Obama shows Vegas love

President Barack Obama said it was time to "set the record straight" when it came to his views on Las Vegas.

"I love Vegas," Obama said during his second speech of the day in Las Vegas. "Just last night I hit a flush on the river and cut the budget deficit in half."

It's Obama's first Las Vegas stop since he put his foot in his mouth a few weeks ago -- for the second time in a year -- by holding Las Vegas up as a place not to spend cash when there are school loans and corporate bills to pay instead. He even riled Reid who told him to "lay off Las Vegas."

Obama was speaking in Aria, the centerpiece in the $8.4 billion CityCenter resort project on the Strip.

"It wasn't meant to be a shot," Obama said.

CityCenter opened in December, in the midst of perhaps the deepest recession ever in Las Vegas.

Despite financial problems CityCenter parent MGM Mirage faced completing the project, the estimated 12,000 employees hired makes it the largest one-time hiring event in the United States.

MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., were on stage with the President, who greeted employees in the back of the house en route to the podium.

The audience of about 650 people included members of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and six local chambers of commerce.

Absent was convention authority board chairman and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who refused to greet the President without an apology in advance for the perceived Las Vegas slights.

Audience member Ernest Fountain, business consultant to the Nevada Minority Business Enterprise Center, said he wasn't offended by Obama's remark in New Hampshire when he said people shouldn't waste college money in Las Vegas.

"What he said was factual," Fountain said. "You can't waste your money here if you are struggling."

Obama's first Las Vegas statement, which was blamed by some for dissuading companies from holding lavish conventions and events in Las Vegas, was worse, Fountain said.

"They are going to have their conventions, their parties somewhere," he said. "There is nothing wrong with them coming to Las Vegas."

More important than perceived Las Vegas slights though is the state of the economy, according to Fountain.

He said the government's efforts to preserve big banks should have, instead, focused on getting money directly to businesses.

Main Street, he said, "doesn't have equal access to capital in our system," adding minority-owned businesses have even more hurdles.

"It is really, really tough," Fountain said.

Reid said while introducing Obama, "We stopped a worldwide depression."

He went on to say "that is little comfort to those who are hurting," adding the purpose of the visit was for Obama to say more will be done to help residents."

Reid also praised Obama for keeping a campaign promise to kill the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility.