RUSH: This is AP story: “[Y]ounger 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.” I mentioned this a moment ago. “[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,” but it’s way down from what it was, and he’s losing ground.

So he’s out there slow-jamming college hipsters while he’s getting slow-jammed at the same time. Remember what Steve Jobs said about Obama? “The president’s very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me.” And then an AP story yesterday: “One in Two New Graduates are Jobless or Underemployed.” And then from today’s USA Today: “President Obama gets an ‘FÂ’ for failing our youth. As I think many of you know, four years ago, the President was able to fool a number of our college students into supporting his campaign and the result has been the highest level of unemployment for youth in our countryÂ’s recorded history.”

Now, this student loan stuff. It’s the focal point of Obama’s speeches that he’s making to yutes wherever he goes. He talked about it a lot yesterday. Speaking of Obama’s push to try to buy the youth vote by giving them free college tuition, remember — and we mentioned this yesterday. The interest rate increase is coming up for a vote on July 1st because the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007 wanted it that way. Obama is running around scaring these students who don’t know the facts or the truth behind this, that if something isn’t done by the Congress, by July 1st, their student loan interest rate will double.

And then, of course, the students in the audience boo and Obama holds up his hands. “B-b-b-buh! I have a solution.” What you need to know is this: The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 2007. They had just won the election. The House, they took it back in 2006. Pelosi’s running the House; Democrats are running the Senate. So 2007 they passed legislation that would cut the student loan interest rate in half and then reinstituted it July 1st this year, on purpose. They wanted the college student loan interest rate to double in an election year, in the summer right before the conventions. They were rolling the dice.

Back in 2007, they didn’t know Obama was gonna be elected. They didn’t know that a Democrat would win. They didn’t know Obama would be nominated. But they were rolling the dice. They were pretty confident they were gonna win the White House. They just didn’t know with who. In fact, in 2007 it was pretty much assumed it was Hillary. In fact, that was practically etched in stone: “In 2007, it’s Hillary’s turn. She has paid here dues in so many ways.” That was the conventional wisdom. Then Obama comes along, the press swoons, and the rest is history. But still, it was a strategic maneuver in 2007 to cut the student loan interest rate in half and then put it back to what it was on July 1st.

So that it would appear to be doubling to students this year, the Democrats did all of this. They did it to have a campaign issue in case they needed it in 2012. July 1st. So five years ago they planned this. The one thing that I did not mention yesterday is that Obama was a Senator in 2007, and he didn’t even vote on this bill. Twice! There were two votes on raising the college loan interest rate back to what it will be — doubling it, in effect — on July 1st, 2012. He didn’t even vote “present.” He was too busy campaigning. That’s how vitally important the issue of student loan interest rates was to him back then.

Five years ago, he didn’t even vote on it. Twice. Back in 2007, he wasn’t worried about holding onto the youth vote. He was way ahead in the polls with them back in 2007. The whole landscape was roiled because of his entrance into the campaign when it was thought to be Hillary’s. So Republicans are gonna get blamed. Obama’s out there blaming the Republicans for doubling the student loan. “Because they don’t want you to go to college, don’t you know? The Republicans want you to go to go broke, don’t you know? Yes, so the Republicans, they’re gonna double your student loan interest rate on July 1st!”

Just know: The Democrats wrote this in legislation in 2007.

It’s happening exactly as they wrote it so they could have a campaign issue.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The AP is beside themselves. Even a Harvard University poll now showing Obama might not win the youth vote like he did in 2008. Now, during the campaign against McCain Obama won two-thirds of the under-30 vote, but a new Harvard poll shows Obama leading Romney by 23 points in the 25-29 group, and only 12 points among those 18 to 24. That’s a plummet. Yeah, he’s still ahead, but it is a plummet, and the trend is downward, and that’s why Obama’s spending all this time trying to scare them, the student loan interest rate doubling on July 1st, which the Democrats wrote, which the Democrats engineered.

Look, those of you who are new to the program, who knows what you think, what you read about this program, or been told. One thing you have to understand if you’re new to the program, I’m not interested in being wrong. I’m not going to lie or make something up just to advance my agenda. There’s no point in that. We are too rooted in substance and the pursuit of truth, and frankly, I am passionate, I am burning with passion for you to know the truth. I am not burning with passion for you to be lied to or accept lies. So when I tell you that the student loan rate is doubling on July 1st, the Democrats wrote that into law, they did. It’s undeniable; it’s not arguable. And Obama’s out now trying to make it appear as though Republicans are going to do it on July 1st, or 12th, whatever the date is.

And why are the Republicans going to do it? What they want you to believe is, the Republicans want you to suffer. They want your student loans to cost you more money. They want you to not have any money. And it’s just poppycock. It is illogical, makes no sense. Apply just a little critical thinking to all of this and everything that you think Obama is falls apart. This is a Democrat strategery, a Democrat plan, and now Obama is out running it because of these falling numbers in polls on how the youths of America are going to vote.

AP also cites a Gallup poll, says that Obama’s approval rating among young voters has declined. It was 75% in 2009. That was his first year in office. That’s when everybody was filled with all of this utopian idealism and optimism. Seventy-five percent approval rating among the youths, now it’s down to 57%. That is a precipitous fall, and it’s trending downward as we speak. Now, if you read the AP story, it’s clear that they don’t believe Obama has any chance of actually losing the under-30 vote.

They note that the last Republican president to win the under-30 vote was George H. W. Bush. And that’s probably because that group thought they were voting for a third term of Ronald Reagan. I’ll guarantee you that’s what it was. I mean, Bush 41 campaigned as the third term of Reagan. That’s how he positioned himself. But most of this AP article is spent complaining about how Romney and the rest of these venal Republicans hope to exploit poor old Obama’s problems. Just a terrible shame.