ArcaMax

One wonders how Romney might attempt to reach more millennials, as many are calling the first youngsters to come of age in this century. He could try a David Letterman "Top Ten List," although that's already been done. Texas Gov. Rick Perry tried it as Romney's Republican rival. He did a good job, but his campaign fizzled out anyway.

Romney is better off playing it straight, as when he offered a straightforward response to Obama's position on student loans that amounted to two words: Me, too.

"I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans," he told reporters on Monday in what may be his first major move toward the middle as Republican frontrunner.

That's a switch from his earlier support of the Republican budget plan proposed last month by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a plan that calls for removing the subsidies that keep Stafford loan rates low.

And Speaker John Boehner appeared to be moving toward the middle, too, as he rushed a mostly party-line vote on a $5.9 billion bill to maintain low interest rates for Stafford loans. But familiar partisan disputes erupted over the measure's funding. The money would come from a provision of Obama's health care law for breast cancer screening and other preventive measures. Democrats wanted to fund the bill by cutting oil subsidies.

Take careful notes, students. As the clock ticks away, your student loan rates may well be the prize in Congress' next big partisan faceoff. Choose your own background music.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com.

(c) 2012 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.