This is not good news.  Sadly, our side of this fight can't offer these young people anything but freedom and liberty and an opportunity to work hard and realize the American dream without the government deciding you aren't entitled to the money you earn and should support another family, of their choosing, with what you earn.  As pointed out in the article, what the Obamas are offering is what is singly the most important thing to most college students who aren't at the point of considering if they will even be able to get a good paying job once they get the "free" education.  Once again, the Obamas are buying votes with your tax dollars and by borrowing more money to add to the huge debt they have already run up.

Michelle Obama just ended a conference phone call meant to inspire young voter participation in the 2012 campaign. Her strategy? Double down on Pell Grants.

In exactly 30 minutes (you have to hand it to them for being well-organized), the first lady mentioned Pell Grants twice (e.g. ”We doubled Pell Grants. Three million more Americans have grants”), and she referenced the cost of education at least four times.

The First Lady’s remarks came after a brief statement-that-came-off-so-quickly-that-it-seemed-read-from-a-campaign-press-release by Shari Totten, a freshman at UNC Charlotte. Ms. Totten noted that she wouldn’t have been able to afford college had it not been for her government loans. Now, not only can she afford college, but she doesn’t have to work a job while taking classes, and this has allowed her to carry two majors, a minor (how does she already know this as a freshman?), AND campaign for the Obama team.

According to the First Lady, the President constantly stays up late thinking about “folks who desperately want to attend college but can’t afford it.” He and the First Lady both respond the same way: “We gotta fix that.”

The Pell Grant and college affordability story seems to have become a favorite tale of the President, the First Lady, and the President’s reelection team. It came up at a recent speech in Michigan, at the State of the Union, in a speech in Virginia, and in the President’s budget. See the posts I’ve done here, here, and here to get more details on the President’s attack on student debt.

Let’s ignore the fact that subsidizing education only keeps the prices of college artificially high. And let’s ignore the fact that this money isn’t coming from nowhere, it’s coming from our increasingly large debt. I’m not going to change the Obama team’s policies anyway.

Instead, let’s ask whether this pitch to students is actually going to work. The answer? Probably yes.

Educational debt now averages $25,000 per student. That’s higher than credit card debt. My survey of college students showed “education” as the number 1 issue of 25 (see page 2). Rock the Vote polls in 2006, 2008, and 2010 rated “education and the cost of college” as one of the top five issues for young voters. And according to POLITICO’s Battleground poll from November, “education” topped “the economy” as the most important issue for young voters 22 to 18 percent. (From Corey’s previous post on this subject).

So while I may disagree with the First Lady on her approach to education, I don’t doubt her tactical wisdom. She and the President need to rebuild the youth army they had in 2008, and this is a good way to go about it.

Here’s a few other pitches the First Lady made during her remarks:

• “We’ve guaranteed equal pay for equal work (men and women).”
• “We got rid of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ so that Americans will never have to lie about who they are to serve the country they love.”
• “For the first time in history we can watch three women sit on the highest court (Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomayor).”

Her remarks were a bit more tempered than perhaps they would have been in 2007/2008, “Real change is always hard.” But her enthusiasm for young people was still obvious as she repeatedly thanked us for being on the phone call and encouraged us to go to www.barackobama.com/youngamericans to do more.

READ MORE HERE:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenricher/2012/02/27/michelle-obama...