Looking for a safe bet on your next trip to Vegas? Here's a sure thing . . .

Barack Obama won't carry Nevada in 2012.

Why not?

Exhibit A:  Last year, Obama said, "You cant take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers' dime."  After those comments, Nevada tourism tanked.

Now, Exhibit B:  Today, Obama said, "When times are tough, you tighten your belts.  You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage.  You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."  (Link to story here.)

What happens when people don't go to Las Vegas and spend money?  The casinos lose revenue, yes.  But so do the hotels, tourist shops, and restaurants.  And the folks who work at casinos, hotels, tourist shops, and restaurants lose their jobs - and their ability to pay their mortgages or save for college tuition.

James Clyburn's words were right yesterday, but his meaning all wrong.  We do have to spend our way out of the recession.  But we is the American people and American business.  Not the American government.  Americans spending money, buying things from other people, churning dollars back and forth between one another, buying goods and services . . . economic activity, and a lot of it, is our only hope.

President Obama should get in the way of government spending and get out of the way of Americans and, yes, American corporations, spending their money in ways that they deem appropriate.