President Obama reached out to crucial young voters here and in
Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday with a promise to keep college
affordable, in the first two of three campus appearances in
battleground states this week spotlighting this key voting group.
Speaking to capacity crowds at the University of North Carolina's
flagship campus and later in the day at the University of Colorado,
Obama made his case that congressional leaders must take action before
July to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling.
On Wednesday, the president will give a similar address at the
University of Iowa.
"College education is one of the best investments America can make
for our future," Obama said in Chapel Hill. "This is important for all
of us. We can't price most Americans out of a college education. We
can't make higher education a luxury. It's an economic imperative.
Every American should be able to afford it. So that's why I'm here."
Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, now agree
the loan rates should remain low. Both are, not coincidentally,
ferociously courting young voters, who turned out overwhelmingly for
Obama four years ago but are less enthusiastic today about politics and
more worried about their futures.
Romney weighed in on the college issue Monday, and his campaign
hosted a conference call with surrogates Tuesday to decry how the
president has "failed" young Americans — revealing how important his
campaign believes the youth vote will be now that the general election
is under way.
Still, the hero's welcome Obama received in Chapel Hill and Boulder
— crowds shouted "Amen!" and chanted "Four more years!" — illustrated
how powerful the president's advantage remains among young voters. The
events had the feel of campaign rallies, although labeled official
White House events and paid for by taxpayers.
In Chapel Hill, the president also taped an appearance on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," whose audience skews young.
Obama's challenge is not so much winning these voters; he won among
18- to 29-year-olds in 2008 by a 34-point margin, and most polls
predict he will win the group again easily. Rather, it is to draw out
as many of them as possible on Election Day. This is especially true in
states such as North Carolina, which Obama won with a razor-thin margin
of roughly 14,000 votes four years ago.
On Monday, senior White House officials, who asked for anonymity so
they could speak candidly, confirmed as much, noting that a key goal of
the president's re-election effort is to register as many new young
voters — those between the ages of 18 and 21 who were too young to vote
in 2008 — as they can.
Romney's comments Monday partly neutralized the contrast between
Democrats and Republicans on the issue of student loans, although
earlier in the Republican nomination contest he said government should
not be spending more money to help pay for college.
Obama also called on Congress to extend a tuition tax credit he
pushed when he first took office to safeguard financial aid for
low-income students, such as the Pell Grant program, and to double the
number of work-study jobs available over the next five years.
Obama's decision to push the student-loan issue fits in with a
larger contrast his campaign is trying to draw with Romney and
Republicans: that he is more focused on the concerns of the middle
class while his opponent wants to gut popular federal programs in order
to extend tax cuts for the rich.
The president drew yet another contrast with Romney's privileged
background by noting that he and his wife, Michelle, did not finish
paying off their student loans until eight years ago.