{"id":772,"date":"2008-02-18T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/2\/18\/Clintons-Burn-it-down-Save-the-Rio"},"modified":"2008-02-18T12:23:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-18T20:23:00","slug":"clintons-burn-it-down-save-the-rio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/clintons-burn-it-down-save-the-rio\/","title":{"rendered":"Clintons: 'Burn it down'; Save the Rio!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, actually that was the motto of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael<\/a> … but, in essence, that's the message coming out of the camp of Sen. Hillary Clinton<\/b>, favored candidate of Harrah's Entertainment<\/b>. I knew in my heart that the Clintons were willing to tear down the Democratic Party to get the presidential nomination, no matter how tarnished, but I never thought their surrogates would come out and say it<\/a>. Shameful.<\/p>\n

If you feel as I do, wash out that bad aftertaste with this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Harrah's<\/b>, every day I walk by The Rio<\/a> on my way to work. After four and a half months, I can't hold my tongue any longer: As swanky as it is on the inside, The Rio's exterior is looking like The Casino That Harrah's Forgot. Simply put, the paint is peeling. Not a flake here and there, but big, long strips all over the place, especially where that Jack Daniels wraparound billboard used to be.<\/p>\n

We know that Harrah's is going to have to count its pennies, now that a leveraged buyout has left it with enough debt to choke the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Also, thanks to a series of reports by the Las Vegas Review-Journal'<\/i>s Joan Whitely<\/a>, we've learned that maintenance hasn't been Job One at Harrah's lately. But would it wreck the balance sheet to go down to Ace Hardware, pick up a few cans of paint and touch up The Rio? (I exaggerate, but you get my point.)<\/p>\n

Every so often, one rumor or another surfaces to the effect that Harrah's is trying to offload The Rio, whether to Boyd Gaming<\/b> or George Maloof<\/b> or whomever. These rumors may be more entertaining than true. Yet, a decade ago, it was Harrah's prize Vegas acquisition, the resort property that was going to entice regional players to cash in their Total Rewards points here. Now it looks like a red-headed stepchild.<\/p>\n

It shouldn't be this way. The Rio still a great property with the most beautiful hotel tower in town … after dark, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, actually that was the motto of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael … but, in essence, that's the message coming out of the camp of Sen. Hillary Clinton, favored candidate of Harrah's Entertainment. I knew in my heart that the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,26,7,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}