Obama invokes Reagan during speech at Michigan college

President Barack Obama pushed his plan for free community college at a Michigan school, and invoked a former president from the other side of the aisle who visited the campus three decades ago.

Obama on Wednesday said Ronald Reagan told a Macomb Community College audience the nation’s duty is to ensure that students have the “same America” of opportunity and hope that he had at their age.

Obama told his Warren crowd that he and the late Republican leader “belong to two different parties” and shared “different visions of how our economy should grow.” But Obama said he agrees that “everybody deserves a chance to make it.”

Macomb County became famous for its “Reagan Democrats” — voters who switched allegiances to support the GOP candidate twice in the 1980s.  (AP)