The

The Clinton campaign attacked Barack Obama this weekend for mobilizing Iowa college students who hail from out of state to return to campuses to caucus on Jan. 3. Politico‘s Ben Smith has the story.

This is pretty gross. Democrats should support the rights of young people to vote where they live the majority of the year — or really, wherever it’s easier for them to get to the polls and they’re inspired to do so. Clinton’s pander to Iowa old folks on this matter proves she has despaired of competing with Obama for the college student vote. Campus progressive groups, including the College Democrats, have long made it a priority to register students to vote and encourage them to get involved in city and state politics where they attend school. I imagine even Hillary’s hard-core student supporters will be dismayed by this move.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.