O(pportunistic)bama

Obama tells students: 'I need your voices' - Yahoo! Finance: "President Barack Obama urged thousands of enthusiastic college students Wednesday to make their voices heard, telling a boisterous crowd in Denver, "Young people, I need you guys involved."

"I need you active, I need you communicating to Congress, I need you to get the word out," Obama said at the University of Colorado, Denver. "Tweet `em. They're all tweeting all over the place, you tweet `em back."

The president took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves to address the crowd of about 4,000 at a gymnasium at the university, the last stop in a three-day swing through the West that mixed high-dollar fundraising with new announcements of modest executive actions to circumvent Congress. To the university crowd, Obama rolled out plans to help students with loan debt.

"We can't wait for Congress to do its job, so where they won't act, I will," Obama said.

"I am going to keep doing everything in my power to make a difference for the American people, but Denver I need your help," the president said."

The crowd was friendly and loud, but partway through, protesters started shouting about a planned oil pipeline from western Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast that's drawn demonstrations around the country and outside the White House. "Say no to the pipeline!" one shouted, and they held aloft a banner reading: "Stop the Keystone Pipeline Project."

Obama paused to respond. "We're looking at it right now. No decision's been made and I know your deep concern about it so we will address it," he said. The protesters were escorted out.