BOULDER, Colorado - President Obama is trying to jazz up college students and younger voters as he travels on a two-day battleground state swing where he'll push preventing a federal student loan rate hike.

A voting bloc that is notoriously unreliable, the president beat expectations of youth voters in 2008 and shared a large majority - two to one over rival Senator John McCain, R-Ariz - but is facing a harder sell to galvanize the youth vote this time.

Recent data shows the rough job market for recent grads at play and they may be less likely to actually show up and vote. A recent Fox News poll show that the president's favorability among voters under 30 has dropped 5 percent while his unfavorability has gone up 9 percent.

"In 2008 President Obama was a very unique candidate. He really captured the imagination of a lot of people who either had never been energized by politics or it had been a very long time before they had been excited about a candidate," said Nathan Gonzales of Rothenberg Political Report and Politicsinstereo.com founder.

[N]ow that he's an incumbent, he's had to make some decisions that aren't necessarily popular, and he's also responsible for the direction of the country, some of that shine has worn off with younger voters," Gonzales added.

The president is spending Tuesday and Wednesday in key political states he won last time, but still needs wins in - North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa. (read more)

Cartagena, COLOMBIA -- The scandal involving nearly a dozen Secret Service agents being sent home because one allegedly tried to bring a prostitute into his hotel room has now widened to include five U.S. service members.

Military officials said Saturday the service members violated curfew and "may have been involved in inappropriate conduct ... alleged to have occurred in the same hotel where the recalled U.S. Secret Service agents were staying."

The service members were assigned to Joint Task Force Summit of the Americas in support of the Secret Service.

General Douglas Fraser, commander of USSOUTHCOM, said he is "disappointed by the entire incident and that this behavior is not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military."

A White House spokesman said the president is aware that service members now appear to be involved.

The U.S. Secret Service said on Saturday it had put 11 agents on administrative leave to investigate their behavior, and apologized for the distraction the incident had caused. (read more)

Cartagena, COLOMBIA -- At least a dozen Secret Service agents covering President Obama in Colombia for a leaders summit were sent back to the United States because of allegations involving prostitution, Fox News' Ed Henry confirms through a senior law enforcement official.

The source says that the situation got serious enough that diplomats were brought in to mediate and the Secret Service agents were expelled from the country.

A new crew of agents were rushed into the country to help cover, and officials stress the president was not in any danger.

Of those sent home, it was not immediately clear if all of the agents were involved in prostitution or just associated with incidents surrounding it.

Agents have made headlines before on trips, but the large number involved in this case is unusual.

The behavior in question happened prior to the president’s arrival Friday for the Summit of the Americas, a Secret Service spokesman said. Obama is slated to be here through Sunday and attend several working sessions and meetings with leaders.

The agency did not specify the misconduct or the exact number of people involved, but did confirm there were allegations and that they were sent home. (read more)

SEOUL, South Korea - President Obama made light Tuesday of the hot microphone moment he had the day earlier with Russian President Medvedev, where he said that after the November election, he'd have more "flexibility" on the issue of missile defense.

Just as leaders were greeting one another and about to sit down at the opening session of the Nuclear Security Summit, Obama spotted Medvedev, looks over at him, puts his hands over the microphone in front of him with a big smile, and then goes to greet the Russian president.

Obama was asked about the "flexibility" statement later while making remarks to the press about a nuclear safety agreement, and said "Arms control is extraordinarily complex, very technical, and the only way it gets done is if you can consult and build a strong basis of understanding both between countries as well as within countries."

The open microphone comments he made Monday after a bilateral meeting with Medvedev happened right as journalists were being let into the room.

Obama could be heard saying, "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space."

Medvedev responds in English, "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you..." (read more)

SEOUL, South Korea -- President Obama is attending a three-day stop in Seoul for a Nuclear Security Summit where North Korea's flirtation with weapons borders the talks both literally and figuratively.

The 53-nation summit is a follow-up to the 2010 one in Washington, where leaders outlined ways to keep the most sensitive nuclear materials from terrorists. Obama pushed for a goal of locking down all nuclear facilities by 2014 and this summit serves as a halfway mark to check on progress.

This trip is Obama's third visit to South Korea since becoming president. He also most recently hosted a State Dinner for Korean President Myung-bak Lee at the White House late last year.

The first major event Obama will take part after arrival in Seoul is visiting the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, one of the most fortified strips of land in the world.

It's the border between North and South Korean and has nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in the area, along with 650,000 South Korean troops up against nearly a million North Korean soldiers. Obama will also meet and address U.S. troops during the DMZ stop.

The historic area, which is a remnant of the World War II and the Cold War, is a symbolic and physical separation of the two Koreas, has also been visited by former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. (read more)

President Obama when asked about the attacks from conservatives that he is waging a "war on religion" said that he finds it "puzzling," particularly because of his first job as a community organizer in Chicago, working with churches where he says he spread the "social gospel."

In an interview Monday with Des Moines television station WHO he said of the charges, "I find this very puzzling, because my first job, my first real job out of college, was working with churches in low-income communities, trying to make sure that the social gospel was made real, that people were getting help."

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has had a steady stump-line that Obama is waging a "war on religion" by the administration asking religious institutions and churches to provide contraception, something the Catholic Church morally opposes, as part of the health care law. The administration since walked back the mandate in what they call an "accommodation," saying insurance companies, not organizations, must provide it. That hasn't been enough to appease the Catholic church yet and the White House continues to note they had initially given up to a year to work out the details. (read more)

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. - In his latest jab at potential November rivals, President Obama on Wednesday hit Newt Gingrich for his $2.50 per gallon gas price proposal, telling an audience in a truck plant in North Carolina that it shouldn't listen to "phony election year promises."

The president made the jab while promoting what he calls an "all of the above" strategy to help lower gas prices - one that he says isn't just about drilling but transforming U.S. energy reliance toward alternative fuels, a prospect he acknowledged isn't going to happen overnight.

"The next time you hear some politician trotting out some three point plan for $2 gas you let him know we know better. Tell him we're tired of hearing phony election year promises that never come about," Obama said at a Daimler truck factory announcing incentives for fuel efficiency vehicles. (read more)

Even though he interjected himself into the conversation Friday with a phone call, President Obama weighed carefully into Rush Limbaugh's apology to a Georgetown law student whom he called a "slut" over her comments about the government providing contraception as part of its health care mandate.

Obama was asked at a press conference Tuesday whether or not he felt that Limbaugh's written apology over the weekend was sufficient and if he thinks more sponsors should drop from the popular conservative talk radio show.

He gave a measured response, saying, "I'm not going to comment on what sponsors decide to do. I'm not going to comment on either the economics or the politics of it. I don't know what's in Rush Limbaugh's heart, so I'm not going to comment on the sincerity of his apology," Obama said.

Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke found herself in a swarm of controversy after appearing before a Congressional panel supporting the administration's position of mandating employers, including Catholic institutions like Georgetown, provide contraception as part of the government's new health care law.

Fluke's position and comments provided fodder from both sides of the aisle. Conservatives charged that the government was infringing on religious freedom, and that essentially taxpayers are paying for recreational activity and could spread beyond sex and be anything then. (read more)

In his first solo press conference of the year that happened to be on the same day as the big Republican primary day of Super Tuesday, President Obama had single message for potential opponent Mitt Romney, "Good luck tonight."

The president made the comment when asked if he'd weigh in on some of the GOP candidates and specifically Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who is leading in delegate count, but has failed to secure his party's nomination.

Romney had spent Monday and Tuesday criticizing Obama's position on Iran, both in an op-ed and also in a speech to the AIPAC conference. Romney said, "Hope is not a foreign policy" and that Obama was "America's most feckless President since Carter."

The president had a simple line that he said with a slight smirk, but commanding delivery. When he said, "Good luck tonight," the line served got some chuckles from reporters in the room.

He followed up with "No, really." "Really," he said.

Asked about the comment later in the day, Romney said he appreciated the good wishes, and also wishes the president the best. 

While he didn't want seem to want to engage into a specific war of words with a single candidate, that didn't stop him from at least acknowledging his press conference was coinciding with the GOP's big day. (read more)

The Obama campaign apparently doesn't want to provide big campaign cash to aid Democratic lawmakers running for re-election on Capitol Hill, a stark change from previous years.

POLITICO reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and have tried to get $30 million from Obama's campaign arm, Obama for America (OFA), and also the Democratic National Committee (DNC), but the Obama team declined the request. The news site reports that Campaign Manager Jim Messina and White House Senior Aide David Plouffe met with Reid and Pelosi on Capitol Hill last week.

President Obama's campaign war chest initially was estimated to be in the upwards of $1 billion. While aides have downplayed it would reach that milestone, even if it's tens of millions shy, Obama's still expected to have another record-breaking cycle. (read more)