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Polling shows Obama holds a sizable lead over Romney among registered voters under 30. In Obama's first run for the White House, young voters helped him carry GOP-leaning states like North Carolina and Indiana thanks to major voter registration drives on college campuses. Obama campaign officials have estimated a universe of about 8 million voters between the ages of 18 and 21 who weren't old enough to vote in 2008 but could be tapped to support the president this time. Yet Obama may be a tougher sell to young people this time. The president carried voters between the ages of 18-29 by a margin of about 2-to-1 in 2008, but many recent college graduates have faced high levels of unemployment, raising concerns about whether they will vote in large numbers for Obama again. Obama's 2012 college campus tour has already included stops at the University of Michigan, the University of Miami, Ohio State University and Florida Atlantic University. Obama has also traveled to community colleges in New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia this year. In another shot at wooing younger voters, Obama will also appear on NBC's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" show, to be taped while Obama is North Carolina. Obama's trip runs Tuesday and Wednesday. Jason Delisle, director of the federal education budget project at the New America Foundation, questioned why the Democratic Congress did not make the lower rate permanent in the first place. He noted Obama was on the Senate Education Committee at the time the legislation was drafted. "The answer is, Well, it's too expensive," he said. "That's it. That's the bottom line. That's the only reason it expires."
[Associated
Press;
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