captioning sponsored by cbs >> being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are. >> we have to come together and invest in opportunities today. >> you should be able to find a job that pays the bills. >> we have got to keep working to fix this. we have got so much more to do. >> it begins with re-electing barack obama. >> it begins with you. >> with your help we will keep moving forward. >> we must work like never before. >> campaign 2012, the democratic national convention, from charlotte, north carolina, here is scott pelley. >> good evening. the contest for the white house is tied. can the democrats make a case that will swing the race?

>> tonight is an opportunity so they are bringing in their heavy hitter, bill clinton, the first and last democratic president since fdr to be elected to two full terms. >> mr. clinton will put barack obama's name in nomination with his speech tonight. the first time one president has done that for another. maybe that will take the democrats minds off the rain on their parade. this was to be the scene of president obama's acceptance speech tomorrow, the home of the carolina panthers, they were, there were going to be 65,000 people and fireworks, but now the forecast is for thunderstorms and the event is being moved back here to this much smaller arena. >> the president arrived in charlotte this afternoon but his trip from washington was delayed by, what else? the weather. he is expected to make a brief appearance here in the arena tonight. a little bit earlier we saw a

picture of the president's wife, the first lady, michelle obama taking in the speeches here, she brought the house down with her own speech last night. once again tonight, bob schieffer is with me here in the anchor booth and our campaign 2012 team is down on the floor. bob, getting president clinton here to make this nomination speech tonight wasn't just a matter of asking him. what is the back story? >> no, you know, think about it, bill clinton's wife ran against barack obama four years ago and things have been a bit rocky between them since then. but about a year ago, the obama people began to make a concerted effort to get bill clinton on this stage tonight. it actually began with an invitation to play golf, then there were calls back and forth, he was asked his opinion on strategy and so forth, and so on, and now she here. they need him, because they think he can get through and talk to the pea people where

they are weakest and that is white working class voters. >> bill clinton has become the rock star and tonight is going to be bill clinton night. >> in recent gallup polls president clinton had a 60 percent approval rating and president obama has a 53 percent approval rating. >> they probably won't mention that part. >> they are bringing out the right person at the right time. >> norah o'donnell with cbs this morning is down there on the convention floor. nora. >> scott, we are going to see former president bill clinton call barack obama a champion of the middle class. that has been part of the theme of this election and as bob just mentioned it is an effort to court working class voters we have seen polls that show mitt romney is ahead of barack obama by about 13, 14 points among those types of voters and those voters are particularly important in states like ohio, a key battle ground state, and so i think what you will see is bill clinton, of course, the guy who is known as the man from hope is going to ask voters to once again trust the guy who

promised hope and change in the last election. advisors to bill clinton told me today that he is going to draw a direct line from the policies of bill clinton to the proposals of barack obama, and bill clinton, of course, will brag a little bit about the economy when he was in office, when unemployment was about 4.1 percent and bill clinton was going to say, i raised taxes on the wealthiest americans, everybody told me it would sink the economy, and he was opposed by all of the republicans in congress and yet they had the greatest period of economic expansion in several decades, and he will say that is why you should re-elect president obama. >> for remarks thank you. one of the things that they do during these conventions is write the party platform. now, that is a document that is usually quickly forgotten, but the democrats made a point today of making a change in their platform and we asked nancy cordes to look into that for us,

nancy, what did you find out. >> well, scott, the problem was that the democrats made a few oversights when they were creating their platform, at least that is what the democrats call it, republicans call it shameful, there was no mention of god in the democratic party platform and no mention of jerusalem being the capital of israel. and so the president we are told got involved personally, he said this is ridiculous, why has this changed from past years? this is something traditional both better do so this afternoon we saw the democratic convention chairman actually come out on stage, announce that the platform is going to be changed. there were some boos from some of the delegates in the audience, not all of them but it is now changed to reflect what the white house says is the president's view that jerusalem is and should be the capital of israel. now, scott, i do expect the president will make a surprise appearance here at the convention tonight. he wasn't scheduled to do so but we understand his motorcade has left his hotel, so while it hasn't been confirmed by the

campaign, i am pretty sure at some point tonight you will see him and president clinton on that stage together. >> and that will be quite a thrill to the delegates who don't know at this point that is president is en route to the convention hall. >> byron pitts is roving among the delegates and he has caught up with a new jersey delegation. >> scott, we have talked to a number of delegates tonight who say the energy level in this room is far higher tonight than it was at this time yesterday. and in great part because of the upcoming speech by president clinton, last night mrs. obama spoke in part to women voters, the mayor of san antonio spoke in part to hispanic voters, i was talking earlier to congressman from missouri who said that there is simply no single person better equipped to speak to the broad base of the democratic party on behalf of president obama than president clinton and scott, it is no accident when president carter addressed this audience it was by videotape, the campaign wants president clinton, the best of bill clinton live and in living

color. >> byron thank you very much, we have special guests up here in the anchor booth tonight. two men who really brought down the house last night, julian and joaquin castro. >> is 33-year-old mayor of san antonio and you may have noticed these men bear a striking resemblance to one another. you came in while we were on the air. i didn't have a chance to say hello so let me ask you gentlemen this question first. which one of you have the mayor? >> i am one minute older at well. >> i am one minute better looking. >> mayor, nice to meet you. >> you are joaquin and you are running for congress. >> that's right. >> from a district down there in texas in san antonio. area. >> you made a speech last night that people really are talking about today. and i wonder what sort of reaction you have gotten to it. >> well, i have gotten an outpouring of a lot of well wishes and congratulations.

i was excited to give the speech and a little bit nervous, of course, and i got an assist from my daughter, so i was very happy with it and it has been great. it was especially meaningful having joaquin true me, as twins we have done everything in life, i can't get rid of him so it is a good experience to me. >> in 2004 an unknown state senator made that same speech at the democratic national convention and his name was barack obama. four years later he is president, he became president of the united states. what are your ambitions? >> well, you know, it is very flattering but i don't put myself in the same league with president obama. >> he is quite a unique talent. i am going to be mayor of san antonio as long as the voters will have me. my tenure would end in 2017 so i will be there and run for reelection and be there, if i do a great job then i will look around and see what is possible, of course the challenge is that we are in texas, texas is very red state, we have 29 statewide offices and it is 29 to zero in terms of republicans and democrats, so we will see.

we will see. >> joaquin, part of what we learned in your brother's speech last night was that your grand jury immigrated from mexico. >> right. >> never got past the fourth grade, both of you went to stanford and have law degrees from harvard. how did that happen? you know, our grandmother and everybody in our family worked very hard, so that we could have the very best opportunity possible and, you know, as julian told the story, was a cook for her entire adult life, scraping by to give my mom the best chance we could, my mom and, our zero mom and dad did the same for us. >> it is an american dream story and the point of the peach is that doesn't happen by accident, you have to invest in opportunities for folks, with public schools, we went to public schools, we were able to get through those universities on financial aid and student loans and grants and scholarships and that's exactly what president obama has been talking about, investing in those things so that america can be the land of opportunity and be competitive in the 21st

century global economy. >> have you paid off the student loans? >> he has, i haven't. >> i have, yes. >> a year before we went to stanford our mom had made less than $20,000 so there is no way we could have gone without that financial aid. >> mr. mayor, one of the things you said in the speech last night that really caught bob schieffer's attention was you can't be pro business without being pro education. >> that's right. ?> what did you mean by that? >> >> i am absolutely convinced that brain power is the new currency of success in the 21st century global economy. today, you know, i saw a staff that said 64 percent of jobs require something more than a high school diploma, whether it is university, community college or some sort of technical training, the only way that we are going to be competitive in economic, economically prosperous is we have a well educated, well skilled work force that means that our business is going to depend on folks who have that knowledge, did you want to, if you want america to be prosperous in the future and you are pro business

you have to be pro education. >> joaquin when i was born in san antonio a very long time ago, texas was solidly democratic. now it is solidly republican. >> you are right. >> is there a future for the democratic party in the state of texas? >> oh, there is absolutely is. right now it is 29 to zero but i think on the horizon we have a chance to move it to a purple state and then a blue state, and a lot of russ going to work very hard to make it happen. >> gentlemen, so good to see you, congratulations on your speech, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> everybody was telling us you are the future of the democratic party. >> you are the youngest mayor of a major city in the united states at the age of 37. 37 years old and one minute older. >> that's right. >> that is what counts. >> so good to see you. >> mr. mayor. >> good to see you. >> thank you, scott. >> joaquin, thank you so much for being with us. >> the castro brothers of san antonio. >> bill clinton is still ahead. cbs news coverage of the 2012 democratic national convention will continue from charlotte in just a moment.

>> pelley: welcome back to charlotte and the democratic national convention. john dickerson, our cbs news political director is down on the convention floor and, john, the highlight tonight will be a speech by former president bill clinton. >> that's right. it is a picture of continuity and what is striking about that is in 2008, the tension between the two men was not just that barack obama was competing against hillary clinton, it was that barack obama was campaigning as a break from the clinton years, a break from clinton's kind of politics. now he is relying on that kind of politics and it is striking. usually a candidate arrives at a convention early to be seen with his wife, not this time.

barack obama is going to recover and be seen, they hope, with bill clinton. that picture of continuity, that is the picture they want to see on the front pages tomorrow. >> pelley: john, thank you very much, bill plante is down on the convention floor and he has found bill daly of chicago, mr. daily used to be president obama's chief of staff. bill. >> i am with bill daly as you know was chief of staff to president obama and also was secretary of commerce for president clinton and therefore is in a good spot to tell us what it is that president clinton needs to do for president obama. >> well, look, president clinton is in a position having held the office he understand it is pressure, he understand it is challenges, and i think he has a unique feel of america, about his eight years and the success in his eight years. to speak to the american people and tell them the success that has occurred in the last four years and the challenges and what has to be done in the next four years. so he is in a unique position and they are two men but they

have the last democratic president come here and speak on behalf of president obama and speak to the american people and speak to democrats to get them, continue to get them enthused as they were last night when michelle obama, great opportunity for the party and a great opportunity for president obama to have president clinton speak this way. >> yes, but what do you think president obama will do for president clinton. >> how about hillary? >> look, i know everybody wants to leap four or five years down the road, right now, i know president clinton is totally hooked on electing president obama and what happens in 2016 is light years away as we know in politics. >> thank you. scott. >> pelley: bill, thank you very much. byron pitts has found corey booker, the mayor of newark, new jersey. >> scott, as you know the mayor gave a fiery speech yesterday. what do you think president clinton needs to do to move the discussion further for the party. >> well, he has a powerful knack as one of the great thirds of

the democratic party to really thinkers to bring the it back to the issues and that is what he will be able to do, there is so much rhetoric and so much distraction, i think what president clinton will do in an incredible way is stating plainly the ideas of the record of our president and really the vision for moving forward. >> what about this notion he has to speak to male voters, white male voters, white voters, white male voters in particular. >> president clinton's appeal is not only to white voters but to a broad base within the american public, and there are a lot of people that were centrists, that are independents that he is going to be able to penetrate their heart. i think we are at a point now where there is just a slight undecided voters in americand that is who they have to reach, some are white men and some are white women but he has an appeal all over the spectrum of america and that's why polls have shown she the most popular person in america, not just a politician but really one of the more popular people in america right now and i think that is going to carry us a long way tonight.

>> the mayor of newark, new jersey, thank you very much. >> good to see you. >> scott, back to you. >> pelley: byron, thanks very much, will former president clinton make that connection? the highlight of the tonight, the address by the former president is just a few minutes away wand we will have that in a few moments when we come right back from charlotte.

>> pelley: welcome back to charlotte. speaking to the convention just now is elizabeth warren, who is running for united states senate as a democratic candidate out of massachusetts. now, that is a very close race. it is essentially tied with her republican challenger scott brown. and so the democrats wanted to take this opportunity to show elizabeth warren to the country in hopes of boosting their chances of holding on to the senate in this election. norah o'donnell has a little bit more about elizabeth warren down

on the convention floor. nora. >> that's right, and elizabeth warren has been a favorite of progressives across this country as the first head of the consumer protection bureau, she just sat here and remarked that the middle class has been shipped, squeezed and hammered. one of a number of prominent women running for senate this year, democrats hope that if she can take that seat from republican scott brown they can hold on to the united states senate. she of course is going to be keying up former president bill clinton who we will here from, hear from shortly and one note about that, scott, i have been in touch with bill clinton's advisors all day, he has been working on this speech until the very last minute, that is how bill clinton likes to write speeches. >> pelley: nora, thanks very much. let's take just a moment to listen in to elizabeth warren running for the united states senate, trying to unseat the republican in massachusetts, scott brown. >> -- 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. began to give meaning to the word consumer protection by making food and medicine safe. and we gave the little guys a better chance to compete by preventing the big guys from rigging the markets. we turned adversity into progress because that is what we do. [ applause ] >> measure americans are fightee are 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 has spent his life fighting for the middle class. and now he is fighting to level that playing field, because we know the economy doesn't grow from the top down, but from the middle class out and the bottom up. that is how we create jobs and reduce the debt. [ applause ] 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, voucher ize medicare and vaporize obama care. >> the republican vision is clear. i got mine. the rest 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 their powerful friends. after all, mitt romney is the guy who said corporations are people. no, governor romney, corporations are not people. people have a heart. they have kids. they get jobs. they get sick. they die, they live, they love, and they die.

and that matters. that matters. that matters, because we don't run this country for corporations. we run it for people, and that is why we need barack obama. after the financial crisis, president obama knew that we had to clean up wall street. for years, families have been tricked by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages. i had an idea for a consumer financial protection agency to stop the ripoffs. now, the big banks sure didn't like it, and they marshalled one of the biggest lobbying forces 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 is how we won. [ cheers and applause ] >> by the way, just a few weeks ago, that little agency caught one of the biggest credit card companies cheating its customers and made it give people back every penny it took, plus millions of dollars --

[ cheers and applause ] >> president obama beliefs in a level playing field. he believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute, a country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves has a chance to build a business and anyone who works hard can build some security and raise a family. president obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries do. and i can't believe i have to say this in 2012. a country where women get equal pay for equal work.

he believes in a country where everyone is held accountable, where no one can -- on main street or your pension on wall street. no one can steal your purse on main street or your pension on wall street. >> so we can create new opportunities so the next kids can make it big and the kid after that. that is what president obama believes. and that is how we build the economy of the future. an economy with more jobs and less debt. we root it in fairness. we grow it with opportunity and we build it together. [ cheers and applause ] >> i grew up in a methodist

church and taught sunday school, and one of my favorite passages uf scripture is inasmuch as you have done it unto one that is the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. matthew 25:40. the passage teaches about god in each of us, that we are bound to each other and we are called to act, not to sit, not to wait, but to act, all of us together. senator ted kennedy understood that call. four years ago, he addressed our convention for the last time. he said we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. generation after generation

americans have answered that call and now we are called again. we are called to restore opportunities for every american. 's are called to give america's working families a fighting chance. we are called to build something solid so the next generation can build something better. so let me ask you, let me ask you, amrica, are you ready to answer this call? [ cheers and applause ] >> are you ready to fight for good jobs and a strong middle class? are you ready to work for a level playing field? are you ready to give another generation of americans that we can build a better country and a newer world? joe biden is ready. barack obama is ready.

. am ready. you are ready. thank you. god bless america. >> pelley: elizabeth warren, candidate for the united states senate, hoping to unseat the republican in massachusetts. if the, three minutes from now we will hear from former president clinton. now, president clinton made his first appearance as the arkansas governor at the 1988 democratic national convention in atlanta when the democrats nominated michael dukakis, his speech went famously bad. it went on for 33 minutes and there were delegates in the crowd who were actually yelling, wrap it up and when he said, and in conclusion, the room burst into applause, bob schieffer, things have changed a great deal for the president since then.

>> yeah, a few things have happened along the way. i was in the room that night when he made that speech and, you know, we all thought his career was over. this bright young governor from arkansas and, you know, it was just an awful speech. it just went on and on and on. well, four years later, bill clinton was elected. it was an amazing thing. he is going to get a break -- well, here he comes. >> they are going to a film right now to introduce him. >> but there is going to be a rousing hand when he comes in. apparently he is the most popular person in the democratic party right now, with the exception of michelle obama. >> pelley: even more popular than president obama, according to the gallup poll. nancy cordes is down there on the convention floor, nancy. >> reporter: well, scott, what the obama campaign is hoping that president clinton tonight will vouch for president obama's record. last night we saw michelle vouch

for his character but one of the biggest thing romney campaign is hitting the president for is not having a record to run on so what they would love to hear from president clinton oh, yes he does, talk about healthcare reform and financial reform and this president has gotten a lot done under difficult circumstances and can get a lot more done in the next four years. i can now confirm, scott, the president's motorcade has made its way here to the arena and he is expected to be on the stage at some point tonight. >> pelley: john dickerson, relations have not always been smooth between president obama and mr. clinton. >> that's right. and one of the first efforts, to bury a hatchet in this long process, it was in october of 2008, in florida, and bill clinton said something about then president obama, he said he will be the chief executor of good intentions. kind of an odd phrase, but really that questioned the good intentions even mitt romney agrees barack obama had good intentions, the challenge for bill clinton tonight is to

explain how barack obama executed on those good intentions. in 2 thoight 81 note about clinton he got a three minute standing ovation when he arrived. we will see if he gets that long tonight. >> pelley: john, thank you very much. bill clinton now 66 years old and will soon be walking out. >> and here he comes now. with thunderstorm rouse applause of everyone here in the convention hall in charlotte. he has been to every democratic national convention since 1988. .. mr. clinton will place barack obama's name in nomination before the convention. the first time one president has done that for another.

... >> thank you, thank you. >> mr. mayor, fellow democrats, we are here to nominate a president. and i have got one in mind. i want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adverse 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 saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the great depression. a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how, 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 is cool on the outside. but burns for america on the inside. 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 a man who had the good sense to marry michelle obama. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, i want barack obama to be the next president of the united states. and i proudly mom nate him to be the standard bearer of the democratic party. i. >> and in tampa, i was in tampa a few days ago we heard a lot of

talk oh about how the president, the democrats don't really believe in free enterprise and individual initiative, how we ntnt everybody to be dependent on the government. how bad we are for the economy. this republican narrative, is alternative universe says that because everyone of us in this room who amount to anything, we are all completely self-made. one of the greatest chairman that 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 and he built himself. but and strauss then admitted, it ain't so. and 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 the 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 are all in this together is a far better philosophy than you are on your own. >> so who is 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 is the job score? republicans, 24 million, democrats, 42! [ cheers and applause ] >> now, there is a reason for this. it turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally 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 the rest of us. now, there is something i have noticed lately. you probably have too. and it is this. maybe it is because i grew up in a different time but though i often disagree with republicans i actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other democrats. [ applause ] >> now, 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 a governor, i worked with president reagan and his white house on the first round of welfare reform and with president george h.w. bush on national education goals. i am actually very grateful as you saw from the film that you viewed today i have to be grateful and you should too that president george h.w. bush saved the lives of millions of, millions of people in poor countries, and i had been honored to work with both presidents bush on national disasters in the aftermath of the south asian tsunami, hurricane katrina, the horrible earthquake in haiti. through my foundation, both in america and around the world i am working all the times with republicans, democrats and independents i couldn't tell you who i am working with because we work on solving problems and seizing opportunities and not fighting all the time.

[ cheers and applause ] >> so here is what i want to say to you and here is what i want the people at home to think about. when times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good. but what is 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 universities, 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 together. they didn't check their brains

at the door and didn't stop 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 are compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we are never going to be right all the time and hoping we are right more than twice a day. unfortunately, the faction that now dodgeates the republican party doesn't see it that way. they think government is always the enemy, they are 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 the country, even national

security. they beat a republican congressman with almost 100 percent voting record on every conservative score because he said he realized he did 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. [ applause ] >> look at his record. look at his record. [ applause ] >> 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 and the war in iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. and jo joe biden, joe biden dida

great job with both. >> now, he -- president obama appointed several members of his cabinet, even though he supported hillary in the primary. heck, he even appointed hillary. >> now, wait a minute. i am very proud of her.

i am proud of the job she and the national security team have done for america. i am grateful to say they have worked to build a world safer and stronger, a world fewer enemies and the relationship of respect and partnership she and the president have employed and the signal that send to the rest of the world that democracy does not have to be a blood sport, it can be an honorable enterprise that advance it is public interests. [ cheers and applause ] >> 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 are overseas. and of course, supporting our veterans when they come home, when they come home bearing the wounds of war, are needing help to find 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 he also tried to work with congressional republicans on healthcare, 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 not to work, it was to put the president out of work. well, wait a minute. senator -- i hate to break it to pou, but we are going to keep president obama on the job channel. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, are you ready for that? are you willing to work for it? four more years! four more years! >> in tampa, in tampa, did you

watch the convention? i did. in tampa, the republican argument against the president's reelection was actually pretty simple. pyetty snappy. it went something like this. we left it a total mess. he hadn't cleaned it up fast enough so fire him and put us back in. >> 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 had been born in america and, really, i am not being -- they did. and this is important. they convinced me they were honorable people who believe

what they said and they are going to keep every commitment they made we just have to make sure the american people know what those commitments are. because, because in order to look like an acceptable, reasonable, moderate alternative to president obama, they just didn't say very much about the ideas they have offered 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 economy americans and get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit future bailouts. they want to actually increase defense spending over a decade $2 trillion more than the pentagon has requested. without saying what they will 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. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, i like the argument for president obama's reelection 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. this is the president satisfied? of course

not. but are we better off than we were when he took office? now, listen to this. listen to this. when prebarack obama took office, the economy was in free fall, it has just shrunk nine full percent of gdp. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. are we doing better than that today? the answer is yes. now, look, here is the challenge he faces and the challenge all of you who support him face. i get it. i know it. i have 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. anand in a lot of places housing prices are even beginning 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. [ cheers and applause ] >> 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 had, 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 may be the whole election. i just want you to know that i believe it with all my heart i believe it.

now, why do i believe it? i am fixing to tell you why. i believe it because president obama's approach embodies the values, ideas and direction america has to take to build the 21st century version of the american dream. a nation of shared opportunity, shared responsibility, shared prosperity, a shared sense of community. so let's get back to the story. in 2010, as the president's recovery program kicked in, the job losses stopped. and things turned around. the recovery act created millions of jobs and cut taxes, we will say this again, cut taxes for 95 percent of the american people. and in the last 29 months, our economy has produced about four and a half million private

sector jobs. we could have done better but last year the republicans blocked the president's job plan. costing the economy more than a million new jobs. so here is another job score. president obama plus four and a half 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 will tell you something else. the auto industry restructuring worked. it saved -- it saved more than a million jobs and not just at gm,

chrysler and their dealer ships, but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country. that is why even the auto makers who weren't part of the deal supported it. they needed to save those parts suppliers too. like i said, we are all in this together. [ cheers and applause ] so what has ha happened? there are now 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than on the day the companies were restructured. [ cheers and applause ] >> so now we all know that governor romney opposed the plan to save gm and chrysler. so here is another jobs score. are you listening in michigan and ohio and across the country here is here is another job score.

obama 250,000, romney, zero. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor and environmental groups to double car mileage that was a good deal too. iit 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 till will be half of what it would have been been and make us more energy independent and cut emissions and over the next 20 years it will bring another half a million good new jobs into the american economy. >> the president's energy strategy which he calls all of the above is helping too. the boom in oil and gas production combined with greater energy efficiency has driven oil imports to