• 7:10 PMCeleste Katz

  Members of the NYS delegation are at the "Strike City' bowling alley in uptown (that's downtown to us) Charlotte for a "NYS Celebrates Labor!" party. Photo: Ken Lovett/NY Daily News

• 5:40 PMCeleste KatzUpdate from #DNC2012 via our Ken Lovett: State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says if Brooklyn's Vito Lopez won't step down, as Silver asked him to do on Friday, he'll explore ways to eject him.
• 5:34 PMCeleste KatzObama For America is out with a new video touting "Live From Charlotte," an online convention special. The clip features the President himself, as well as actors Kal Penn (who was spotted in the arena today) and John Cho.
  
  
• 4:13 PMKristen A. Lee

  Torrential rain broke up the party early this evening in Charlotte. James Taylor played through the downpour as the last headliner of CarolinaFest...

• 4:13 PMKristen A. Lee

  ... until his audience was forced to flee for shelter on just the third song of his set.

• 3:51 PMCeleste Katz

  In a one-on-one interview here in Charlotte with our Ken Lovett, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver revealed Monday that he asked Vito Lopez to resign from the Legislature over a sexual-harassment scandal that has tainted both their legacies.
  
  Silver said he called Lopez on Friday to ask him to step down.
  
  “He basically was inaudible,” Silver told The News of the powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman’s response. “I got the impression he didn’t appreciate my advice.”
  
  These were Silver’s first comments on the Lopez scandal since he acknowledged he made a mistake by authorizing a secret deal to settle sexual harassment claims against Lopez.
  
  Look for more on The Daily Politics!

• 3:08 PMKristen A. LeeSome delegates, reporters and staff got a preview of Michelle Obama's opening night convention speech this afternoon, when she stepped up to the podium of the Time Warner Center arena for a last-minute walkthrough of the stage.
  
  Looking out at the photographers and fans busily snapping photos, the first lady took a deep breath and mouthed "OK" before lightening the mood by playfully gesturing for some applause.
  
  "You guys got to help me out here!" she joked, getting laughter and some cheers.
  
  She then walked over toward the Hawaii delegate section to greet some supporters before leaving the stage, waving with both hands.
  
  Following Michelle Obama's Tuesday night speech, she will stay in Charlotte to attend caucus meetings and help pack care packages for service members with the USO of North Carolina. Of course, she will also be on hand Thursday night, when her husband formally accepts his party's nomination at the Bank of America football stadium.
• 2:57 PMJames Keivom

  First Lady Michelle Obama, right, greets people after an interview before a walkthrough in preparation for the Democratic National Convention at the Time Warner Cable Arena. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:44 PMJames Keivom

  People take photos of Michelle Obama as she prepares for her speech tomorrow night. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:44 PMJames Keivom

  Michelle Obama blows a kiss to a cheering crowd as she prepares for her speech tomorrow night. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:27 PMJames Keivom

  Michelle Obama waves to photographers and staff as she prepares for her speech tomorrow night. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:27 PMJames Keivom

  Michelle Obama points to onlookers on stage at the Time Warner Cable Arena. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:27 PMJames Keivom

  First Lady Michelle Obama, taking a turn at the podium as she prepares for her speech. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:27 PMJames Keivom

  First Lady Michelle Obama walks on stage during a walkthrough in preparation for the Democratic National Convention at the Time Warner Cable Arena. (James Keivom/New York Daily News)

• 2:27 PMJames Keivom
• 2:05 PMCeleste KatzTo underscore what Lemire just posted, a huge peal of thunder was heard here in Charlotte...
• 1:46 PMJonathan LemireThunderstorms, empty seats may threaten President Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night:
  
  Obama speech to go on rain or shine - but maybe not in thunderstorms.
• 1:43 PMJonathan LemireClint Eastwood may have met his match:
  
  Betty White to DNC?
• 12:59 PMCeleste Katz

  Breaking: Some NYS Dems swag bags have copies of "The Smurfs," which one guy here just called possibly "the worst movie ever made" according to the reviews. I'm guessing it's either a blue-state joke or an attempt to keep any traveling kiddies happy.
  
  The other movie choice (or one of them) was one of the "Mission: Impossible" sequels, which maybe doesn't send the right message during a re-election campaign.
  
  Other swag bits included a water bottle, a tire pressure gauge and a laptop cover emblazoned with the name of designer Kenneth Cole, brother-in-law to a certain governor...

• 12:39 PMKristen A. Lee

  During the RNC press conference, Priebus also grabbed the opportunity to slam former Republicans speaking at the DNC this week - namely former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
  
  "You look at the folks the Democrats are trotting out - not exactly the bright stars of the future," he snarked, adding that Crist will "sell out to the highest bidder."
  
  As for the state of the race, Priebus said he thinks Romney could beat Obama today in Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia and Iowa, and said the race would be very close in Ohio.
  
  After the press conference, Republican staffers had a little fun with an Obama photo.

• 12:33 PMKristen A. Lee

  Priebus was asked about his prediction for a big poll bounce for Romney after last week's convention, which - based on the latest polls - was not borne out.
  
  "I think we clearly had a lot of momentum coming out of last week," he responded. "I kind of think we have nowhere to go but up," he said, adding that he thinks Obama, on the other hand, is "stuck."
  
  Priebus also said the Romney campaign "tiered" its bounce a bit by naming Paul Ryan as running mate weeks ahead of the convention.
  
  He said he had not seen the Gallup poll released today, which found that Romney's convention speech got the worst reviews of any Gallup has measured since Bob Dole's speech in 1996 (see post below).

• 12:27 PMKristen A. Lee

  As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, the GOP has set up shop in Charlotte to keep pressing its attacks on the Obama campaign.
  
  During a press conference in the NASCAR Hall of Fame (complete with a Romney/Ryan racecar), RNC Chairman Reince Priebus jumped on recent comments by Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats that the U.S. is better off today than it was four years ago.
  
  "We know the truth and so do Americans from coast to coast," he said. "Democrats can argue with the facts, but it's an argument they can't win."
  
  He predicted that Obama will be on the defensive when he accepts his party's nomination on Thursday.
  
  "The thrill and pixie dust of Barack Obama's presidency is gone," he said. "Enthusiasm is clearly on Republicans' side."

• 12:02 PMCeleste Katz

  Our Jonathan Lemire reports:
  
  Mitt Romney has yet to receive much of a bounce in the polls after the Republican National Convention - and his acceptance speech was the least-loved in nearly two decades.
  
  Romney trails Obama 47%-46% , which was the same deficit he faced before last week's GOP gala in Tampa, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.
  
  Republicans had previously predicted a 10-point surge in the polls for Romney, but backed off the bold call amid the threat of Hurricane Isaac and Clint Eastwood's bizarre address largely directed to an empty chair.
  
  Pollsters say the lack of movement points to a tight race - and that Romney's speech was not well-received by voters. Only 38% of those surveyed by Gallup said Romney's speech was "excellent" or "good," the lowest mark since the firm started asking that question in 1996.
  
  John McCain's 2008 speech previously scored the worst, with 48% of those surveyed approving the address. President Obama's 2008 speech received a 58% approval rating, the highest mark in the poll's history. He will deliver his final acceptance speech Thursday night.
  
  The GOP convention in Tampa also received low television ratings, as only the 1996 Republican convention - which nominated Bob Dole - was watched by fewer people. The 2008 GOP convention, which featured McCain and his controversial running mate Sarah Palin, was the most-watched since 1996.
  
  (Photo: Celeste Katz/NY Daily News)

• 11:35 AMCeleste KatzOn a quick political note: The Republican Jewish Coalition is coming after California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton "for likening Republicans to infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and urged the party's elected leaders to repudiate the offensive remarks."
  
  Said RJC Executive Director Matthew Brooks: "John Burton ought to know better than to bring the Nazis and their victims into our current political debates, but apparently the offense such remarks cause to Holocaust survivors and their families are of less concern to him than the prospect of partisan gain."
• 11:16 AMDavid Handschuh
• 11:16 AMDavid Handschuh

  Mark D. Evans of Avon, NY sells boxing candidates at CarolinaFest.

• 11:07 AMKristen A. Lee

  More Janelle Monae at CarolinaFest. James Taylor and Jeff Bridges are also scheduled to sing.

• 11:06 AMDavid Handschuh

  Buttons are big sellers on the street at CarolinaFest.

• 11:05 AMKristen A. Lee

  Janelle Monae performs on the main stage of CarolinaFest.

• 11:02 AMDavid Handschuh

  Doctors for America addressing health care issues at CarolinaFest, a day long street fair near the DNC.

Obama's greatest asset is Michelle.  I saw her give a speech in Minneapolis in 2007.  A truely brilliant girl.  That girl would have made a much better President than Obama.

Obama, Democrats to make their case as convention opens

A woman clutches a bag with U.S. President Barack Obama's portrait on it at CarolinaFest ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina September 3, 2012.

(Reuters) - Democrats launch their case for Barack Obama's re-election at their party convention on Tuesday, looking to draw a sharp contrast with Republican Mitt Romney and convince voters that the U.S. president deserves four more years to fix the economy.

A speech by first lady Michelle Obama caps the opening night of the three-day gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, which concludes with Obama's acceptance of the nomination in an address on Thursday in a 74,000-seat downtown football stadium.

The convention gives Obama a chance to recapture the political spotlight from Romney and Republicans, who used their gathering last week to repeatedly attack Obama's economic leadership.

The task for Obama and his allies will be to persuade voters disappointed by his first White House term that things will be better the second time around, while portraying the budget-slashing economic remedies offered by Romney and his running mate, congressman Paul Ryan, as unacceptable alternatives.

"The real issue now in the election is: who's got the best plan going forward?" Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who speaks to the convention on Wednesday, said on ABC's "Good Morning America" program.

"Mitt Romney has made clear what his plan is: cut taxes for the richest Americans and the biggest corporations, increase taxes on the middle class and don't make any investments in the future. Barack Obama says that's not the right way to do it," she said.

Ryan and Republicans kept the pressure on Democrats with a question they highlighted after their convention last week: Are voters better off after nearly four years of Obama?

"We're not better off than we were four years ago. Look at all the statistics," Ryan said on "Good Morning America," citing the slow economic recovery and 8.3 percent unemployment rate.

Republicans also criticized Obama for telling a Colorado television reporter on Monday night that he would give himself a grade of "incomplete" for his first term.

'A PASSING GRADE?'

"If President Obama can't even give himself a passing grade, why would the American people give him another four years?" Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said.

Romney and Obama are running close in opinion polls ahead of the November 6 election, but Obama hopes to get more of a convention "bounce" in polls than Romney, who gained a few percentage points at most from the Tampa, Florida, event.

A Gallup poll on Monday showed Romney's speech last week got the worst scores of any convention acceptance address going back to 1996, when it began measuring them. Thirty-eight percent rated the speech as excellent or good; the previous worst had been Republican John McCain's in 2008, at 47 percent.

Democrats plan to use their convention to highlight the party's diversity, featuring a lineup of black, Hispanic and young speakers to appeal to the voting blocs that helped propel Obama to a comfortable victory in 2008.

The keynote speaker on Tuesday will be San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a Hispanic rising star in the party.

Michelle Obama's speech will counter a successful Republican convention appearance last week by Romney's wife, Ann, who helped present a softer and more personal side of Romney to voters, who polls show have had a hard time warming up to the sometimes stiff former Massachusetts governor.

"I think the first lady plays a special role because she will have personal perspective on the president's leadership - his grit and determination during a challenging time for our nation," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

"She is a character witness for the president and someone who can address how he has made decisions as the nation has confronted these challenges," he said.

While Republicans focused at their convention on attacking Obama and helping voters get to know Romney, Democrats have in some ways a more difficult task of keeping up voter enthusiasm for an incumbent in tough economic times.

They will spell out Obama's successes during his first term - from ordering the mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the bailout of the auto industry.

The opening session will convene at 5 p.m. EDT, and Democrats will approve their non-binding party platform, which includes calls for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans and support for same-sex marriage and a woman's right to abortion.

Former President Jimmy Carter will be featured in a video on Tuesday. Former President Bill Clinton will highlight Wednesday's slate of speakers in an address that could remind voters of his Democratic-led economic growth in the 1990s while appealing to the white working-class Democrats that Obama has had difficulty winning over.

The Obama campaign also plans to use the convention and Obama's speech on Thursday as an organizing tool to help them in North Carolina, a battleground state that Obama won in 2008 but polls show is too close to call this time around.

Organizers were nervously watching the weather as scattered thunderstorms were predicted for Thursday night when Obama was due to give his speech in an open-air stadium.

(Additional reporting by Eric Johnson and Susan Heavey; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)

DNC live stream from your PC

http://www.baqi.tv/2011/10/watch-cnn-usa-live/

Michelle Obama Tops Opening Night for Democrats

By JIM RUTENBERG - National Convention.
Published: September 4, 2012 -- Source

Michelle Obama greets the audience on the first day of the Democratic

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats opened their convention here on Tuesday night with a parade of officials telling voters that Mitt Romney does not get it and with a rousing speech from Michelle Obama making the case that President Obama does.

Mr. Obama’s roster of Democratic promoters spent the first hours detailing a political indictment of Mr. Romney, blistering him as being out of touch with the middle class and intent on taking the country back to the policies that caused the economy’s problems.

But the main attraction of the evening was the appearance of Mr. Obama’s lead character witness: the first lady, who, wearing a pink-and-gold-speckled sleeveless dress, was greeted with chants of “Four more years!” from the excited arena, to which she responded: “With your help.”

“Barack knows what it means when a family struggles,” she said in remarks that electrified the party faithful in the Time Warner Cable Arena and were broadcast nationally by the television networks. “He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids. Barack knows the American dream because he’s lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like, or who we love.”

Four years of partisan sniping, Washington gridlock and continued economic challenges may have dulled the luster of the man this party nominated four years ago. But Mrs. Obama sought to remind his 2008 voters that the same person they supported then is underneath the tarnish she sought to buff away.

The address was meant to lay the foundation for a convention program devised to remind wavering working- and middle-class voters — the same ones Mr. Romney is working so hard to woo away — what they liked about the president when they supported him four years ago, and how his own humbler roots have helped inspire his policies to help them.

“He believes that when you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you,” Mrs. Obama said, her impassioned delivery drawing the crowd to its feet as it waved red, white and blue “Michelle” placards. “You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.”

It was one of the few times Mrs. Obama came close to even a subtle reference to the very direct argument being made against her husband’s opponent here. She argued that Mr. Obama’s experience as president had taught him that “no amount of data or numbers will get you the right answer.” Her portrait of her husband was the inverse of the one that other Democrats have sketched of Mr. Romney, who former Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio said viewed the “American worker” as “just numbers on a spreadsheet.”

As someone with whom she was “so young, so in love, and so in debt,” Mrs. Obama said, her husband believes “success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” 

Mrs. Obama’s was almost the only voice lacking an explicit anti-Romney edge, conveying a personal tone and touch after speeches that were personal in a different way when it came to the president’s opponent. As the other speakers undertook a program that amounted to a thundering response to the Republican convention last week in Tampa, Fla., they went after Mr. Romney on just about every conceivable issue.

The keynote speaker, Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio, offered the overarching argument against Mr. Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconson.

“Their theory has been tested. It failed. Our economy failed,” Mr. Castro said in what seemed to be the second-most rousing speech of the night for the Democratic audience. “The middle class paid the price. Your family paid the price. Mitt Romney just doesn’t get it.”

After what has at times been a tentative approach to promoting the health care law, perhaps Mr. Obama’s signature legislation, the program included a full-throated defense of the overhaul and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it.

And an Arizona woman, Stacey Lihn, took the stage with her toddler, Zoe, who has a congenital heart disease, and said her daughter’s health insurance would run out if Mr. Romney won and followed through with his promise to get Mr. Obama’s health care law repealed. “But we’re also scared,” she said. “Governor Romney repealing health care reform is something we worry about literally every day.”

The Democrats even got the spirit of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts into the act in a tribute video. It showed Mr. Kennedy in his 1994 debate with Mr. Romney during their Senate race, mocking Mr. Romney for his shifting position on abortion rights and calling him “multiple choice.”

The program never addressed the disappointment of many wavering Obama voters in the president’s handling of the economy, as Republicans will note.

But the speakers pounded Mr. Romney on immigration, on health care, on Medicare, on foreign policy, on the 2009 auto bailout and on his tax policies, which they said would benefit the rich at the expense of the working class and cause the kind of economic damage that they said Mr. Obama had worked to undo.

Mr. Romney’s wealth was given full attention, with Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland referring to the Swiss bank account Mr. Romney no longer has by saying: “Swiss bank accounts don’t put cops on the beat or teachers in our classrooms. Swiss bank accounts never created American jobs.”

Apparently concerned about alienating voters with too much negativity, Mr. Obama’s strategists were careful to ensure that speakers always included a positive element about Mr. Obama.

“Mitt Romney is walking away from us,” Representative Nydia M. Velázquez of New York said. “He walks with people who disrespect us and people who divide us and people who do not believe that the American dream means all of us. President Obama has walked with us for the last 12 years — in good times and in tough times — and right now we are going to walk with the president to the polls and onward to victory.”

Mindful of the need to address a sometimes deflated group of liberal, grass-roots supporters, speakers stressed core party social issues like abortion rights and the president’s support for gay marriage.

A group of Democratic women in the House of Representatives came to the stage together — led by Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader — to criticize Republican moves against the so-called Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would make it easier for women to press discrimination cases, and various elements of the president’s health care overhaul, including its coverage of contraception.

When Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark gave a speech introducing the party platform and its first-ever declaration of support for same-sex marriage,” the delegates broke into a standing ovation and cheers of “Cory!” and “U.S.A.!”

“No matter who you are, no matter what color or creed, no matter how you choose to pray or who you choose to love,” Mr. Booker shouted, “if you are a citizen of the United States of America, you should be able to find a job that pays, you should be able to afford health care for your family, you should be able to retire with dignity and respect, and you should be able to give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger, to go ever farther and accomplish more than you could ever imagine.”

Opening events included a tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy led by his son, former Representative Patrick Kennedy, with the baby.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic national chairwoman, called the session to order.

President Obama campaigned on Tuesday at Norfolk State University in Virginia, where he stressed his differences with the Republican ticket, particularly on taxes.

Rain Will Keep 65,000 Ticketholders From Obama

Venue change short-changes Obama supporters. They'll get a conference call with Obama tomorrow.

Zeke Miller BuzzFeed Staff

Posted Sep 5, 2012 10:11am EDT -- Source

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama's acceptance speech at this week's Democratic National Convention has been moved indoors from Bank of America Stadium due to weather concerns, convention officials confirmed Wednesday morning.

The Stadium had become a focal point of criticism over its ties to Wall Street, but also a point of pride for Democrats who argued that their convention would be the first to be book-ended by events open to the public. Instead, 65,000 supporters of Obama will be locked out of the far-smaller Time Warner Cable Arena.

Convention officials and the Obama campaign have been talking up their ability to fill the more than 75,000 seats in the Stadium, even as some reports suggested they were having difficulty doing just that. They pledged to be in the stadium in rain or shine, but that didn't last.

DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan said that Obama would address the disappointed supporters on a conference call tomorrow afternoon, and that they would attempt to get his supporters into other Obama rallies before election day.

The full statement from the DNCC:

“We have been monitoring weather forecasts closely and several reports predict thunderstorms in the area, therefore we have decided to move Thursday’s proceedings to Time Warner Cable Arena to ensure the safety and security of our delegates and convention guests,” said DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan. The energy and enthusiasm for our convention in Charlotte has been overwhelming and we share the disappointment of over 65,000 people who signed up for community credentials to be there with the President in person. We encourage our community credential holders and Americans across the country to continue to come together with their friends and neighbors to watch and participate in history. The President will speak to these credential holders on a national conference call tomorrow afternoon, and we will work with the campaign to ensure that those unable to attend tomorrow’s event will be invited to see the President between now and election day.”

I have to give my fellow Democrats two thumbs up for a great show last night at the DNC. I am interesting to hear what Bill Clinton have to say tonight followed by Barack Obama on Thursday.

Michelle Obama was great last night. The epitome of a super woman. She would make a dynamite President.

She is one of many women who would make a great president, but I don't see the possibility of that. Condoleezza Rice can beat her to the presidency.

Just a dream .. just a dream.

Condom won't even dream of running. Not with all of Bushy's baggage tightly strapped to her.

Bill Clinton offers forceful defense of Obama’s record

By Philip Rucker and Dan Balz, Wednesday, September 5, 3:31 PM -- Source

Highlights from former President Bill Clinton’s speech at the DNC in Charlotte, N.C. Wednesday night.

CHARLOTTE-Former President Bill Clinton delivered a spirited defense of President Obama’s handling of the nation’s struggling economy here Wednesday night as he criticized the economic agenda of Republican nominee Mitt Romney and an opposition GOP he argued has been unwilling to compromise for the good of the country.

Clinton, in a speech to the Democratic National Convention formally nominating Obama that was aimed squarely at independent voters, said America is “clearly better off” than four years ago and argued that many of the serious problems ailing the economy were “inherited” from Republicans.

“Your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs, who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party,” Fluke said.

Not all the speeches Wednesday hit high notes. But in the early hours of the session, a trio of Congressional Black Caucus members - Reps. Karen Bass (Calif.), Al Green (Texas) and Emanuel Cleaver II (Mo.) - had the arena on its feet by delivering impassioned rallying cries to mobilize Democrats for the fall campaign.

Cleaver, a pastor who spoke with a preacher’s cadence, brought people to their feet, revving up delegates in advance of Clinton’s headlining speech. “Mr. President,” he cried out, “when all hope is gone, hope on! Hope on! It is our hope and faith that moves us to action!” Moments later, as he exhorted the delegates to “March on! March on! March on!,” he marched in place behind the rostrum.

The decision to move Thursday’s session indoors did not go unchallenged by the Republicans, who charged that Democrats moved the event to a smaller venue because there was not enough enthusiasm about the president to fill the football stadium.

But Obama campaign officials rejected that characterization, adding that the president was disappointed he would not be able to replicate the image of his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where he addressed some 84,000 supporters from the 50-yard line at Denver’s Invesco Field.

“We’re all disappointed, because we had 65,000 ticket holders plus 19,000 people who were on the waiting list, excited to hear him deliver his speech tomorrow night,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “This isn’t a call we wanted to make.”

Meanwhile, Republican nominee Mitt Romney has stayed off the campaign trail all week for three days of intensive debate preparations with his advisers in Vermont. On Wednesday, Romney made a brief public appearance at a pizza restaurant in nearby West Lebanon, N.H., where he told reporters he had read the text of speeches in Charlotte on Tuesday night.

“You’ve heard no one stand up and say that people are better off today than they were four years ago,” Romney said. “They really can’t say that, they can’t say it in all honesty.._._.The American people are not doing better, and this president understands that and I think that’s why people are reluctant to even talk about it because they know the American people know better.”

After Republicans featured a dozen or more Olympians at their convention last week, Democrats tried to inject some Olympic star power into their convention hall by having Gabby Douglas, 16, the gold-medal winning gymnast at the London games, deliver the “Pledge of Allegiance.”

Staff writers Scott Wilson in Charlotte and Nia-Malika Henderson in West Lebanon, N.H., contributed to this report.

Former President Bill Clinton bows as President Barack Obama walks on stage after Clinton's address to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Bill Clinton gives rousing defence of Obama in major speech at Democratic convention

By: Associated Press, The Associated Press

Posted: 7:48 AM | Comments: 42 | Last Modified: 11:19 PM -- Source and Text of the Article

Go Obama, all the way to re-election as President of the great USA!!!

A broken clock is correct twice every day --- Bill Clinton.

I never heard that one before. Excellent presentations by Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.

The magnificent Barack will have to defend his own failed policies and don't let Bill Clinton do the dirty job for him. Bill Clinton in his second term didn't need help in his re-election because he had a foot to stand on thanks to the republicans. No matter how good his speech tonight, he will have to face the truth during the next 60 days. The once rising star of the democratic party is fading badly.

Michael Cohen, guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 6 September 2012 20.41 BST -- Source

Barack Obama on screen during the Democratic national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

Will we see a smirk on the president's face tonight as he tries to wiggle his way back into the white house? Does anyone thinks Clinton speech help or hurts Obama? What can Obama do to buy into four more years? We all know the DNC will not save him from grace, so what magic he has up his sleeves? 

Nothing up his sleeves.

The facts .. and only the facts.

We will be watching soon and analyzing the facts with the experts. 

Obama says America is 'moving forward'

President acknowledges 'failings' but presses for 4 more years in office

The Associated Press, Posted: Sep 6, 2012 5:46 PM ET

Last Updated: Sep 7, 2012 12:40 AM ET -- Source

U.S. President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress toward fixing the nation's stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale that "our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met."

"Yes, our path is harder — but it leads to a better place," he declared in a prime-time speech to convention delegates and the nation Thursday night that blended resolve about the challenges ahead with stinging criticism of Republican rival Mitt Romney's proposals to repair the economy.

He acknowledged "my own failings" as he asked for a second term, four years after taking office as the nation's first black president.

"Four more years," delegates chanted over and over as the 51-year-old Obama stepped to the podium, noticeably greyer than four years ago when he was a history-making candidate for the White House.

The president's speech was the final act of a pair of highly scripted national political conventions in as many weeks, and the opening salvo of a two-month drive toward election day that pits Obama against Romney.

Vice-President Joe Biden preceded Obama at the convention podium and proclaimed, "America has turned the corner" after experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Obama didn't go that far in his own remarks, but he said firmly, "We are not going back, we are moving forward, America."

With unemployment at 8.3 per cent, the president said the task of recovering from the economic disaster of 2008 is exceeded in American history only by the challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced when he took office in 1933.

"It will require common effort, shared responsibility and the kind of bold persistent experimentation" that FDR employed, Obama said.

In an appeal to independent voters who might be considering a vote for Romney, he added that those who carry on Roosevelt's legacy "should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from Washington.

He said, "The truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over the decades."

In the run-up to Obama's speech, delegates erupted in tumultuous cheers when former Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt, walked onstage to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The hall grew louder when she blew kisses to the crowd.

The crowd grew even louder when huge video screens inside the hall showed the face of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind killed in a daring raid on his Pakistani hideout by U.S. special operations forces on a mission approved by the current commander in chief.

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona representative who is still recovering from a gunshot wound to the head suffered nearly 20 months ago, blows a kiss to delegates after leading them in the Pledge of Allegiance at the convention. (Lynne Sladky/Associated Press )

The hall was filled to capacity long before Obama started speaking, and officials shut off the entrances because of a fear of overcrowding for a speech that the campaign had originally slated for a 74,000-seat football stadium nearby. Aides said weather concerns prompted the move to the convention arena, capacity 15,000 or so.

Obama's campaign said the president would ask the country to rally around a "real achievable plan that will create jobs, expand opportunity and ensure an economy built to last."

He added: "The truth is it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over a decade."

In convention parlance, both Obama and Biden were delivering acceptance speeches before delegates who nominated them for new terms in office.

But the political significance went far beyond that — the moment when the general election campaign begins in earnest even though Obama and Romney have been pointing toward a Nov. 6 showdown for months.

Retraces steps

To the cheers of delegates, Obama retraced his steps to halt the economic slide, including the auto bailout that Romney opposed. "After a decade of decline, this country created over a half million manufacturing jobs in the last 2½ years," he said.

Turning to national security, he said he had promised to end the war in Iraq, and had done so. "We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014 our longest war will be over," he said.

"A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead," he declared, one of the night's repeated references to the special operations forces raid that resulted in the terrorist mastermind's demise more than a year ago.

He lampooned Romney's own economic proposals: "Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning," he said.

Mocking Romney for his overseas trip earlier this summer, Obama said, "You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can't visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally." That was a reference to a verbal gaffe the former Massachusetts governor committed while visiting London.

Obama's campaign said the president would ask the country to rally around a "real achievable plan that will create jobs, expand opportunity and ensure an economy built to last."

Biden told the convention in his own speech that he had watched as Obama "made one gutsy decision after another" to stop an economic free-fall after they took office in 2009.

Delegates who packed into the convention hall were serenaded by singer James Taylor and rocked by R&B blues artist Mary J. Blige as they awaited Obama's speech.

There was no end to the jabs aimed at Romney and the Republicans.

"Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off than four years ago," said Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who lost the 2004 election in a close contest with George W. Bush. It was a mocking answer to the Republicans' repeated question of whether Americans are better off than when Obama took office.

Economy dominant issue

The economy is by far the dominant issue in the campaign, and the differences between Obama and his challenger could hardly be more pronounced.

Romney wants to extend all tax cuts that are due to expire on Dec. 31 with an additional 20 per cent reduction in rates across the board, arguing that job growth would result. He also favours deep cuts in domestic programs ranging from education to parks, repeal of the health-care legislation that Obama pushed through Congress and landmark changes in Medicare, the program that provides health care to seniors.

Obama wants to renew the tax cuts except on incomes higher than $250,000, saying that millionaires should contribute to an overall attack on federal deficits. He also criticizes the spending cuts Romney advocates, saying they would fall unfairly on the poor, lower-income college students and others. He argues that Republicans would "end Medicare as we know it" and saddle seniors with ever-rising costs.

After two weeks of back-to-back conventions, the impact on the race for president remains to be determined.

"You're not going to see big bounces in this election," said David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser. "For the next 61 days, it's going to remain tight as a tick."

Romney wrapped up several days of debate rehearsals with close aides in Vermont and is expected to resume full-time campaigning in the next day or two.

In a brief stop to talk with veterans on Thursday, he defended his decision to omit mention of the war in Afghanistan when he delivered his acceptance speech last week at the Republican National Convention. He noted he had spoken to the American Legion only one day before.

Romney's campaign released its first new television ad since the convention season began.

It shows Clinton sharply questioning Obama's credibility on the Iraq War in 2008, saying, "Give me a break, this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." Obama was running against Hillary Rodham Clinton at the time for the Democratic nomination.

President Barack Obama hugs his wife Michelle Obama after being greeted by a roaring crowd at the Democratic National Convention. (Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)

It will likely be a week or more before the two campaigns can fully digest post-convention polls and adjust their strategies for the fall.

Based on the volume of campaign appearances to date and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent already on television advertising, the election appears likely to be decided in a small number of battleground states. The list includes New Hampshire, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and Iowa, as well as Florida and North Carolina, the states where first Republicans and then Democrats held their conventions. Those states hold 100 electoral votes among them, out of 270 needed to win the White House.

Money has become an ever-present concern for the Democrats, an irony given the overwhelming advantage Obama held over John McCain in the 2008 campaign.

This time, Romney is outpacing him, and independent groups seeking the Republican's election are pouring tens of millions of dollars into television advertising, far exceeding what Obama's supporters can afford.

All the best to President Barack Obama on November 06, 2012.

As usual, great speech, but mostly rhetoric and little substance.  95% of what we heard, we heard before.  What will be done differently in the 2nd term that the 1st?  We can only hope Obama wants to leave a better legacy than where it currently stands.

A broken clock is correct twice every day --- Bill Clinton

That sounds like he was refering to those two Einsteins Rev Al and Churchill.

The biggest help that Obama has is that the Devil has taken over the GOP.

Obama will get my vote, not because I like him, but because Ryan is scary and Romney is a wimp who will be bullied by him and his friends in Congress.

I thought that Obama's speech was ahuge disappointment.  We know he speaks well.  What he neede to prove is that he has a plan to move the economy forward, with or without the cooperation of Congress.  I heard no new ideas.

Obama gets my vote because Ryan is Satan and should terrify any right thinkng person.  Can you imagine this man making decisions about what the USA dpes in the Middle East?  After all he was introduced by Romney as the President.  Romney=Bush and Ryan=Cheney.

1. President Obama will address apt issues as the events on fold.

2. Mitt Romney has yet to address specifics of his plan.

3. President Obama had turned things around in his first term with improvements to follow in his second term.

Does anyone feel/believe that the pressing issues will all be resolved in 4 years?

Obama did a good job in contrasting the differences between an Obama administration and a Ryan Presidency (face it Romney is only there because the GOP tyhink he is less scary but he will play no role).  That motivates the support base, both the base and peripheral people lie myself who are disappointed in him, but were never going tovote GOP, or stay home.

The issue is, and especially in light of another round of disappointing jobs numbers, he did not say anything new or startling that will give confidence to the valid sing voters that Obama II will be better than Obama I.

This is not to say that Romney will get these voters either.  I forecast another 2004 with a low turn out.  The winner will be the one who is better at getting their supporters to the polls and Obama loses IN,NC and a few other swing states that he won last time.  OH and FL remain in his grasp, thanks to Ryan and Romney flapping their mouths about Medicare vouchers and the opposition to the very successful auto bailouts.