President Barack Obama， courting young voters crucial to his reelection， told a rowdy collegeage crowd at the university of north Carolina at chapel hill on tuesday that he knows first-hand about the burden of student loans because he only managed to pay his back a scant eight years ago.

“Michelle and I， weve been in your shoes，” Obama， who turns 51 in august， told a cheering， capacity crowd of 8，000 at carmichael arena.

“Check this out， all right. Im the president of the united states. We only finished paying off our student loans off about eight years ago. That wasnt that long ago. And that wasnt easy—especially because when we had malia and sasha， were supposed to be saving up for their college educations， and were still paying off our college educations，” he said.

The presidents emphasis on his modest upbringing seemed designed to invite comparisons to presumptive republican nominee mitt romney. The white house has denied specifically targeting the multi-millionaire financier with such attacks even as the Obama campaign has pointedly attacked romneys personal finances.

Obamas stop in north carolina was the first on a two-day， campaign-style swing through battleground states to reengage young voters who powered his historic 2008 campaign but seem less enthused about the 2012 election. His chief policy message was an appeal for congress to pass legislation to stop interest rates on a popular student loan from doubling july 1 from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

“We didnt come from wealthy families. When we graduated from college and law school we had a mountain of debt. When we married， we got poor together. We added up our assets and there were no assets. And we added up our liabilities and there were lot of liabilities—basically in the form of student loans，” Obama said of himself and Michelle Obama.

The president said he and his wife paid more on their student loans than they did on the mortgage on their condo during their first eight years of marriage.

The republican national committee and the romney campaign had struck preemptively at Obamas message even before he had left the beltway， holding conference calls to underscore young workers struggles in the three years since he took office.

“He forgot to mention that he failed to address student loans the past three and a half years and skipped a vote in the senate on the very same issue. In his speech he said，‘it requires not just words but deeds. We tend to agree，” rnc spokeswoman kristen kukowski said after the presidents speech.

美國總統(tǒng)巴拉克·奧巴馬星期二造訪北卡羅來納大學(xué)教堂山分校， 向年輕選民示意他們對(duì)于他的連任大選來說很重要。奧巴馬坦言，他自己也親身體驗(yàn)過助學(xué)貸款的負(fù)擔(dān)，因?yàn)樗约菏窃?年前才還清助學(xué)貸款。

“米歇爾和我也經(jīng)歷過你們正在經(jīng)歷的壓力?！?他在可容納8，000人的卡米高競技場向大家坦言道，今天8月奧巴馬將迎來50歲生日。

“你們可能不太相信。雖然現(xiàn)在我是美國總統(tǒng)，但我們也是8年前才還清了助學(xué)貸款，并沒有太久。還款這件事真是不容易，尤其是當(dāng)我們有了女兒馬莉亞和薩沙以后，我們本來應(yīng)該為她們存出大學(xué)經(jīng)費(fèi)，而我們?nèi)砸獌斶€著我們讀大學(xué)時(shí)的費(fèi)用。”他說。

總統(tǒng)著重突出了他的平民出身，與共和黨的總統(tǒng)候選人米特·羅姆尼劃清界限。白宮已經(jīng)明確否定了這些言論是針對(duì)這位身價(jià)億萬的金融家，不過羅姆尼的個(gè)人財(cái)務(wù)狀況的確是奧巴馬的競選團(tuán)隊(duì)的攻擊目標(biāo)。

在奧巴馬這次為期兩天的競選活動(dòng)中，北卡羅來納大學(xué)是首站，意在重新留住年輕選民。這批年輕選民曾在奧巴馬具有歷史意義的2008年總統(tǒng)大選中發(fā)揮了重要作用，但他們對(duì)2012年大選的熱情似乎減弱了很多。美國教育部將從7月1日起將直接助學(xué)貸款的利率提高到6.8%，奧巴馬的競選主張之一就是呼吁利息維持在3.4%的低水平。

“我們的家庭并不富裕。當(dāng)我們從大學(xué)和法學(xué)院畢業(yè)的時(shí)候，我們債臺(tái)高筑。當(dāng)我們結(jié)婚后，我們倆一起成窮人了。我們估算資產(chǎn)，發(fā)現(xiàn)一無所剩;但當(dāng)我們清算債務(wù)時(shí)，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)欠了很多很多債——基本上是助學(xué)貸款?！眾W巴馬說的是他自己和他夫人米歇爾。

總統(tǒng)說，在他們結(jié)婚后的八年時(shí)間里，比起支付在按揭貸款上的費(fèi)用，他們的錢更多地用來償還助學(xué)貸款。

不過早在奧巴馬離開華盛頓前，共和黨全國委員會(huì)和米特·羅姆尼競選團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)先發(fā)制人地抨擊了奧巴馬的言論，共和黨強(qiáng)調(diào)在奧巴馬就職以來的三年多里，青年工人過得十分艱辛。

“他忘了提在過去的三年半時(shí)間里，他未能解決助學(xué)貸款問題，而且跳過了一個(gè)助學(xué)貸款議題的投票表決。他在演講中說‘這不只是說說而已，更要有行動(dòng)。 我們也同意?！惫埠忘h全國委員會(huì)女發(fā)言人克莉絲汀·庫考斯基在總統(tǒng)發(fā)表演講后說。