Obama on Student Loans - slow jams style

[jacobi]

God help me I'm posting on this god forsaken side of the forum.  I thought this was alot of fun.

Gaspar, Guido, Just pretend it's Reagan.

[jacobi]

http://youtu.be/vAFQIciWsF4

[Teatownclown]

Jimmy hosting the WH press dinner on Saturday...

[Gaspar]

God help me I'm posting on this god forsaken side of the forum.  I thought this was alot of fun.

Gaspar, Guido, Just pretend it's Reagan.

I saw it.  Thought it was great.

I love it when presidents spend time moving closer to the people through humor. 

It puts them at risk of ridicule though.   

[we vs us]

Someone on Morning Joe said that Obama's "playing the human card."  In comparison with the Romneybot, O's humor and ability to relate to the kids is a major strength. 

[Conan71]

Interesting you mentioned it.  This article was in the Whirled this morning.  The jobs picture, high gas prices and stagnant economy aren't playing well in Obama's favor with younger potential voters, but keeping up a persona they can relate to can equate to votes.  Romney has a great opportunity to capitalize on failed policies of the Obama administration, but he needs to humanize himself and quickly to attract the younger vote.

Ronald Reagan didn't win in a major landslide in 1984 by having "fixed" the country at that point.  He won largely, IMO, because he had a kindly personality that anyone would be drawn to.  That was the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in.  Certainly I understood far less about liberal or conservative policy than I do now, but I was like many others on the OSU campus at the time- Reagan was someone you'd love to have as a grandfather.  I also saw the country was definitely moving in the right direction again, as did most of my peers.  

Mondale didn't seem to have near the endearing personality Reagan did and perhaps that's a lesson well-learned when they started eyeing Clinton as a serious candidate in 1992.

Once Obama's, younger voters in play this election
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press – 1 day ago  
WASHINGTON (AP) — Once thought to be solidly behind President Barack Obama, younger voters burdened by a bleak employment picture, high gas prices and student loan debt are being aggressively wooed by the Democrat and his likely Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
In 2008, Obama had a 34-point advantage over Republican Sen. John McCain among voters under age 30. He won about two-thirds of the vote in that age group.

But a new Harvard poll suggests the president may face a harder sales job with younger voters this time around. Obama led Romney by 12 points among those ages 18-24, according to the survey. Among those in the 25-29 age group, Obama held a 23-point advantage.

It's an opening Republicans hope to exploit by focusing on young people's disillusionment with the candidate who promised "hope" and "change."

"I think young voters in this country have to vote for me if they're really thinking about what's in the best interest of their country and what's in their personal best interest," Romney said Monday in Pennsylvania after announcing his support for an effort Obama is pushing to keep the interest rate on federal student loans from doubling in July. Obama is visiting college campuses in key states this week to rally students around the proposal.

"The president's policies have led to extraordinary statistics. When you look at 50 percent of kids coming out college today can't find a job or can't find a job which is consistent with their skills, how in the world can you be supporting a president that has led to that kind of economy?" Romney said. "I think young people will understand that ours is the party of opportunity and jobs."

While Republicans don't anticipate erasing the Democrats' long-held advantage among the under-30 voter group, they would like to trim it enough to help Romney win the White House.

His aides and advisers have been sharpening a message that assails Obama for an economy that has young people feeling the pinch, too. The Republican National Committee is preparing to launch what it calls the Social Victory Center, which promises to turn the Facebook accounts of supporters into an outreach arm of the party. And Romney's five telegenic sons, none of them younger than 30, are ready to reprise their roles as campaign surrogates.

Obama has spent the past week casting himself as a defender of the middle class and urging Congress to keep the 3.4 percent student loan interest rate from doubling to 6.8 percent in July. He rallied students during visits Tuesday to college campuses in North Carolina and Colorado, to be followed by a stop in Iowa on Wednesday. Obama carried all three states in 2008, and they are considered among several that could help decide November's election.

"When a big chunk of every paycheck goes towards loan debt, that's not just tough on you, that's not just tough for middle-class families, it's not just tough on your parents, it's painful for the economy, because that money is not going to help businesses grow," Obama said at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. "I mean, think about the sooner you can start buying a house, that's good for the housing industry. The sooner you can start up that business, that means you're hiring some folks. That grows the economy."

"And this is something Michelle and I know about firsthand. I just wanted everybody here to understand this is not ... I didn't just read about this. I didn't just get some talking points about this. I didn't just get a policy briefing on this. Michelle and I, we've been in your shoes."

Despite attempts to relate to college audiences by opening up about his and his wife's experiences with student loans, polling suggests Obama's job approval rating among these voters has declined. The 75 percent rating he enjoyed in 2009, the year he took office, has dropped to 57 percent, according to Gallup.

That opens the door for Romney and the Republican Party.

Consider North Carolina. Obama won it by fewer than 14,000 votes, making him the first Democrat to carry the state since 1976.

Rick Wiley, the RNC's political director, said Democrats pulled off that victory by registering "a boatload of college kids." But fast forward four years and "those college kids are not going to be there. They're not on campuses anymore. They're probably under-employed," he said.

As a result, Democrats and Republicans alike have to court a new class of college-age voters this election cycle, not just in traditional GOP states like North Carolina, Virginia and Indiana that helped push Obama to victory in 2008, but across the country.

"It's time for a change, and a lot of young voters I've seen are losing faith in Obama," said Maggie Cleary, head of the Washington, D.C., Students for Romney chapter and president of Georgetown University College Republicans. "The biggest challenge we're going to have is exciting people about Gov. Romney. ... They don't know a lot about him other than that he's quote, unquote boring."

That's one reason why Romney's advisers and the RNC want to turn the election into a vote against Obama, and not necessarily into a vote for Romney.

Paul Conway, a former chief of staff to former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, said the "new normal" for college students and 20-somethings is a series of part-time jobs or unpaid internships.

"These are the people who are feeling the impact of the policies," said Conway, who runs Generation Opportunity, a nonpartisan group created to encourage young people to vote. "They believe Washington is mortgaging their future. They're watching Washington put them further in to debt."

The last Republican presidential candidate to win voters under age 30 was Republican George H.W. Bush. He won 52 percent of those voters on his way to defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988.

Associated Press Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

[we vs us]

Interesting you mentioned it.  This article was in the Whirled this morning.  The jobs picture, high gas prices and stagnant economy aren't playing well in Obama's favor with younger potential voters, but keeping up a persona they can relate to can equate to votes.  Romney has a great opportunity to capitalize on failed policies of the Obama administration, but he needs to humanize himself and quickly to attract the younger vote.

Ronald Reagan didn't win in a major landslide in 1984 by having "fixed" the country at that point.  He won largely, IMO, because he had a kindly personality that anyone would be drawn to.  That was the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in.  Certainly I understood far less about liberal or conservative policy than I do now, but I was like many others on the OSU campus at the time- Reagan was someone you'd love to have as a grandfather.  I also saw the country was definitely moving in the right direction again, as did most of my peers.  

Mondale didn't seem to have near the endearing personality Reagan did and perhaps that's a lesson well-learned when they started eyeing Clinton as a serious candidate in 1992.

Indeed.  As you know, you buy the person as much as you buy the product.  That's Romney's major (fatal?) flaw.  Well, that and the fact that his party is whackadoodle. 

Interestingly, as unpopular as Obama's policies have been in some quarters, his personal likability polling has always been strong.  He will absolutely rely on that during the general.

[Hoss]

Indeed.  As you know, you buy the person as much as you buy the product.  That's Romney's major (fatal?) flaw.  Well, that and the fact that his party is whackadoodle. 

Interestingly, as unpopular as Obama's policies have been in some quarters, his personal likability polling has always been strong.  He will absolutely rely on that during the general.

But he better not fall back on it and hope that's what gets him the win, or he won't.  But I do think Mitten has an uphill struggle.  He comes off as too upper-class, and that won't sit well, especially in the Deep South.

And I'm not one to bring religion in, but the "Mormon Thing' will be a challenge for him to overcome, in the same areas of the country.

[Conan71]

But he better not fall back on it and hope that's what gets him the win, or he won't.  But I do think Mitten has an uphill struggle.  He comes off as too upper-class, and that won't sit well, especially in the Deep South.

And I'm not one to bring religion in, but the "Mormon Thing' will be a challenge for him to overcome, in the same areas of the country.

In the past there's been the "Roman Catholic Thing" and "Black Thing".  Sooner or later the barriers come down.

[Hoss]

In the past there's been the "Roman Catholic Thing" and "Black Thing".  Sooner or later the barriers come down.

They do, but will they for Mitt?  Especially where the Evangelicals are concerned.

[Gaspar]

There were actually two groups very important to President Obama in the last election.

Candidate Obama took advantage of the young enthusiastic vote in 2008.  His platform was emotional and fresh.  He was very attractive to those who cling to issues with passion rather than reason.  He promised the classic liberal approach and preached utopian vision.  He was a sticker, a button, a pen, an illusion of youth overcoming "the old ways."  He was a unicorn & rainbows, hope & change rockstar.

Then you have the older crowd. . .  The beaten, angry, and flustered Olde Progressive Guarde, confident that if they could just get one more crack at centralized planning and control, they would be able to overcome the embarrassments of the past and prove once and for all that free market philosophies are evil, and lead to chaos. Candidate obama was the perfect model of a Keynesian academic, unpolluted by capitalist dogma and dedicated to lifting the burdens of society by changing the focus from the greedy admiration of individual accomplishment, to the worship of group achievement and redistribution of wealth.  This acolyte of Alinski was incorruptible by their standards.  He spoke better than Carter and didn't fit the elite mold of Edwards. His youth and willingness to march forward with little regard for lessons of the past made him the obvious choice over Hillary Clinton, who's experience might serve to temper her decisions.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a crystal in 2008?

The young could gaze into it and see that unicorns & rainbows really don't exist and all of the vinegar and spittle hurled at the evil capitalists would only serve to deliver unemployment among their ranks at a level never seen before.  

The Olde Progressive Guarde, aging hippies, old money, pocket socialists, anti-this-that protesters, and personal failure engineers could gaze into it and see that he would betray them at every turn.  Big lobby, big business, pay for play, Goldman Sachs, GE, Gitmo, Bush's 3rd term, words, words, words.  

Today, I think we will see him lose some of the youth vote, because yes, they may be young, but most are not stupid.  The Obama administration may have served as the best example, in our time, of why actions are more important than words, and why the constitution was created to limit executive power.  It's also the greatest example of why leadership is important, and how fragile economies can be damaged by uncertainty and indecision.

I think most of the Olde Progressive Guarde will vote for him again.  They have nothing left to lose and somewhere deep down inside they think that once he gets a second term, and HE has nothing left to lose, he will unleash his true progressive agenda, shedding his dark suit, and "sock it to the man."  They will be disappointed, but that won't stop them.

[Hoss]

There were actually two groups very important to President Obama in the last election.

Candidate Obama took advantage of the young enthusiastic vote in 2008.  His platform was emotional and fresh.  He was very attractive to those who cling to issues with passion rather than reason.  He promised the classic liberal approach and preached utopian vision.  He was a sticker, a button, a pen, an illusion of youth overcoming "the old ways."  He was a unicorn & rainbows, hope & change rockstar.

Then you have the older crowd. . .  The beaten, angry, and flustered Olde Progressive Guarde, confident that if they could just get one more crack at centralized planning and control, they would be able to overcome the embarrassments of the past and prove once and for all that free market philosophies are evil, and lead to chaos. Candidate obama was the perfect model of a Keynesian academic, unpolluted by capitalist dogma and dedicated to lifting the burdens of society by changing the focus from the greedy admiration of individual accomplishment, to the worship of group achievement and redistribution of wealth.  This acolyte of Alinski was incorruptible by their standards.  He spoke better than Carter and didn't fit the elite mold of Edwards. His youth and willingness to march forward with little regard for lessons of the past made him the obvious choice over Hillary Clinton, who's experience might serve to temper her decisions.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a crystal in 2008?

The young could gaze into it and see that unicorns & rainbows really don't exist and all of the vinegar and spittle hurled at the evil capitalists would only serve to deliver unemployment among their ranks at a level never seen before.  

The Olde Progressive Guarde, aging hippies, old money, pocket socialists, anti-this-that protesters, and personal failure engineers could gaze into it and see that he would betray them at every turn.  Big lobby, big business, pay for play, Goldman Sachs, GE, Gitmo, Bush's 3rd term, words, words, words.  

Today, I think we will see him lose some of the youth vote, because yes, they may be young, but most are not stupid.  The Obama administration may have served as the best example, in our time, of why actions are more important than words, and why the constitution was created to limit executive power.  It's also the greatest example of why leadership is important, and how fragile economies can be damaged by uncertainty and indecision.

I think most of the Olde Progressive Guarde will vote for him again.  They have nothing left to lose and somewhere deep down inside they think that once he gets a second term, and HE has nothing left to lose, he will unleash his true progressive agenda, shedding his dark suit, and "sock it to the man."  They will be disappointed, but that won't stop them.

Never cease to amaze me.  It's almost comical...

[Teatownclown]

In the past there's been the "Roman Catholic Thing" and "Black Thing".  Sooner or later the barriers come down.

Oh right. CoCo, you keep the wishy hopey thing alive....makes for interesting chatter....but magic underwear is magic underwear....no brains, teleprompters, social activism etc. can overcome that barrier....nice try.

[nathanm]

Never cease to amaze me.  It's almost comical...

I'd like to find the website where he gets this smile. Sometimes it's like a mix of LGF and our very own shadows.

[Conan71]

They do, but will they for Mitt?  Especially where the Evangelicals are concerned.

The evangelicals will hold their nose and vote againstObama.  They hate Obama far more than they hate Moronism er Mormonism.

I don't think Trump or Paul is stupid enough to mount an independent campaign unless they want to ensure another four years of Obama.