Obama embraces young crowds in convention warm-up

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- President Barack Obama is tangling with a couple of rivals in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention: Mitt Romney and voter apathy, especially among the young.

Younger voters gave Obama a big boost four years ago and he can ill afford to see their support drop off in a tight election. So the president's pre-convention tour of battleground states has been heavy on college crowds, where he's implored supporters to register and vote.

Obama's been telling the college-age crowds that the election is a choice between education tax credits versus Mitt Romney's tax breaks for the rich; his "Obamacare" versus "Romney doesn't care," his "forward" versus "same old."

And when those crowds boo the references to Romney, Obama tells them to convert that negative energy into votes Election Day.