democrats get their turn. they gavel in the start of their national convention tonight. and it will be about two critical group. women and hispanics. can team obama not just keep the

lead with each from shrinking in the weeks ahead but get that enthusiasm among both groups? a lot depends on how things go here. leading the charge this evening, the best saleswoman the president has, first lady michelle. expect mrs. obama to champion her husband's record, especially what he's done for women and working moms. and the other big speaker tonight. somebody you don't know yet but you will. san tan yoantonio mayor. the young latino from texas. from within and without the lone star state. from charlotte, tuesday, september 4, 2012. i'm chuck todd this is "the daily rundown." dnc vice chair is with us and my first reads of the morning. the democrats kick off their three-day convention tonight

with their most direct appeal to two voting groups crucial to the president's re-election chances. women and latinos. preparing for her speech, mrs. obama arrived yesterday. she'll address delegates tonight and doing what she's been doing on the campaign trail for her husband. touting her husband's record on issues. >> this election, ladies, is a choice about supporting women and families in this country. >> it is now easier for women to get equal pay for equal work because of the ledbetter. >> we have to remind them about the two brilliant supreme court justices he elected. >> barack believes women should be able to make our own choices about our health care. >> just a taste of what you can expect tonight. now, the obama campaign says that the first lady will also serve as a character witness for the president. describing the tough decisions that her husband has made and

she'll talk about how the president's roots helped him understand the economic challenges americans face, an implicit contrast with mitt romney. >> in the end, it all boils down to who you are and what you stand for. and we all know who my husband is. don't we? he is the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills. >> son of a single mother. you're going to hear that tonight, too. speakers include lilly ledbetter, and martin o'malley, julien castro, and also family night. the president's half sister will speak. so will first lady's brother craig robinson, in tonight's keynote address of course delivered by the 37-year-old mayor from san antonio, and determined to have an hispanic leader deliver the keynote and

democrats are hoping castro will repeat the performance of another former rising star. another harvard law grad raised by a single mom. a guy by the name of barack obama, the keynote in 2004. castro introduced by his twin brother, state representative and congressional candidate, not opposed, he'll be a member of the cabinet. a speech during a dnc walkthrough yesterday. >> the first lady i'm sure is going to deliver a very positive message. governor o'malley has an optimistic message as welling. of course partisanship in there. i'm at a democratic convention, but it will be optimistic. the speech is an optimistic speech. >> by the way, one question about this week's program was answered definitively this morning. the obama campaign including campaign manager jim messina says that barring a last-minute safety issue, the president, rain or shine, will accept his party's nomination on thursday outdoors at bank of america stadium right down the street here no matter what, barring a

severe weather. they are using this stadium and the people that teattend it. it's organizing, and north carolina voters and volunteers and they really don't want to give up that venue. democrats are put on the defensive over an old republican campaign argument. campaigning in the shadow, paul ryan in north carolina attempted to channel ronald reagan's question that ousted a president in 1980. are you better off now than you were four years ago? >> the president can say a lot of things and he will, but he can't tell you that you're better off. simply put, the jimmy carter days looked like the good old days compared to where we are now. >> over the weekend, democrats struggled, of course, with trying to answer that question. then as our show was on the air yesterday, we saw them pivot as the obama team retool and realized there's only one answer, yes. then you explain. >> by the afternoon in detroit,

vice president biden -- well, he was a defiant man when it came to answering this question. very an mafted. specifically calls out reporters to make sure they heard his answer to the question. >> folk, let me make something clear. say it to the press. america is better off today than they left us. you want to know whether we're better off, i got a little bumper sticker for you. osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive! >> by the way, i want you to hear something there, then they left us. crowd starting to pick up here. us versus them. us versus them. another theme of this convention. what does the president himself believe? he answered one version of the better off question in an interview with a colorado station that aired yesterday. take a listen. >> as you inherited a bad situation, 3 1/2 years to fix it. what grade would you give yourself so far for doing that? >> you know, i would say incomplete, but i would say is, the steps that we've taken in

saving the auto industry, in making sure that college is more affordable, in investing in clean energy and science and technology and research, those are all the things that we're going to need to grow over the long term. >> expect paul ryan to raise the question again today. he campaigns in iowa and ohio. democrats aren't the only ones challengeed by questions this week. this morning in a morning show round robin, paul ryan why challenge the why he ignored his own rule in the failure of bowles-simpson in his speech last week. >> you were one of seven members of that panel and you voted against sending those recommendations to the senate, basically killing any further action on them. didn't you owe it to the people in that troop say that as well? >> but if you read the next paragraph, i said republicans offered alternatives. in simpson-bowles, it's no whether that was as good or bad plan. it's if you don't like that plan you owe the country an alternative. >> he was also pressed to

respond to the vice president who hailed the auto industry comeback. >> he says osama bin laden is dead. general motors is ace live. you say -- >> well, general motors isn't alive in my hometown. >> folks, this whole janesville thing has all been about state-by-state targeting. the auto bailout, ohio, very popular. you see paul ryan there pivoting, it's all about wisconsin in those electoral votes. ripe said romney didn't mention afghanistan in his speech because he talked about the war in an address to the american legion the night before, was challenged to explain where exactly the romney plan on afghanistan differs from the president's. >> we do agree with the 2014 timeline. where we have some differences of opinion on political timetables for troop size. >> so they'll be no troops at all? no american presence after 2014, if governor romney is in office? >> that's not what it is.

neither the obama or romney position says zero amp 2014. we'll have to do an assessment of afghanistan immediately upon taking office to see what the post2014 posture looks like. >> he grouped the two plans together. neither the obama nor the romney plan. they actually don't want a lot of space there. as for the tops of both tickets, president stumps today in norfolk, virginia. the last stop on his troed charlotte tour. last night the president put politics aside to visit a louisiana town hit by hurricane isaac and talk with local officials about the recovery effort, but he did manage to make a subtle contrast between the recovery efforts taking place today and those under his predecessor during hurricane katrina. >> i want to particularly thank fema and the state and local authorities, because sometimes in the past we haven't seen the kind of coordination that is necessary in response to these kinds of disasters. this time we've seen it. we weren't behind the eight

ball. >> mitt romney is keeping a lower profile this week. he's using down time to prep for october presidential debates, but something romney said over the weekend did earn a presidential retort monday, and as the two sparred over their economic plans he got into a battle of sports metaphor. you know at "the daily rundown" we love a good sports metaphor. >> 23 million people are out of work, stopped looking for work or are underemployed. let me tell you if you have a coach that's 0-23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> we here at "the daily rundown" enjoy the sports metaphors, even though we thought the president took his response a tad too far. it's still pretty interesting, and we'll play some of it for you now. here's a taste. >> on second down, he calls an audible and undoes reforms that are there to prevent another

financial crisis, and then on third down, he calls for a hail mary. ending medicare as we know it. there's a flag on the play, and i've got one piece of advice for you about the romney/ryan game plan, ohio. punt it away. >> it was all sports yesterday. more of it, more of it, and that way i don't get yellaled at by half my viewers who aren't fans that say stop with the sports metaphors. these guys like sports metaphors. anyway, the president let's to virginia, but it's the first lady's big night in charlotte. the first convention appearance. become a fixture of american life and far more popular than her husband. my colleague over at the white house, she's at the white house, where the president is right now, taking, i guess, an overnight break from the campaign. getting a little preview of what we're hearing from michelle obama, are we going to see the president at all tonight, a la

mitt romney and ann romney last week? >> reporter: not exactly to see the president, chuck, but i am told he's going to watch the first lady's speech here at the white house, as you said, he's going to be campaigning all you day. he'll be back in time to watch her speech. so we know that is for certain, but as you mentioned, we're going to hear things from the first lady when she takes the podium this evening. she's really going to talk about her husband's values. she's going to talk a lot about why he understands the middle class. why he's the best candidate to defend the middle class and also going to defend his policies particularly as they relate to women. of course, that's a key constituency to president obama. she'll talk about the lilly ledbetter act, talk about health care, why the policies have been so beneficial to women and while she's not going to mention mitt romney by name, she is clearly going to try to draw a sharp contrast with mitt romney who, for example, wants to overturn the president's health care law. unmore important element to this, chuck, the military aspect.

the first lady's going to be introduced by a military mom named alain bry. a mom of five. four of her kids in the military. the first lady made one of her chief initiatives helping military members and their families. this is another one of the constituencies that president obama is reaching out to. he lost the military vote to john mccain in 2008 and hoping to get them to turn out in larger numbers for him this year. look at the numbers. the first lady's favorability ratings far higher than the president. 54% view her favorably, compared to president obama. 49%. she is really his most powerful political weapon. chuck? >> very important here in north carol killer and virginia in particular. she's traveled to both states extensively on her official business focusing on military families. no accident there. thank you very much. see you on the road. up next, the minority report with the president counting on african-americanens and latinos to push him over the top here in

north carolina, we'll dig into the race and look at it on a minority versus white premise on all the battleground states. wait until you look at this and understand why the president's team is so confident. first a look ahead at the president's schedule, and mitt romney's schedule today. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. norfolk, the president, speaking to veterans. mitt romney and paul ryan doing some interviews today. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard

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we are back. as a number of minorities in this country grows so does the

power at the ballot box and putting a greater need on the candidates focusing on some gaps in the electorate. women and latino, mitt romney either has to win big among white voters this fall or somehow cut into his lead among hispanics and african-americans. joining me now, former white house secretary and the president's superpac, and senator blanche lincoln. my friend and national political reporter, and, of course, politicos senior political reporter. okay. jonathan, you especially will love this. the electorate. couple ways to look at it. white voters, non-white voters. and in the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, and probably romney's magic number. >> right. >> walk you through the electorates the last three cycles. 2000, 81% of those who showed up, white. 19% non-white.

2004, that split was 77-23. 2008, 74-26. guess what, folks? it's probably going to be at a minimum, 73 -- you know, 27. 72-28. >> or 30. >> exactly. let me go through this by state. four of our battleground states are more diverse than the national average. nevada, virginia, north carol killer and florida, and five of the battleground states are less dwesive. and i'm going to finish this off. let's just give the president, let's just give the president our battleground map, those states that are more diverse. that would be virginia. that would be nevada. that would be north carolina. and that would be florida, and look at that. just exploiting this gap, jonathan martin. you see why mitt romney's problem is the hispanic voters is an issue. >> it does feel romney needs to find a way to win the election.

a big "if." this is the last campaign cycle the republicans were win the presidency narrowly with a largely unthe backs of white voters. they have to find a way to expand their own map, demographically. those numbers when you point out, they're so, so -- >> it's unbelievable. they can't avoid it. >> when looking at polls, that white to non-white breakdown in a poll, throw out the poll if it's anything that is at least not 74-26 in that split. having an all-white male ticket, you think in hindsight they may look back and say -- >> could be. i would argue the problem is so fundamental and severe that we're not going to see any shift this time. what they're trying to do is almost a band-aid fix. look what they did during the convention. you had a lot of diversity up onstage. so they're trying to send a message that we're inclusive and we are -- we can you know, have

minorities we're not the old white man party of the past, yet the ticket doesn't illustrate that. so i think it's a more fundamental problem going forward that has dramatic effects when you look down the line. >> hard to see that all -- the gop after -- >> and never going to happen again. senator look at it the other way, though. the president has to get a certain level of support among white folk. 40 seems to be the magic number and fluctuates between 36 and 40 depending on the whole. are you concerned if mitt romney wins he does it on the backs 6 white voters? that it becomes really sort of what divides the country that will be unhealthy? >> without a doubt, what you're seeing in the minorities, the increase in minority voters is very healthy for the country. it's also really good for the president. i think it's good for all of us, because most people want to go back to the issues. you look what they're seeing. they want to pay attention to what's on the platform of these conventions.

and they want to focus on the issues. i think the minorities bring that to the discussion, brings us back to the issues, whether it's education. whether it's nutrition, whether it's, you know, a financial services industry that's planning on safe playground equipment and other things like that. you know, these are important issue, and i think having that increase in the minority vote brings us back to the issues. >> bill, what's more important to the sort of obama campaign team? is it getting wider margins among their support groups among latino, african-americans? or trying to minimize how much they lose at the white house? >> i think both of important, but if you look at a state like florida and drill down the numbers, president obama got about 57% of the hispanic vote last time around. they're probably going to grow as a share of the electorate this time. you get it up to 60 he probably wins the state. the election's over. both of very important. in terms of who's on the ticket, it's less a problem of ryan being the vp pick.

it's how far romney went in the primary trying to outflank on what he did in 2008 toll try to outflag huckabe. that's more than did -- >> interesting, among hispanics, all the growth among hispanics among the non-cuban population. the first time, majority in florida are non-cuban. that's a problem for -- >> and puerto ricans, and much more on democrats and much younger generation cubans who don't have a focus on the embargo like the older genre ace does, play for democrats as well. republicans in florida for years, in part coalition to whites and cubans isn't that simple nipmore. >> you're coming back. doing this on popular demand. throw you off the set but i'm told people want you back. come back in a -- the people, you've got to do what the people want. all right. where stocks are heading as wall street gets back to work today.

a rundown is next. today's trivia question. since 1948, how many cities have poechted a nominated convention more than once? give me an answer, chuck todd t todd @dailyrundown. coming up. and hughes hash tag, msnbc hyphen 2012. we'll be right back.

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market's getting back to business pap short but important week ahead of the big friday jobs report. right to the market rundown. my friend becky quick is here. becky, what you got? >> you know, chuck, this is a shortened trading week but at very important one because people are finally back from vacations starting to pay attention and have real meat to bite into this week in terms of numbers and a big meeting from the ecb. we're heal about it from the

ecb. mario draghi, the head, throwing out saying if the ecb were to go in and bisovereign bonds, not a violation of treaties. the big question whether they can do some of these thingss or not. expectations thursday we won't hear a lot of details. you guys have been talking about that from the conventions. not getting enough details. the same concern the market has now about not getting enough details for the ecb's plans. could be disappointment if that's the case. the real thing to watch for on thursday and heading into thursday. friday the incredibly important jobs report and both political parties have a lot riding on this, because obviously that jobs picture will play a big role in what happens in the election. this one coming up is going to be very important. people are looking for around 120,000 jobs or so. that's the question mark. chuck? >> sort of political question here, the new york attorney general subpoenaing a bunch of firms including bain. >> yep. >> financial firms they want to go after here. how's the market going to react

to that? how nervous are they that they've got a new eliot spitzer on their hands? >> right now they seem to be shrugging this off and obviously a lot of people are saying this is a political move, because schneiderman, the new york attorney general is a democrat. close ties to the obama matter and questioning the times. happening at a rather odd time. not a whole lot of concern in terms of what this might mean just yet for some of the private equity loans. they think this is more of a political move. internal revenue service weighed in. when they took a look they chose not to do anything with it. we'll see. could be a story with more legs. >> becky, a hard time about using business speak with the ecb. killing me there. european central bank. >> sorry. european central bank. >> wilmer dink. how do you speak european in political speak? >> i'm a little bit of a nerd. you're right. >> that's okay. that's why i love you. inside the democratic party, two rising stars.

anthony cox is here with a crowd. and the mayor. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds. showed you the numbers about nationally what's going on between the non-white vote and the white vote split in this country. also we want to talk about it near north carolina. african-americans make up 23% of vote in this state in this election.

95% of those folks voted for the president. the obama campaign won the state by just 14,000 votes that year. my colleague, greg melvin joins me now. a deeper dive into this. tell me more. >> let's dpo it again here, chuck todd. the battleground map, north carolina. one of the most likely to go from this november. that's why this particular voting block is key for the president. four years ago you mentioned black voters in the tar heel state. especially north carolina, highly motivated, highly enthusiastic. especially in areas like raleigh and charlotte. a lot has happened. few of the things working for and against the president this time around. >> reporter: for the 17 years michelle walker spends her dares as an an lift at a charlotte bank. now she spends many of them here at this unemployment center. >> i got laid off due to the merger of two companies. >> reporter: walk hear a lot of company. the tar heel state's unemployment rate is 9.6%. for african-american, it's 19%.

>> they're expecting black people to come up out of the droves and re-elect him into office. >> reporter: two years ago, bill randall ran for congress as a republican in north carolina and is certainly rampant joblessness will hurt the president and democrats. >> they don't have any answers. they don't have the any solutions to a remedy, to rectify it. >> reporter: another possible barrier between black voters and president obama this time -- >> i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> reporter: the day after north carolina voters, many of them african-american, voted overwhelmingly to ban same-sex marriage, president obama famously endorsed it. >> this campaign is not going to be decided on that. >> reporter: based on conversations with voters, the reverend thinks november will be about -- >> about education, job, the economy, poverty, protection of civil rights. the criminal justice system. >> reporter: the states naacp

lobbied the legislature to keep in tact something that helped president obama immensely four year it's ago. early voting. >> something like half of the president's voting in carolina was actually cast before election day. so it was a tremendous tool used mainly by the democrats. >> reporter: team obama will rely on that again, but to win this time around they'll have to encourage more voters to separate their hardship from the president. there seems to be hope. >> four years, didn't expect all the jobs would be right back. very patient. very patient with the president. >> reporter: so is michelle walker. taking time off from the job search to volunteer for the obama campaign. still as enthusiastic? >> yes. still as enthusiastic. >> meanwhile, mitt romney made no in-roads with black voters. several polling show the republican nominee at or near 0%, chuck todd. that said, a number of recent polls also show mitt romney ahead in north carolina. chuck, back to you.

>> craig melvin, doing great work for me this week. thank you, sir. >> thank you. bring in rising stars democrats want to showcase. last week republicans show cased their rising stars. the democrats, the list included several women and hispanics in state and federal positions. people like florida center marco rubio, and ted cruz. most of the democrats' rising stars come from a place closer to home. city hall. half a dozen mayors take the podium today. convention chairman, antonio villaraigosa, julian castro. cory booker. the list of speakers includes mike next two guests, anthony foxx and ryeback, vit chair of the dnc. welcome to both of you. >> thank you, chuck. >> are you jealous of the mayor that charlotte beat out mib

minneapolis? one of the cities. >> a great convention, and it is, but mayor foxx has been phenomenal. his police great. this guy, has he dawn great guy for most of this convention? >> yes. >> shut him up for you. what's the hardest part about being the host. is it security, detours? your residents feeling like, can i go to work? >> like hosting a dinner party. you want everyone to have fun, make sure everything is done just so and we worked hard on security and transportation, but running around making sure we're hosting everyone the way we want to. >> what's your advice to residents in charlotte, stay away from downtown? if you're not involved in the convention? what's your advice? >> chuck, we just had yesterday one of the largest street festivals in the history associated with this convention and we wanted people to come in and be a part of it all the way to thursday at bank of america stadium. >> get you to react to, craig

melvin did, where the president stands here? where is the enthusiasm, is it still there among african-americans? >> look, north carolina is a quintessential battleground state. a state in which we're basically tied now. the president worked very hard on issues, from veterans issues to issues that matter to women and a broad cross-section of north carolinians. i actually think the president is actually going to do quite well in north carolina. i think he's got an extent shot to win. this convention will give him a huge balance not only nationally but particularly in north carolina. >> what about democratic mayor, the story to tell? you see the republican governors wanted to tell a story, they feel they're talking about certain issues. what is the story the democratic mayors -- you're winning a lot of these. the charlotte mayor, it's a swing. some are not -- harder for republicans in minneapolis. here it's been the history of republican mayors and sort of broke the mold. what is it, the story that you think democratic mayors have?

>> the mayors, in partnership with the white house, the white house is, it's tough times. a bridge collapsed, and a hideous human tragedy, and the republicans in korngs like paul ryan, sat on their hands. president bush said all the right things but didn't do anything. the president came in and delivered money to fix bridges. public safety ish issues. the president put firefighters and police officers on the streets and the teachers in the classroom. they're not abstract issues for the mayors. >> where you going to get your money? the state has to cut back money. when are geing the money jrchts that's not the first question a mayor asks. first how do we deliver this and take education, reform. we have to reform the way we do thing. that's what the president did. he didn't throw a pot of money at schools. the top saying we're going to force you to reform, deliver outcomes not for anybody more important than the kids. that's what the president did. >> do you have direct control of your schools? some mayors do, some don't? you do not?

you're in control? is this becoming an issue sort of where you're dealing with, you're trying to, you have a pension issue you're dealing with? >> we did -- reformed pensions but part of the reason, $200 million until debt we picked up. what mayors are doing around the country is exactly what the president's done. we're not in the classroom. we surround the whole family with support. fewer teenage pregnancies. intervention early. summer jobs. college and careers trends. >> what do you need from the federal government jt more money? >> well, we need the federal government to invest in critical areas. areas like education, infrastructure investment. research, which helps stimulate job growth. but we also need is direction in certain areas. we need a transportation bill. a long-term transportation bill, for instance. those types of things are things we need the government to do. >> leave it there. bank of america, asset to charlotte or not? >> yeah. asset. asset. absolutely. >> and mayor rybak, thank you

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deval patrick joins me now. >> thanks for having me. >> your speech tonight. how much is about mitt romney? how much is about barack obama? >> a little bit about mitt romney. >> a little bit there? >> just a little bit. >> what is it? >> he's always been a gentleman to me. you know, i don't know him well, but we had a very smooth transition. he did one profoundly important thing in massachusetts, and that was his role in health care reform. we have over 98% of our residents insured today. over 98% of children. >> are you going to praise him tonight? >> not exactly. because the rest of his record doesn't fit the story he's selling right now. we are 47th in the nation in job creation, where we left off, and better economic times, are -- wages declined -- >> what about below -- >> it was -- the nation's is low. i'm saying those were good times that he was trailing the nation. we are in tougher times today. we're leading the nation. he had the largest cut in

education in america at the tile. we have invested in education. we've turned around these positives and are getting very different results. that's the case i want to try to make. not against him, but why the strategy we are pursuing, exactly the same strategy the presidented is pursuing a winning strategy. >> what are the lessons? we're going to go -- what lessons have you learned in iranment iranmenting -- implementing the long-term -- >> one lesson, maybe two. that are not so wonky, are that, number one, that broad coalition that came together to invent health care reform has stuck together to refine it as we've gone along. >> when you say that, broad coalition, in massachusetts, hospital folks? >> it was hospital folks. business community. laborers. the, you know, policymakers. democrats, republicans, came together and they stuck together. >> they want to keep it working? >> they care about it. >> you're worried it may not

last on the federal level? >> we're going to need that kind of coalition, because it's going to need to be refined. that's been a lesson from home. i think the other thing is, we've had to talk about it and really sell it. you know, health care reform in massachusetts polls 60% to 70% favorable. the affordable care act, obama care, pulls about 50/50 in masses and it's the same thing. i think, frankly, the administration has not done a good enough job explaining to people how good this is. how much security it brings to people's lives. how much it helps relieve suffering, how much it helps economic -- >> who's fault is that? you're a good communicator. did you offer advice? >> well, sure, and i think -- >> they didn't take it? >> i think that there's -- so many things are coming at this president, and an unprecedented level of life changing and world-changing challenges.

i think we have an opportunity, frankly, with the supreme court's decision with this election, and with the secretary term of the obama administration to tell that story. >> what's elizabeth warren got to do to peel away democrats that scott brown seems to be appealing to? >> first of all, scott brown is a great campaign's man. you don't know what you're going to get. most of time he's not vote are for the interests of the commonwealth. what we need is someone who will. that's what elizabeth will bring us and that's the stow she's got to tell and tell it any other the grass roots, what i feel so strongly about. >> do you think there is something about gender politics in massachusetts that works against -- >> i don't know. i've heard that point from friend and foe. >> sure. >> i just don't know. i mean, i have -- i'm new to this. this is the only office, only elected office i've ever held. i'm in my second term. my approach was to talk to everybody. not just democrats. not just the folks who would be in the kind of presumptive base,

but to talk to everybody, and make a case that this was their government, and their campaign. and that's what elizabeth warren is doing, and i respect her for that. >> are you done with politics? would you rather -- run for another office? >> maybe one day, but i've finished my term. >> stay in office or something else? >> i don't have any plans. >> i heard you made a visit to iowa? >> made a visit to a bunch of states because the obama campaign asked me to do it and i'm proud to do it and will continue to do it. >> deval patrick, we look forward to your speech tonight and thanks for taking time to be ob. >> good to are with you. how many city the hosts a nominating convention more than once. the answer is six. philadelphia, chicago, san francisco, los angeles, miami and new york. not boston. how about that? they've all hosted multiple conventions. we'll be right back. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card!

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. there is other business that happens at these conventionses. democrats will vote on their 2012 platform becoming the first major party to support same-sex marriage. this comes one week after the republicans adopted their party platform that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. and if you take a closer look, the word marriage appeared 21 times in the republican document compared to the democrats pour ti four times. let's bring back our panel. you can tell where things are going here. of the two platforms, the economy mentioned 100 plus times in both platforms. look at the words, though. build was the key word away the economy on the democratic platform, build and innovation were used more often on the republican platform. what does that tell you? i know you didn't read the

platform, but -- >> well, i skimmed it. but, yeah, i think that the economy is obviously the central issue here. people are looking forward, not backwards. and even more important than that, when you get to the foreign policy piece of this, not just what's in the platform but what was in the speeches. at the republican convention and what you'll see this week with the democrats. >> we did it among women. women are mentioned 50 times in the democratic platform. 21 times on the republican platform. but look at this, the word abortion appears four times in the democratic platform, 19 times republican. pretty reflective of the priorities of the party. >> i think so, but i think women now are really realizing that if they want a party that will represent them in terms of their reproductive rights and a whole host of other things, that the democratic party is the one that will be there for them. >> something that makes the romney campaign nervous. but look at this next one. afghanistan and iraq, 38 times

in the democratic platform. afghanistan and iraq, 11 times in the republican lat forplatfo. the word patriot four time this is the republican, zero in the democratic platform. but the references to the war -- >> a long ways from the bush administration. >> i was just going to say, there was always this theory that -- did the republican party hand national security for the long term back to the democrats? >> i don't know if it's for the long term. among military families, i think there is still strong support for republicans. they tend to be more center right nationally. but that is what kills osama bin laden will do for a democratic president and it's also what a republican president will do for the republican party. >> the last one here, if it doesn't tell you where the democratic party thinks it has to be now, the words word, together, coalition, democratic platform, 28 times.

together 23. coalition 3 times. and the republican platform 6, 6 and 1. tells you the priorities of how they think they speak to their parties. >> he has to focus on moving forward. for the republican, they're trying to counter that saying the last four years have been terrible. let's figure out a way to look to the future, as well. >> should platforms matter? and why don't they? we all joke i didn't read the platform. >> i can tell you a lot of these elected officials -- did you read the lat foplatform is thi? >> no. i've listened to what you all have said. but it should matter. if you look at the percentages, there was a poll the other day that showed that people are more interested now in the platform for the party and the conventions than they really are who is going to be speaking quite frankly. and they're interested. i think people know that we have

to put the economy back on track. they want to know what the different parties' ideas are. and they have definitely want to see where they stand on the issues that are important. >> should a platform represent the president, should it be representative of everything the president stands for? >> i think the platform is broader than just the candidate on the ticket because it's made by the people who attend the convention, not by the leader of the party. but i think that if you look on the republican side, the fact that the platform lines are so closely with where mitt romney is, i think that statement of values like center lincoln says tells a lot. >> the story on sunday in the "washington post" about how the president got to where he is now, great reporting about what happened with the stimulus in '09, the health care bill in '09 and '10. >> i want to thank our washington bureau. they've been a great support system. >> and my player for the mayor

speaking tonight. >> and mine is a family. i brought my family to the convention. >> well, that's good. mine is mine family. boys, first day of kindergarten. the daily rundown coming up next. losing weight clicked for me when i had everything i needed to lose weight right in my hands. sophomore year started weight watchers online, the weight started coming off. ahh! oh my gosh! [ laughs ] we're college kids, we go out all the time. having my food tracker on my phone, i can figure out what i'm having at the restaurant. i lost 73 pounds with weight watchers online. i don't think i've ever smiled this much in my whole life. it kind of hurts my cheeks. [ female announcer ] join for free. offer ends october 20th. weight watchers online finally, losing weight clicks.

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