibbons did not join the pre-visit flogging. But he is finding legislators more convenient targets of his ginned-up wrath these days. I am sure, eventually, he’ll get back to you and Sen. Reid.

As for the newspaper that provides the unattractive wrapping for this one, I can’t imagine what its front page looks like this morning. So far this week, if no one’s told you, the publisher with the Obama/Reid complex has bannered stories at the top of Page One about tour operators whining about airspace shutdowns and one political science professor saying people expect an apology. Not to worry, Mr. President — the sounds you hear over there are the Pulitzer-panting local GOP front men.

My sources tell me that after your “make amends” speech at CityCenter and your announcement of how much you will do for our community that you are making a clandestine stop at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo center downtown. Don’t tell Goodman. I understand this experimental charisma transplant being tried at the center is considered the potential key to Reid’s re-election chances. It is very selfless of you to give up some of yours so he can have even just a little.

It’s a good idea for the long haul ahead for the majority leader; and, in the short run, he is appearing on “Face to Face” today and it could help immeasurably.

Welcome, Mr. President.

Jon Ralston’s column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

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