Thursday, January 26, 2012

Very Strange: Obama Visit To las Vegas

President Obama came to visit Las Vegas yesterday and today and his itinerary seems very, very strange, strange.
From The Las Vegas Sun: President Obama, who arrived in Las Vegas late Wednesday afternoon and was greeted by Mayor Carolyn Goodman at McCarran Airport, stayed at the Element Hotel in Summerlin on Wednesday night. The president ordered 12 pizzas and cannolis from Dom DeMarco’s Pizzeria & Bar for his staff and himself.
Dom DeMarco’s is a new restaurant that opened last month in Summerlin by pizza maker Dom DeMarco of the award-winning Di Fara’s in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to serving the pizza that has been an institution in New York for more than 45 years, the Summerlin location also serves salads, pasta, wine and 12 beers on tap. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jan/26/pizza-president-where-obama-stayed-what-he-ate-whi/
Normally, Obama has stayed at City Center, a large casino/resort complex, only a few minutes drive from the airport.  And the UPS warehouse where he spoke is also located a few minutes away from the airport.
But Obama chose to spend the night at the Element in Summerlin, about 15 miles or so from the airport and the UPS center.
There was an excuse given that Obama did want to disrupt the Las Vegas Strip traffic.  OK, so instead they disrupt 15 miles or so of freeway traffic along with the roads leading to the Element?  You would have to use more police officers doing that than closing a few roads leading to the hotel.
There are numerous hotels located on the I-215 (Where the Element is located) that are located much closer to the airport than the Element, why not those hotels?
The Element hotel is owned by the Starwoods Hotel chain and the hotel is nice but not fancy, like a Strip Hotel suite.  To the best of my knowledge, the hotel is not unionized and that should piss off the Strip unions like the SEIU.  http://www.starwoodhotels.com/element/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3145
It is also kind of strange that they decided to order their pizza from a restaurant that just came to Las Vegas, leaving out all the other pizzerias in Las Vegas who have been here for years.  And again, I am pretty sure they are not unionized.  But to each, their own.
So, I guess my questions are these:
1.  Why would Obama stay at a hotel off the Strip and far away from the airport and UPS?
2.  Why would Obama stay at a non-unionized hotel and eat at a non-unionized restaurant?
3.  Why would Obama stay at an average hotel, by Las Vegas standards?
I can speculate: Perhaps the casinos are tired of Obama and his entourage.  For Obama to stay at a casino hotel, the hotels have to give up a lot because of the security.  They have to block off entire floors and this will inconvenience guests who normally would stay there.  You also lose revenue for the lost rooms that could have been sold but cannot because of the President's stay.  And lost rooms=lost money to the casinos, which is the bread and butter of the casinos.  Further, the rooms lost because of the president are the more expensive rooms which means you lose people who spend and lose a lot of money gambling.
Further, I can speculate that Obama did not have a fund raiser, otherwise they would not have ordered out for pizza.  This leads me to believe that Obama may have tapped out his financial resources in Nevada right now.  Trust me, if there was money to be had on this trip, Obama would have had a fund raiser, even a small one for a lunch or even breakfast.  Perhaps Obama is more in trouble politically in Nevada than his supporters and the press are saying.
So, this seems strange that Obama stayed at an out of the way hotel that is not unionized, didn't go out to eat, didn't hold any kind of fund raiser and took the long way to get to and from the airport.
I wonder why?

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