Have you noticed something about the audiences that President Obama has cherry-picked to cheer his government health care takeover roadshow• They’re getting younger and younger.

Last Wednesday, Obama brought the traveling campaign to St. Charles High School in St. Louis, Mo., for a closed-door, invitation-only speech. If he doesn’t end his endless “No More Time For Talk” talks soon, he’ll be peddling Democrat-reconciliation tactics on “Dora the Explorer” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

But desperate times call for demagogic measures. True to form, the Obama White House is wielding the human kiddie shield as its last-stand defense for ObamaCare.

A week ago Obama surrounded himself with a ticketed-only crowd of Arcadia University students in metropolitan Philadelphia (sprinkled with purple-shirted officials from the Service Employees International Union, natch). The Washington-based commander in chief traveled outside his Beltway bubble to a campus bubble to trash the political climate, which he leads.

“That’s just how Washington is. They can’t help it,” he pontificated as the idealistic young students nodded like empty bobbleheads. “They”?

You won’t be surprised by Obama’s biggest applause line of the speech: peddling a Big Nanny provision in the Senate-passed health care bill that requires insurance plans that cover dependents to provide benefits to children up to age 26.

As I’ve reported before, there are now an estimated 20 states that have passed legislation requiring insurers to cover adult children. The slacker mandates cover “kids” ranging in age from 24 to 31. These very government health care mandates contribute to rising health care costs.

But there was no time for higher learning at Arcadia University. “I love you!” screamed a cult follower in the stands. “Love you back,” Obama responded.

Now comes word that Senate Democrat leaders want to graft Obama’s single-payer plan to nationalize the student loan market onto the Senate health care reconciliation bill. That way, Obama’s college-age foot soldiers can argue that a vote against ObamaCare is a vote against students.

How low can Democrats go• One of Obama’s youngest lobbyists — 11-year-old Marcelas Owens — traveled from Washington state to D.C. last Tuesday on the dime of HCAN (Health Care for America Now). His 27-year-old mother, Tiffany, died of pulmonary hypertension. According to the family, Ms. Owens — a single mother of three — lost her job as a fast-food manager and lost her insurance. She received emergency care and treatment throughout her illness, but died in 2007.

Young Marcelas — goaded by his left-wing activist grandmother and promoted by Democrat Sen. Patty Murray — is now a regular on the pro-ObamaCare circuit and is leading a congressional sit-in until the Democrat plan passes.

He admits he doesn’t understand the complexities of health insurance reform and doesn’t “think it’s anyone’s fault” that his mom passed away. “But they could have done more” for her, he says.

What we need are grown-ups to start over from scratch and leave the kids on the playground.

Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies” (Regnery 2009).

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