(door closes) >> announcer: this is an abc news special. tonight, it's high drama. >> we have important work to do tonight. >> announcer: it's all on this former president. >> i'm here first to support barack obama. >> announcer: so what will he say tonight? and how much will it help him? this is the democratic national convention. it's "your voice your vote." now reporting live from the time warnerable arena in charlotte, north carolina, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and good evening, to you all, once again from charlotte, north carolina. the democratic national convention in high gear as you can hear and tonight the main

event. one of the most formidable competitors in modern politics. former president bill clinton will enter the arena right across that stage and try to give his patented rocket fuel. >> and president obama will be watching from this arena tonight. likely to come out on stage. what a journey for these two men. they come from different generations, different political worlds. they have built it up step-by-step. he's starring now in campaign ads. and diane, one of the building blocks is when president obama wanted to make hillary clinton secretary of state, bill clinton became the chief persuader. >> they've been good friends for a long time but it's definitely a candid and open relationship. if you're wondering about the president's former adversary,

hillary clinton, she's in east te temor. secretary of states are exempt from political events. >> down on the floor, we've got jake tapper, cokie roberts, george will, donna brazile. jake, let me begin with you the problem wasn't just the personal relationship between bill clinton and barack obama. the relationship between hillary clinton and barack obama took a toll up and down. >> a lot of tough feelings on the obama side, a lot of tough feelings on the clinton side. i think hillary clinton and barack obama buried the hatchet a long time before bill clinton and barack obama did. that was a hard-fought race. and this is still quite a psycho

drama between the two men. politics, politicos and reporters picking over every sign of any sort of a crack in their solid relationship, that they'd like to portray. but right tonight, we're expecting a very strong endorsement for barack obama and his economic principles from the former president bill clinton. >> let's head across the arena now, jake, to jon karl. jon, look around, tell us about the delegates around you. and tell us what you think the most important thing bill clinton has to do tonight for them. >> well, i'll tell you i've been talking to a lot of the delegates around here. and one the things i've heard over and over again is about that primary four years ago. it's ancient history. it's something that somebody who worked very hard for hillary clinton told me. now, we're all on board. you can see phenomenal dress down here. these delegates are fired up, diane. i've got to tell you, they are fired. there's no question that president obama faces something

of an enthusiasm gap out in the rest of the country, trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle he had four years ago. but these people, the ground troops for the democrats here are as fired up as i have ever seen them and are ready to go, even though they acknowledge they've got tough work to do back home. >> a lot of unity. but, george, i've been struck how republicans are trying to drive a wedge between bill clinton and barack obama. and here's what newt gingrich said this morning, with clinton it's an enormous rift. -- enormous risk. >> there's a slight difference on the agenda. because when bill clinton last ran the campaign six years ago, he seemed like he would be a bridge two the 21st century. tonight, he's a bridge because the 1990s are per seened to be

the last really happy decade since american history was scarred by 9/11 and the great recession. so there's a retrospective cast to the campaign, one of the slogans is forward. >> let's hear what donna brazile has to say about that. >> as you know, bill clinton say beloved figure in the democratic party. he rebuilt the democratic party. he built the bridge to the future and tonight, he's going to talk about all the steps we must take to move the country forward. >> one thing we've heard from the democrats today, bill clinton can talk about the past and the economy and to clear the way for barack obama for the future tomorrow night. >> i think he's going to play part professor, he's going to give some sense of history of what's happened over the last 15 years. his presidency, obama's presidency and what he might do. and there's a great sense of

irony here to me, you have somebody who was beaten by barack obama, his wife and now is supposed to prop up barack obama in the course of his re-election. >> one of the other things cokie roberts is going to be doing. if you take michelle obama's speech and tonight, bill clinton is talking about the man who faces the pressures. >> that's right. i have never seen a democratic convention like this. these people, i am looking at them all, they are just sitting in their chairs, listening to the speakers. they are rapt, they are clapping for people you've absolutely never heard of. they're very excited. right now, sandra fluke, the young woman who got in trouble talking about contraception she's now talking and listened to. they are just incredibly fired up. when the president, the former

president comes out, it's going to be a moment like none we've seen. and he will be able to talk to them about that. the pressures of being president and how barack obama in his view. >> of course, last night, we heard mrs. obama talk about the pressures of being president and earlier, we saw her come into the arena herself. 26.2 million people watched her on the first night of the convention. and 22 million people had watched mrs. romney. so what do you think a day later meant? >> after, i think everybody i think michelle obama knocked it out of the park i think for many different reasons. for the crowd, enthusiasm. many people look at her, wow, she could be a national candidate on the scene. for me, watching her, her speaking ability and the ability

to generate that has grown dramatically in four years. >> what you heard from the romney campaign, it got much attention today. >> as the president said of mitt romney's speech that kind of tribute to success is to say i didn't watch it. no, this convention has run very smoothly, they've presented in front of america's most gorgeous families in all its rounds appearance, at home, in the white house and out around the country. that's what they set out to do. they did it with all the skill of hollywood. and that's not a criticism. they're supposed to do it that way. >> well, look, there's no question, she got the delegates on their feet. today, i saw more buttons with michelle obama's face than i thought the president's. is she real inspired people. i had people texting and tweeting all around the country, they said if barack obama was not on the ballot, she would write in michelle, she was a rock star. >> everyone i talked to in his

world said he's been working on this for weeks reaching out to his former aides and speechwriters, this could be his last big, big convention speech. >> he's the only one of the eight former living presidents and vice presidents to show up at a convention this year. >> the first one ever to nominate a president. >> okay, george. we're going to take a break right now because when we come back, it begins some of the democratic heavy hitters about to take the stage and, of course, the countdown to former president bill clinton. >> announcer: abc news live coverage of the democratic national convention will continue in a moment. anncr: this casino's in west virginia.

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>> announcer: abc news coverage continues. once again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. and welcome back to everyone to charlotte, north carolina. the big night at the democratic national convention. why do i say north carolina when

i'm here. i just do. i just do. i want to head down to jon karl because there are a rowdy bunch of delegates out there. jon? >> i'll tell you, diane, i spent the convention on the floor at tampa, and i'm hearing, the decibel level is what's different. the enthusiasm. i'm joined by loretta harper. loretta, tell me how fired up are you right now? >> i am so fired up. gosh. i wake up every morning, and i can't wait to get on the phone. i make sure i did something every day. i walk the walk, i talk the talk. i make phone calls for the president. i register voters. we're going to win this election. my friends in queen are facebook'ing right now, i have donations and fund-raising today. i know we're going to do what will we have to do for 52 days left to re-elect the president. i'm excited. i'm fired up, this delegation is

fired up. so i'm really here today to support my president. >> okay, but, loretta, how does this compare to four years ago? >> four years ago, it was exciting, but it's doubly exciting because there's a lot at this convention. this election is not about me, it's about my students. it's about health care. it's about the economy. it's about don't ask, don't tell. it's about education. >> okay. loretta, thank you. now, we were talking earlier, what about you? what are you thinking about tonight? >> i'm thinking about that we need to bring our country forward and elect our president. four years ago, we had the awesome the first african-american who said that he was going to get kill bin laden and take care of the veterans, and he did. he also said he's going to bring

the economy back to where we have jobs. >> so he still has work to do? >> we're working. we need him in that office four more years so we can finish that job. you know the uaw -- >> thank you very much. diane and george, a sense of what you hear in delegation after delegation. at least the people here, ready to go, and ready to go back home to work. >> also, diane, with the problems that president obama has faced, a lot of democrats have not had the same enthusiasm they had four years ago. what they're hoping everyone here becomes a worker. you heard there, goes on facebook, goes on twitter. they're pioneering this with social media. >> they really are. i think what they're pointing out, it can't happen soon enough for them because tomorrow the first voting begins. >> north carolina. >> and on to september 27th in iowa. so we're going to have a lot of early voting. in a sense, it's begun.

>> that's right. what you're hearing right now is a big roar for elizabeth warren, one of the rising stars of the democratic party. she was a senate candidate in massachusetts. running against scott brown. he's a party favorite, now is trying to cut a more moderate one. he did not get up and speak. he is leading in the polls right now. >> you may also know her, she's the former harvard professor who is the architect of the financial bureau. and she was enlisted to run for senator, george, and hammered republicans about the middle class. >> she decided and let's listen to her now. >> he's an amazing man who had the good sense to marry one of

the coolest women on this planet. i want to give a special shutout to the massachusetts delegation. i'm counting on you to help me win and to help president obama win. i'm here tonight to talk about hard working people. people who get up early, stay up late, cook dinner and help out with homework. people who can be counted on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors and the lady down the street whose car broke down. people who work their hearts out that are up against the hard truth. the game is rigged against them. it wasn't always this way. like a lot of you, i grew up in a family on the ragged edges of the middle class. my daddy sold carpeting and ended up as maintenance man. after he had a heart attack, my

mom worked the phones at sears so we could hang on to our house. all three of my brothers served in the military. one was career. the second, a good union job in construction, and the third started a small business. me, i was waiting tables at 13 and married at 19. i graduated from public schools and taught elementary school. i have a wonderful husband, two great children and three beautiful grandchildren. and i'm grateful down to my toes for every opportunity that the america gave me. this is a great country. i grew up in an america that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class that allowed millions of children to rise

from poverty and establish secure lives. an america that created social security and medicare so that seniors could live with dignity. an america in which each generation built something solid, so that the next generations would build something better. but now, for many years, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed and hammered. talk to the construction worker i met from maldon, massachusetts, who went nine months without finding work. talk to the head of a manufacturing company in franklin trying to protect jobs, but worried about rising costs. talk to the student in wooster who worked hard to finish his degree and now he's drowning in debt. their fight is my fight. and it's barack obama's fight, too. that's right.

yes. people feel like the system is rigged against them. and here's the painful part. they're right. the system is rigged. look around. oil companies guzzle down billions in profits. billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. and wall street ceos, the same one to wreck our economy and destroy millions of jobs, still strut around congress, no shame, demanding favorites and acting like we should thank them. does anyone here have a problem with that? i do, too. i do, too. i talked to small business

owners all across massachusetts. and not one of them, not one made big bucks from the risky bets that brought down our economy. i talked to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters, people who bust their tails every day. and not one of them, not one stashes their money in the cayman islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. but these folks don't understand that someone else made more money. we're americans. we celebrate success. we just don't want the game to be rigged. we fought with a loaded playing field before. about a century ago when corrosive greed threatened our economy and our way of life, the american people came together,

under the leadership of teddy roosevelt and other progressives to bring our nation back from the brink. we started to take children out of factories and put them in schools. we began to give meaning to the word consumer protections by making food and medicines safe. and we gave the little guys a better chance to compete, by presenting the big guys from rigging the markets. we turned adversity into progress because that's what we do. americans are fighters. we're tough, resourceful and creative. and if we have the chance to fight on a level playing field, where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot, then no one, no one can stop us.

president obama gets it, because he's spent his life fighting for the middle class. and now, he's fighting the level playing field. doesn't grow from the top down but from the middle class out and the bottom up. that's how we create jobs. and reduce the debt. and mitt romney, he wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, but for middle class families who are hanging on by their fingernails, his plan will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to $2,000. mitt romney wants to give billions in breaks to big

corporations. but he and paul ryan would pulverize financial reform, vaporize obama care. the republican vision is clear, i got mine, the relevant of you are on your own. republicans say they don't believe in government. sure, they do. they believe in government to help themselves and they're powerful friends. after all, mitt romney's the guy who said, corporations are people. no, governor romney, corporations are not people. people have heart. they have kids. they get jobs. they get sick. they thrive.

they live. they love and they die. and that matters. that matters. that matters because we don't run this country with corporations. we run it for people. and that's why we need barack obama. after the financial crisis, president obama new that we had to clean up wall street, for years, families had been tricked by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages. i had an idea for consumer financial protection agency to stop the rip-offs. now, the big banks sure didn't like it. and they martialed one of the

biggest lobbying agencies on earth to destroy the agency before it ever saw the light of day. american families didn't have an army of lobbyists on our side. what we had was a president. president obama leading the way. and when the lobbyists were closing in for the kill, barack obama squared his shoulders, planted his feet and stood firm. and that's how we won. >> and there you have it, elizabeth warren running for senate in massachusetts. hoven with the democratic national committee to speak in this 10:00 hour. we'll take a short break. when we come back, it is the big

event. bill clinton takes the stage.

once again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. great to have you back with us, as we await former president bill clinton. i want to turn to matt dodd who has worked for both republicans and democrats. it struck me one of the things that president clinton has to do tonight is address the idea that president obama is anti-business. we're hearing a two-toned approach here.

we just heard elizabeth warren, coming up, bill clinton. what's the difference? >> i think what lease going to do is saying being fair isn't anti-business. doing what's right to the middle class isn't taking away from business. i think bill clinton will go through a reverse of initiatives that not only he did, but barack obama did to prove out that theory. i think it's an easy arguments to make, bill clinton made it on his presidency. >> with donna brazile, the whole question of health care reform. we're seeing ads saying that barack obama is trying to gut reform that bill clinton passed. will he address it tonight? >> i think he should. it's a signature issue that bill clinton used a lot of political capital. it's a republican initiative that many democrats have adjusted to that it will impact the states. i think that's another issue that bill clinton has to deal with tonight. to democrats to answer the

question, are you better off today than four years ago. bill clinton is going to say what kind of country -- the question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? >> exactly. bill clinton, you may recall with the reform before he signed it for a third time during an election year, so we shall see what he has to say about that. but michelle obama's speech about her husband said in effect he really does feel your pain. well, tonight, we've got the original feeler of our pain coming up, a man who perfected empathetic politics. >> when you say empathetic politics, almost certain to be bill clinton and barack obama hugging on stage. what a picture that is going to be, jake tapper, the white house has the speech? >> that's right. when we've asked the white house and the obama campaign if they've seen the speech, how

much they've vetted the speech, the response has been along the lines of, well, bill clinton works on his speeches up until the very last moment. i don't think they've had much of the speech. what they're counting on bill clinton to do is to reach out to independent voters and make the case for economic principles that president obama talked about the idea that taxes should be raised on the wealthiest americans that money being spent on education and infrastructure. in fact, george, it's interesting, sometimes on the campaign trail, we'd hear president obama make the case against mitt romney saying we've tried what he's proposing, tax cuts and it hasn't worked. pointing to the bush years, and we've tried my way and pointing to the clinton years. sometimes, it's almost as if president obama is running on president clinton's economy. earlier tonight, i was talking to david maraniss, a buyographer of both obama and clinton he

said that bill clinton needs to be loved but also to be needed. boy, does president obama need bill clinton to make a very strong case. >> jake, i want to point out the fund-raising, the first line, don't take anything for granted. don't think you can wait until the debate. we have to point out to everybody, october 3rd. again, we are so close to these debates. >> the fund-raiser is so important, it is a divisive advantage over the campaign. now, we're seeing the video introducing president bill clinton. >> from cokie, another thing that the president has to do, it seems to me, kennedy voters now in they're 60s, 70s, hard to believe. john mccain did well among them so he's representing tonight. >> it's true, he's become the senior spokesman. the former bad boy of the

democratic party and according to some has now become clearly a senior spokesman. and those voters that he did win when they were younger, he's going to have to appeal to them tonight and a very important appeal because as you say, the older voters are the people that obama is having by far the most trouble with, even with all the emphasis on medicare and the speeches about it and all that, older voters are really tough for him. bill clinton is really -- you know, this is a moment for him. this, as george put it earlier, this might be his last big event before a democratic national convention which is really hard to believe because he's been addressing democratic conventions for a very long time. >> well, i was going to ask, george, you know him well. he's standing backstage right now. what's going on in his mind, what is he thinking? >> he's jumping up and down on his toes. he likes nothing better than

appearing before a democratic national convention. remember back in 1988, he got booed off the stage. he said in conclusion, he woo come back from that, he wowed the democratic convention in 2000, here's comes president bill clinton. ♪ ♪ don't stop thinking about tomorrow ♪ >> please welcome president bill clinton. ♪ yesterday's gone yesterday's gone don't stop thinking about tomorrow don't stop thinking ♪ ♪ yesterday's gone yesterday's gone don't stop thinking about tomorrow ♪ ♪

>> thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. n now, mr. mayor, fellow democrats, we are here to nominate a president. and i've got one in mind. i want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty.

i want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before his election, suffered the biggest collapse since the great depression. a man who stopped the slide in the depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs that he saved or created, there would still be millions more waiting. worried about feeding their own kids, trying to keep their hopes alive. i want to nominate a man who's cool on the outside. but who burns for america on the inside. i want -- i want a man who

believes with no doubt that we can build a new american dream economy, driven by innovation and creativity, by education, and yes, by cooperation. and by the way, after last night, i want to man who had the good sense to marry michelle obama. now -- i -- i -- i want -- i want barack obama to be the next president of the united states. and i proudly nominate him to be the standard-bearer of the democratic party. now folks, in tampa a few days

ago, we heard a lot of talk. oh, about how the president and the democrats don't believe in free enterprise and individual initiatives. how we want everybody to be dependent on the government. how bad we are for the economy. this republican narrative, this alternative universe says that every one of us in this room who amounts to anything, we're all completely self-made. one of the greatest chairmen the democratic party ever had, bob strauss, used to say that every politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself. but and strauss then admitted, it ain't so.

we democrats, we think the country works better with a strong middle class, with real opportunities for poor folks to work their way into it with a relentless focus on the future, with business and government actually working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. you see, we believe that we're all in this together say far better philosophy than you're on your own. now, so, who's right? well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the republicans have held the white house 28 years. the democrats, 24.

in those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs. so what's the job score? republicans, 64 million. democrats 42. now sh now, there's a reason for this. it turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both lawyerly right and good economics. why? because poverty, discrimination and ignorance restrict growth. when you stifle human potential, when you don't invest in new ideas, it doesn't just cut off the people who are affected. it hurts us all.

we know that investments in education and infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase growth. they increase good jobs and they create new wealth for all of the rest of us. now, there's something i've noticed lately, you probably have, too. and it's this. maybe just because buy grew up in a different time, though i often disagree with republicans, i actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other democrats. that would be impossible for me because president eisenhower sent federal troops to my home

state to integrate little rock central high school. president eisenhower built the interstate highway system. when i was governor, i worked with president reagan and with president george h.w. bush on national education goals. i'm actually very grateful, as you saw from the film, where i did, i have to be grateful and you should, too, that george h.w. bush supported it, and it supports millions of people in poor countries. and i've been honored to work with both presidents bush in the aftermath of the south arabian tsunami, hurricane katrina and haiti. through my foundation, both in america and around the world, i'm working all the time with democrats, republicans and independents. sometimes, i couldn't tell you who i'm working with because we

focus on solving problems and seizing opportunities and not fighting all the time. so here's what i want to say to you, and here's what i want the people at home to think about, when times are tough and people are frustrated, angry, hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good. but what if good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. what works in the real world is cooperation. what works in the real world is cooperation. business and government, foundations and university. ask the mayors who are here. los angeles is getting green, and chicago is getting an

infrastructure bank because republicans and democrats are working together to get it. they didn't check their brains at the door. they didn't start disagreeing. but their purpose was to get something done. now, why is this true? why does cooperation work better than constant conflict? because nobody is right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. and every one of us, every one of us, and every one of them, we're compelled to spend our fleeting lives between these two extremes. knowing we're never going to be right all the time, and hopefully, we're right more than twice a day. unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the republican party doesn't see it that way. they think government is always the enemy. they're always right, and compromise is weakness. just in the last couple of elections, they defeated two distinguished republican senators because they dared to

cooperate with democrats on issues important to the future of country, even national security. they beat a republican congressman with almost 100% voting record on every conservative score because he said he realized he didn't not have to hate the president to disagree with him. boy, that was a nonstarter, and they threw him out. one of the main reasons we ought to re-elect president obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation. look at his record. look at his record. look at his record. he appointed republican secretaries of defense, the army and transportation. he appointed a vice president who ran against him in 2008. and he trusted that vice president to oversee the successful end of the war in

iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. and joe biden -- joe biden did a great job with both. now, he -- president obama -- president obama appointed several members of his cabinet, even though they supported hillary in the primary. heck, he even appointed hillary.

i am very proud of her. i'm proud of the job she and the national security team have done for america. i am grateful that they have worked together to make it safer and stronger to build a world with more partners and fewer enemies. i'm grateful for the relationship of respect and partnership she and the president have enjoyed. and the signal that sends to the rest of the world that democracy does not have to be a blood sport. it can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest. now, but besides the national security team, i am very grateful to the men and women who served our country in

uniform through these perilous times. and i am especially grateful to michelle obama and to joe biden for supporting those military families while their loved ones were overseas. and for supporting them when they came home. when they came home bearing the wounds of war, needing help finding education or jobs or housing. president obama's whole record on national security is a tribute to his strength, to his judgment and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship. we need more of it in washington, d.c. now, we all know that he also tried to work with congressional republicans on health care, debt

reduction and new jobs. and that didn't work out so well. but it could have been because, as the senate republican leader said in a remarkable moment of candor, two full years before the election, their number one priority was not to put america back to work. it was to put the president out of work. well, wait a minute -- senator, i hate to break it to you, but we're going to keep president obama on the job. now, are you ready for that? are you? wait a minute.

in tampa, in tampa, in tampa, did you all watch the convention? i did. in tampa, the republican argument against the president's re-election was actually pretty simple. pretty snappy. it went something like this, we left in a total mess. he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so far, he hasn't put us back in. now sh now, but, but they did it well. they looked good. they sounded good. they convinced me that they all love their families and their children and were grateful they'd been born in america. really, i'm not being -- they did.

and this is important. they convinced me they were honorable people who believed what they said and they're going to keep every commitment they've made. we've just got to make sure the american people know what those commitments are. because -- because in order to look like a sensible reasonable, moderate alternative to president obama, they just didn't say very much about the ideas they brought forth over the last two years. they couldn't because they want to go back to the same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place. they want to cut taxes for high-income americans, even more than president bush did. they want to get rid of those pesky federal regulations designed to prevent another crash and prevent future buyouts. they want to increase defense spending over a decade, $2 trillion more than the pentagon has requested, without saying what they'll spend it on.

and they want to make enormous cuts in the rest of the budget especially programs that help the middle class and poor children. as another president once said, there they go again. n now, i -- i like the argument for president obama's re-election a lot better. here it is. he inherited a deeply damaged economy. he put a floor under the crash. he began the long, hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators. now, are we where we want to be today?

no. is the president satisfied? of course not. but are we better off than we were when he took office? listen to me. listen to me. with president obama in office, the economy was in free fall, it had just struck 94% of gdp. are we doing better than that today? the answer is yes. now, look, here's the challenge he faces and the challenge all of you who is supporting him face. i did it. i know it. i've been there. a lot of americans are still angry and frustrated about this

economy. if you look at the numbers, you know employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend again. and in a lot of place, housing prices have even began to pick up. but too many people do not feel it yet. i had the same thing happen in 1994 and early '95. we could see that the policies were working. that the economy was growing. but most people didn't feel it yet. thankfully, by 1996, the economy was roaring, everybody felt it, and we were halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in the history of the united states. but the difference this time is purely in the circumstances. president obama started with a much weaker economy than i did. listen to me now.

no president, no president, not me, not any of my predecessors. no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years. now, but, he has- he has laid the foundations for a new, modern, successful economy. a shared prosperity. and if you will renew the president's contract, you will feel it. you will feel it. folks, whether the american people believe what i just said or not, i just want you to know i believe it. with all my heart, i believe it.

now, why do i believe it? i'm going to tell you why. i believe it because president obama's approach embodies the values, the ideas and the direction america has to take to build the 21st century version of the american dream, a nation of shared opportunities. shared responsibility. shared prosperity. a shared sense of community. but let's get back to the story. in 2010, as the president's recover program kicked in, the job losses stopped. and things began to turn around. the recovery act stayed and created millions of jobs and cut taxes, let me say this again, cut taxes for 95% of the american people. and in the last 29 months, our

economy has produced about about 4.5 million private sector jobs. we could have done better, but last year, the republicans bought the president's job plan, costing the economy about 1 million new jobs. so here's another job score, president obama, plus, 4.5 million. congressional republicans, zero. during this period, during this period, more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under president obama. that's the first time manufacturing jobs have increased since the 1990s. and i'll tell you something else, the auto industry restructuring worked.

it saved -- it saved more than 1 million jobs, and not just at gm, chrysler and their dealerships. but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country. that's why even the automakers who weren't part of the deal supported it. they needed to save those parts suppliers, too. like i said, we're all in this together. so what's happened? there are now 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than on the day the economies were restructured. so, now, we all know that governor romney opposed the plan to save gm and chrysler. so, here's another job score. are you listening in michigan and ohio and across the country?

here's another job score. obama, 250,000. romney, zero. now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor and environmental groups to double car mileage, that was a good deal, too. it will cut your gas prices in half -- your gas bill. no matter what the price is, if you double the mileage of your car, your bill will be half what it would have been. it will make us more energy independent. it will cut greenhouse gas emissions. and according to several analyses over the next 20 years it will bring us another 500,000 good new jobs into the american economy. the president's energy strategy