DURHAM — Former President Clinton had a capacity crowd at the Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire on their feet during a rousing speech in support of President Barack Obama on Wednesday.

The crowd of about 1,675 people was largely made up of university students, and Clinton directed his message at them.

He began by addressing New Hampshire's ongoing voter registration issue, which would require anyone voting in New Hampshire to abide by state laws, including registering a vehicle. The issue is tied up in court.

“Almost 40 years ago, the Supreme Court said every full-time college student in the United States had an absolute constitutional right to register either where their home was or where they went to college,” Clinton said. “It was almost 40 years before the New Hampshire Legislature tried to take that away from you.”

He also urged attendees to vote for Democrat Maggie Hassan in the state's Gubernatorial race because he said the state legislature is not doing enough to support UNH.

“The university and college and community college system of America is our greatest hope for a modern, 21st century middle class economy, but the trends are a great threat to it,” Clinton said.

He said the nation has dropped from 1st to 16th in the world for the percentage of people who actually have a four-year degree and attributed it largely to cost.

He pointed to the federal Pell Grant program as a success in keeping interest rates low making it easier for students to pay them back. It is a program Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he will repeal, instead subsidizing banks to distribute the loans at a higher cost to students, Clinton said.

Clinton addressed the differences in the Romney and Obama plans in several areas, and did not miss an opportunity to bring up Romney's “47 percent” remark recorded during a private fundraising event.

“You know who those 47 percent are … college students who are adults without income, a lot of seniors that have depleted their assets, especially if they are living in nursing homes and getting Medicaid to help pay for it. Most of them are families who work,” Clinton said.

He also took a dig at the Tea Party, stating that until they took over the Republican Party and “strangled it so much that the oxygen stopped going to the brain,” there was broad bipartisan support for programs like the earned income tax credit to help working families.

“This thing had the support of Republicans and Democrats for nearly 40 years based on the simple premise that this is a country that honors work and family and you should not have to raise your children in poverty,” Clinton said.

He said most of the people who have children and are working and who do not pay federal income tax would love to make enough money to pay federal income tax.

Although he agrees that the economy is not fixed yet, he tried to point out successes of the Obama administration, despite opposition in Congress.

He said the President took office with a collapse not of his own making, but pointed to growth of 4.5 million private sector jobs since then.

He said Republicans in Congress have adopted an “austerity now” policy of old Europe that has cost 700,000 public sector jobs at the same time.

He also returned to his Democratic National Convention punch line about “arithmetic.”

“Trickle down economics doesn't work, it doesn't add up, arithmetic works better,” Clinton said.

He said the only reason this election is a race is because Americans are impatient and want things fixed “the day before yesterday.”

“I'm telling you nobody could have fixed this much damage in four years,” Clinton said.

Clinton also addressed growth in solar jobs, manufacturing jobs and in the auto industry as positive outcomes.

He also commended the Affordable Care Act for helping to control health care costs and helping to keep the rate of inflation in health care under four percent for the first time in 50 years.

He said in renouncing universal health care, which was passed in Massachusetts while Romney was Governor, “he has renounced the only part of his record that has really worked.”

More than once in his 30-minute speech, Clinton said the difference between the two presidential candidates is one of shared prosperity versus an “on your own” approach Clinton said has never worked in a successful economy.

“The only successful countries on earth have both a strong economy and a strong government … and non-governmental organizations that work together instead of figuring out how to gut each other like cold fish,” Clinton said.

He encouraged the young people gathered to get out and vote.

“It's your future, go claim it,” he said.

gmacalaster@unionleader.com