Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the April 22, 2011, Reno Gazette-Journal.

Make no mistake about it: President Barack Obama’s two-hour stop in Reno on Thursday was more of a campaign stump speech than a town-hall meeting.

Any pretense of the latter went out the window when Jill Derby, the former state regent and Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Dean Heller in 2008, stood up and lobbed a softball to the president on health care. Her planted question was as subtle as the Obama’s motorcade cruising down Terminal Way.

Billed as a town-hall meeting on the federal budget, the Reno visit was the last of a three-stop tour that also hit Virginia and the headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, Calif. Obama, before an invitation-only crowd of about 400, spoke in generalities about his plan to reduce the federal deficit. He also said he’s forming a team to “root out any cases of fraud or manipulation” that might be contributing to rising prices at the fuel pumps.

But what should Nevadans take away from the speech? The answer came toward the end of his prepared remarks, when he spoke about priorities to keep the nation’s economy from backsliding.

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