Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Does President Obama Owe the State of Nevada an Apology?

A few months ago when making a speech about the way companies that accepted bailout funds are spending their money, President Obama made this comment "...business leaders receiving money from the government  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...”  According to the governor of Nevada, he stated that after those comments were made Las Vegas suffered numerous convention cancellations thus resulting in over $100 million of lost revenue. Now here we are today; the President invited the Governor to meet him when he is in Nevada and the Governor gracefully declined. In addition, he asked the President to apologize to him for the comments and make statements supporting Nevada tourism by businesses and business leaders. 

Now back to the title, does President Obama owe the State of Nevada a apology? I can see why most people say No, but I can also see why most people will say Yes. Here is my opinion...I would have to say Yes he does and this is why. President Obama has to understand that he can not just use any coined statement; when the President speaks, regardless if people or businesses agree with him, they will listen. Now we can't say that his words cost the state that money, however, we can't say it didn't either. What we can say is that he could of chose his words more wisely and made a general connotation to lavish trips such as vacations and expensive sporting events, however to single out specific places to get a point across not only hurts him, but hurts possible or potential constituents in those communities that supported him. See with those cancellations came a reduction in jobs or staffing hours thus resulting in decrease subordinate work. 

I understand that many of you will not agree with this blog, but if you take a second to look at it not as a Democrat and Republican, but say someone in the service industry and the President made these statements about your state. How would you feel? Do you think you would be upset? If you were a political official would you want a apology and/or some time of retraction made? Many things one can ponder, but the end result is he should apologize for pointing the finger and not speaking in general context terms. 

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