ANN ARBOR, Michigan  - US President Barack Obama made a direct appeal Friday to the young political army which swept him to power in 2008 but seems less engaged now his hopes of reelection are on the line.
Obama joked with supporters and empathized over huge student loan debt, firing up a large crowd of 4,000 students in Michigan, a key battleground, as he runs for reelection in a tough economic and political climate.
"You inspire me," Obama roared in a speech framed by pounding rock music and stuffed with familiar campaign rhetoric as the president wrapped a three-day swing state tour promoting his populist State of the Union message.
"When I meet young people all across this country with energy and drive and vision - despite the fact that you've come of age during a difficult, tumultuous time in this world, it gives me hope," he said.
Obama highlighted his plans to raise federal aid to students facing rocketing tuition costs, and warned colleges which "jack up" fees every year that they would lose state money if they did not pare their own budgets.
The cost of college haunts many young voters and has been a motivating issue for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The average annual cost of going to college has now reached nearly $17,500, according to US government data.
Obama recalled how he and wife Michelle had only recently paid off their own student loans as he put the struggles of young people into the context of State of the Union pledge to build a fair economy for everyone, not just the wealthy.
Sixty-six percent of voters in the Millennial generation - those between 18 and 29-years-old, backed Obama in his 2008 election triumph over Republican John McCain.

According to Pew Research Center data, 62 percent currently back him in a match-up with his most likely Republican opponent in 2012, Mitt Romney, who is more popular than the president in the over 65 age group.
But the Pew research data revealed that enthusiasm and engagement among Millennial voters is "substantially depleted" and there has been a steep decline in interest among the group.
So Obama, especially in marginal states, is under pressure to revive the kind of following he had four years ago, when massive hope-filled crowds hung on his every word and triggered a generational shift in American politics.
Voters in the crowd Friday told painful tales of economic hardship, but generally backed the president.
"I've been unemployed for two-and-a-half years, I'm in pretty bad shape," said one man who identified himself only as Eric.
"I think that some things could have gone better, but I think that (Obama) doesn't think like a typical politician does, in two or four year cycles.
"What he's doing now, we're going to see their benefits in 10 or 30 years."
Ben Fellowes, 20, a major in Political Science at the University of Michigan, said Obama had his vote in November, even though he was not completely satisfied with the president's performance.
"I think with most things he's done, he hasn't done a perfect job but I think that he's a better option than anyone running currently in the Republican primary.
"He inherited the crash at the end of George Bush's term, and people have been a bit impatient. It's understandable because many people have been out of work."
Ella Weber, who studies history and anthropology, complained about the cost of higher education, and bemoaned the economic situation in Michigan.
"But ultimately, a lot of people are still very hopeful, and still behind (Obama's) policies," she said.
Obama won the midwestern industrial state of Michigan in 2008 by 17 points over McCain.
But recent polling suggests he has work to do in a state which carries 19 of the 270 electoral votes he will need to win reelection.
A Michigan State University survey late last year found that the number of voters who thought Obama was doing a "good" or "excellent" job, had dipped to 40.5 percent, down four percent from six months earlier.
The unemployment rate in the rustbelt state is down from a peak of 14.1 percent in August 2009 but remained more than a point higher than the national average at 9.8 percent in November.
Obama on Friday hailed his bailout of the iconic US auto industry which is inextricably linked to the state - which he said had staved off even more misery.