FactCheck: Pro-Romney PAC ad craps out

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Is President Barack Obama down on Vegas?

A new ad, running in Nevada, from a pro-Romney group employs a shortened quote from Obama that makes it seem as if he was telling people not to visit and spend money in the tourism hub.

Not exactly.

Making a point about belt-tightening in tough times, Obama told a crowd in New Hampshire in 2010, "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."

But that's not what you hear in the ad from the pro-Romney PAC Crossroads GPS.

Here's how the ad unfolds:

Nevada has certainly been hard hit by the recession. The figure of 62,000 jobs lost in Nevada since Obama took office is accurate, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though the trouble started before Obama's term. In fact, Nevada lost nearly 93,000 jobs in the year prior to Obama taking office. Nevada also has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country, 12 percent.

But it's misleading to shorten Obama's quote to make it seem as if he discouraged tourism to Las Vegas. Here's a fuller transcript of Obama's comments to high school students in Nashua, N.H., on Feb. 2, 2010:

The comment drew sharp rebukes from a number of political leaders in Nevada, some of them Democrats. One of them, in fact, was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who released a statement saying that "the President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money."

Obama responded to Reid with a letter saying his comment was misconstrued.

Obama also addressed the kerfuffle when he visited Nevada a couple of weeks later and spoke to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The comment in 2010 was actually the second time Obama raised the ire of some Nevadans for making a reference to Las Vegas. In a February 2009 speech, Obama said, "You can't take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime," referring to bankers who were accused of whooping it up in Vegas after the government bank bailouts. Some resort executives said the comment drove away business. But then, as in 2010, Obama was not discouraging visits to Las Vegas.

Polls in Nevada show Obama holding a slight lead over Romney, but the race remains tight. According to Politico, Crossroads GPS is sinking $900,000 into airing an English version of the ad over 10 days in the Las Vegas and Reno markets, plus $474,000 on a Spanish-language version in hopes of cutting into Obama's support among Nevada's sizable Latino population.