Sin City Seethes Over 2nd Obama Diss

When President Obama said yesterday that families saving for college shouldn't blow money in Vegas, it was the second time he'd singled out Sin City as an example of excessive spending—and his words came as salt in the wounds of a tourism-dependent city hit hard by the recession. "I'll do everything I can to give him the boot," the Las Vegas mayor told the AP. "This president is a real slow learner."

"The president needs to lay off Las Vegas," says Harry Reid, usually a close ally of Obama. Defending yesterday's comments in a letter to Reid, Obama wrote, "I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun." Nevada, currently facing 13% unemployment, was also dismayed last February when Obama said bailed-out banks shouldn't go to Las Vegas with taxpayer money. (More Nevada stories.)