financial aid

Some reading material for your Saturday evening:

• brownsox from Daily Kos interviewed Ashwin Madia, the Democratic House candidate in Minnesota's Third District, this past Wednesday and has video of it. Madia is a 30 year old Iraqi vet and a lawyer -- another young candidate.
• A story in an Appleton, WI newspaper focusing on local youth involvement this election cycle
• The Nation compares both candidates' policies on national service.
• DNC '08: Pundit playtime?
• Young voters energized the Iowa delegation/were energized themselves at the convention this week.
• What are Boomers reading online?
• A profile of Headcount.
• An explanation of both candidates' views with regard to students and college financial aid.
• Finally, a columnist at the Pensacola News Journal observes the Millennials/Gen Xers are ready to "throw the bums out" -- of both parties.

Update: Here is the documentary shown prior to Obama's acceptance speech. Some powerful stuff -- check it out:

As Fred reported yesterday, the biggest student aid reform since the GI Bill passed with overwhelming support in the House of Representatives. A similar bill (with better provisions for Pell Grants) is working its way through the Senate. Yesterday, President Bush issued a rather toothless veto threat against the bill.

This same week, we saw the corporate lenders strategic playbook leaked onto the web, in all it's lobbyist/monied-interest/influence peddling glory. Sallie Mae and their corporate buddies are already plotting to recover as much ground as possible - even before the legislation has been signed into law. They're losing this issue, but their strategy is still that the best defense is a good offense.

In response to all of this, the College Democrats and the Young Democrats issued press releases congratulating the Democrats for following through on their election promises and condemning Republicans for obstructing aid to needy students. Case closed, job well done.

Fred, on the other hand, created a list of all the Republicans who voted against the bill, singling them out as future electoral targets. Fred was thinking like Sallie Mae. He's pushing an issue we're winning for maximum gain - not just on the current debate, but for the future of student loan reform and for a whole host of other issues that will tilt our way if we strengthen our hold on Congress. Student lending can be a lever to give us bigger, stronger majorities that can accomplish greater change on other issues.

Why aren't the official youth arms of the Democratic Party thinking the same way?

Over at Open Left, they've got a great new feature called Right to Respond. Any organization that is featured critically in a blog has the right to guest blog their response. It's a good policy. If someone from Young Dems or College Dems wants to clarify their position or elucidate a longer term strategy for this issue, I'm happy to let them post here.