It’s no epiphany that college students are politically inactive. In the 2004 presidential election, 46.7% of those age 18-24 voted. While this is an improvement from the 36.1% of students who voted in 2000, it is still significantly lower than the percentage of voters in other age groups. There are plenty of explanations for this. It’s easy to say we’re lazy, apathetic, and careless. Few politicians are below the age of 35 and have the ability to connect to young voters. Furthermore, many young voters are away from home and don’t realize they can vote from another state or overseas, and even register, online in just a few minutes. And some of us are discouraged from voting by local election boards. Others will sell our votes for college tuition or an iPod Touch.

But the latest strategy dispute between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Iowa is, ironically, all about the students. Barack Obama, who has tremendous popularity among college students in Iowa, has been distributing flyers to students in Iowa colleges explaining how they can return to school on January 3rd, 2008 to caucus for Barack.

The Hillary camp, rushing to end her slow slide in polls that has put her in a statistical tie with Obama in both Iowa and New Hampshire, has used this against the Obama camp — but it has proven to be a very tender area for both campaigns. Hillary has retaliated by saying that the process the caucus is, “…a process for Iowans. This needs to be all about Iowa, and the people who live here, and the people who pay taxes here.” Clinton also pushed back against Obama’s strategy when she said that, “We are not trying to systematically manipulate the Iowa caucuses with out-of-state people.”

This issue is all about politics. While out-of-state college students in Iowa do legally have the right to participate in the caucuses, some compare Obama’s strategy to busing in voters to alter the results of the election. If college students favored Hillary and not Obama, would Hillary feel differently about their participation in the caucuses? Probably.

How does Clinton feel about out-of-state Iowa students who might caucus for her? Blogger Chase Martyn has an e-mail from a college student who did some first-hand investigating:

“The Clinton campaign called me today and invited me to the Bill [Clinton] event. They also asked who I was planning to caucus for and if I’d ever caucused before.

So I decided to call them back and asked if they even wanted me to caucus.

I said, “I’m a Grinnell College student but I’m from Minnesota. Does Hillary Clinton want my vote?”

And the woman said, “That’s a complicated issue, hold on a minute.”

So she put me on hold for about two minutes, then said, “I’m going to have our youth coordinator get back to you.”

And she took my name and number. I’m still waiting for them to tell me whether I’m worthy of caucusing for Hillary Clinton.”

Obama’s exploitive tactics are surprising because his reputation as a “clean” politician is what garners much of his support. (Formerly) virtually free from calculating strategies and unlike “traditional” Washington politicians, Obama has campaigned on “turning the page” on old Washington politics and bringing a new environment to Capitol Hill.

However, political strategy, manipulating, and maneuvering in campaigns, while they rarely look pretty on paper, are all too common because they yield results. Obama’s strategy for college students in Iowa will probably not last long in the mainstream media, and will probably not make even the slightest dent in his support. Iowans who plan to caucus for Obama will probably be receptive to additional support for their candidate. It may, however, help to solidify the support of Obama’s rivals, as well as undecided Iowans, who view the strategy as a cheap trick.

Obama may be criticized for using a rare play from an old playbook. Political parties and campaigns frequently help organize carpools and bus people — literally — from certain locales to polling centers if the demographic leans in a favorable direction.

The Obama spin machine may turn this into something that hurts Hillary. “Barack Obama doesn’t believe that we should disenfranchise Iowans who meet all the requirements for caucus participation simply because they’re in college,” said Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign.

This entire debacle might just be a whole lot of air over nothing. After all, would you cut your holiday vacation two weeks short to go back to a deserted college campus in the ten-degree weather Iowa?