Because Obama meant no slight, Las Vegas does not need an apology

President Barack Obama didn't apologize Wednesday because he had no reason to, despite demands for an apology from Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Obama answered a question Feb. 9 about the use of bailout money and said banks receiving bailouts shouldn't be able to use the money for big bonuses or to get corporate jets. Then he added, "You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime."

Goodman was among the first to interpret the comment as the president telling people to stay away from Las Vegas. He did what any defender of Las Vegas would do. He demanded an apology. Demanding that a president apologize is always good for free press and Goodman's angry demands went worldwide.

But no apology followed.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority provided figures saying, since the president's remarks, Las Vegas had lost $166 million in nongaming economic impact, because 402 conventions were canceled in the first quarter.

The implication: Obama did it. Ignore the recession.

Over the long weekend, Goodman raised expectations Obama would use his overnight visit to Las Vegas Tuesday and Wednesday to clarify his comments. Goodman said Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called and left the impression Obama was going to make "a very positive statement about Las Vegas being a place for businesses to come to do serious meetings and conventions."

In one of his routine memory lapses, Goodman continued, "That's all I have ever asked."

While Goodman made his apology demands in February, the governor was a Jimmy-Come-Lately, waiting until April to propose Obama should meet with him to discuss that Vegas slight. When organizers offered Gibbons the chance to meet the president at the airport Tuesday, he refused (Fox News picked up on that with glee) and joined Goodman in demanding a presidential apology.

Goodman and Gibbons both said Obama's words are keeping companies from doing business in Las Vegas.

When I asked LVCVA for an update on canceled conventions, I was told it's still 402 -- the same number as it was March 16.

The LVCVA has stopped tracking the cancellations, partly because the convention market began to stabilize in late spring.

I hear anecdotal stories of cancellations, but nobody tracks how many are moved to other cities versus how many are just canceled. (If the R-J cancels its Christmas party, do we blame Obama?)

Goodman's demands softened. He used his time on the tarmac with the president to ask whether Obama could say something nice about Las Vegas.

Actually, that's all the president did.

At Nellis Air Force Base, Obama said, "There's nothing like a quick trip to Vegas in the middle of the week. Like millions of other Americans, we come to this beautiful city for the sights and for the sounds -- and today we come for the sun." (I mistakenly thought it was an introduction to his mea culpa. It was a transition into his speech about solar energy.)

Goodman seemed satisfied, after all his prior chest thumping.

Gibbons was not.

The comments "were better than nothing, they were also next to nothing," Gibbons said. "I thought he could have done more."

Obama apologizes when it's deserved and does so publicly.

During the campaign, he apologized to two Muslim women who were moved so they wouldn't be behind him as he spoke. And he apologized for calling a reporter "sweetie."

As president he apologized for a bad joke on the "Tonight Show," comparing his bad bowling to being "like the Special Olympics or something."

He knows when he flubs something publicly.

But he didn't flub this.

What Obama said was taken out of context and evolved into a media furor fueled first by Goodman and now by Gibbons.

Like the president, I don't want the companies receiving billions in taxpayer bailout money using the money for appreciation trips for employees. They need to belt-tighten.

But companies that don't take bailout money are foolish to worry about the image of having a convention in Las Vegas.

Obama never suggested "no Vegas" as Fox News just reported.

Now the stories will be about how Obama didn't apologize, not that he ever needed to.

The news cycle begins anew, and once again in the battle between reality versus perception, perception wins.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison/.