When the president picks on little Las Vegas

“Shut up and put your money where your mouth is/That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas.”  — singer/songwriter Katy Perry

President Obama pulled a big no-no last week. He insulted an all-American institution, the fine city of Las Vegas, daring to suggest that people should save their money rather than “blow a bunch of cash” on gambling in Sin City if they want to help fund their children’s college education.

His remarks, made at a New Hampshire town hall meeting, ignited a firestorm of criticism, including from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada. “The president needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money,” the suddenly pugnacious Reid quipped.

Last February, Obama took heat from Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former Democrat turned Independent, when the president said that companies shouldn’t use government bailout money to fund junkets to Vegas. Goodman said Obama’s remarks could lead to a downturn in revenue at Vegas’s hotel casinos amid the worst recession since the Great Depression. Never mind that people simply didn’t have disposable income to splurge on gambling a year ago.

Now, once again, we have Obama picking on poor little Las Vegas.

Of course, Vegas can take care of itself. After Reid’s tongue-lashing, the president remarked that he wasn’t suggesting that Las Vegas wasn’t a great city, and people should feel free to spend their vacation dollars there.

The president no doubt realizes that Reid is in a precarious position. He’s up for re-election this year, and he’s down in the polls — way down. The gaming industry, a.k.a. the gambling industry, has plenty of money to throw around on campaign contributions to influence public opinion and oust Reid from office.

According to OpenSecrets.org, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics, the gaming industry was Nevada’s biggest political contributor in the 2008 election, making more than $5.4 million in campaign contributions. By comparison, Nevada's health-care industry gave $815,000.