Obama: Trashing Las Vegas?

For the second time in a year, President Obama raised the hackles of Nevada politicians by suggesting that spending money in Las Vegas is a bad idea. A year ago, he warned taxpayer-bailed-out companies against holding lavish meetings in Sin City; on Tuesday, in a speech about federal belt-tightening, Obama told a group of New Hampshire high school students not to "blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you're trying to save for college." Is Obama treating recession-ravaged Las Vegas unfairly? (Watch Obama's comments about Las Vegas)

Obama was right: I understand that Las Vegans "need your dumb spending, irresponsibility, and drunken" revels to survive, says Ravi Somaiya in Gawker. But the only correct response to this absurd controversy is to point out the obvious: the "complainers are stupid."

"Obama asked to stop using Vegas as a metaphor for idiocy"

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Who's the stupid one here? "This president is a real slow learner," says Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, via KTNV.com. Obama "hurt our economy by his ill-conceived rhetoric" last year, and since "he didn't learn his lesson the first time," next time he comes to Las Vegas "I'll do everything I can to give him the boot back to Washington and to visit his failures back there."

"Las Vegas Mayor Goodman blasts President Obama"

Obama misspoke, but Vegas is overreacting: "I find myself in the odd position of defending Obama on this score," says Ed Morrissey in Hot Air. It would have been better for Obama to "keep it generic by saying 'in the casinos' rather than 'on Vegas,'" but his point — you shouldn't waste money you need for something more important — is "only remarkable for its banality."

"Las Vegas mayor: Obama is 'a real slow learner'"