RENO, Nev. – President Barack Obama accused rival Mitt Romney of being oblivious to the burdens of paying for college on Tuesday, telling young voters in battleground Ohio that his opponent’s education policies amount to nothing more than encouraging them to tap their parents for money or “shop around” for the best deal.
“This is his plan. That’s his answer to a young person hoping to go to college: shop around and borrow more money from your parents if you have to. Not only is that not a good answer, it’s not even an answer,” Obama said at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.
Turning to young voters, a key part of his 2008 coalition, the president sought to draw a bright line with Romney on education policy in his latest attempt to meld Romney with the House Republican budget blueprint offered Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate.
Earlier, at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, he said: “Not everybody has parents who have the money to lend. That may be news to some folks.”
Obama and Romney remain locked in a tight presidential campaign a week before the former Massachusetts governor formally claims his party’s nomination at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla. Both campaigns have broadened their message to voters in recent weeks beyond the economy, which remains the most pivotal issue for voters less than three months before the election.
Romney sought to distance himself from Missouri GOP Senate nominee Todd Akin, who apologized after saying in an interview that women’s bodies are sometimes able to prevent pregnancies after what he called “a legitimate rape.” Romney said in a statement that fellow Missouri Republicans had urged Akin to quit and “I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.”
Romney was raising money to bolster his campaign in Texas, where he told donors that his campaign was “a little wiser in our spending of dollars” than Obama’s campaign, pointing to new finance documents released by Obama’s campaign on Monday that showed it spent more money in July than it brought in.
