Politics
Election 2012: Obama to court students as they return to campus
Obama was scheduled to speak Tuesday at Iowa State University and Colorado State University. The University of Virginia rejected his campaign’s request to hold an event on campus Wednesday, saying it would cause the cancellation or disruption of classes on the second day of the semester. The event was instead being held at an off-campus pavilion in Charlottesville.
White House and campaign officials were closely monitoring Tropical Storm Isaac as it barreled toward the Gulf Coast, but as of late Monday, there were no plans to cancel the president’s trip.
Romney’s campaign sees an opportunity to cut into the president’s support among young people by pushing a three-pronged economic argument focusing on the nation’s high unemployment rate, the soaring cost of college and the national debt.
“These kids haven’t even entered the workforce and they already owe the government a bill for the debt Obama has rung up,” said Joshua Baca, the Romney campaign’s national coalitions director.
Obama campaign officials say the start of the new school year is a particularly crucial time to ramp up college registration and make sure those new voters get to the polls. In many of the battleground states, about 50 percent of the college students register to vote on campus after Labor Day, according to the campaign. And even those who are already registered may need to change their address or other personal details after moving to new dorms.
At the University of Dayton, Daniel Rajaiah encourages his fellow Democrats to carry voter registration forms to class, to parties and around campus in case they find someone who hasn’t yet registered. Members of the College Democrats set up tables in the middle of campus a few days a week to catch students walking to class or to the cafeteria.
“Our game plan this fall is to hit voter registration very hard,” said Rajaiah, who is president of the College Democrats of Ohio.
