Time to Take Back Battered Las Vegas

You have to love Las Vegas. Meghan McCain sure does. “For me growing up, it was a town of many firsts, where I enjoy a level of anonymity,” she writes in the Daily Beast. “Trust me, for a young, rebellious senator’s daughter, this isn’t something that happens very often.” But the recession has really knocked the strip around, sending unemployment there to “a Libya-like 26%.” The media and sanctimonious politicians—including President Obama—have made it seem like a crime to have fun there.

Take John McCain. “My father loves Las Vegas and he loves to play craps,” McCain writes, but he now avoids it because the media lambasted him for choosing such a risky game. Meghan herself caught flak last September for canceling a speaking gig to go to Vegas—after her boyfriend dumped her. Times like that, you need Vegas. “We need to take back the Strip,” McCain writes. “This is my plea to the American public, because the next time I go, I’d like to bring my dad.” (More Meghan McCain stories.)