Months before the election that will determine whether he will spend another four years in the White House, President Barack Obama is reaching out to the same audience that helped him win the 2008 election — college students.
Obama for America officials held a “state of the race” Wednesday in the first of a series of monthly conference calls with campus journalists.
“The worst thing we could do is to take (college students’) support for granted,” said Valeisha Butterfield-Jones, Obama for America’s youth vote director.
During the call, Butterfield-Jones and Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter praised some of Obama’s most-publicized policies, such as the repealing of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Affordable Care Act and the stimulus package.
Butterfield-Jones and Cutter were critical of candidate Mitt Romney, the former Republican of Massachusetts, saying Romney released only mediocre records of his tax returns and wants to raise taxes for members of the middle class.
“Mitt Romney will say anything to get elected,” Cutter said.
Despite criticism of Romney and fellow candidate Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, Cutter encouraged young voters to keep their eyes on the Republicans “to see what their visions were for the future.”
Nick Tuell, a junior studying political science and president of Ohio University’s chapter of College Democrats, said that although polls suggest college students aren't as enthusiastic now as in 2008, support for Obama in Ohio is still high.
"I believe once students across the nation look at his record this coming election, the enthusiasm for the President will increase nationally and those polls showing enthusiasm will follow," Tuell said in an email.
There have been 22 consecutive months of private sector job growth with 3.2 million jobs created, Tuell added.
“There might have been a loss of excitement and enthusiasm because the president couldn’t fix every problem,” he said. “Obviously, the economy isn’t what we want it to be, but it’s getting there. … We’re definitely climbing back.”
Members of OU’s College Republicans could not be reached for comment.
ld311710@ohiou.edu
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect the context of Obama's popularity nationwide in Ohio, as well as the context of recent economic growth.
