it kicks off next week at the time warner cable arena in charlotte, north carolina. today a new high-tech podium complete with special effects was unveiled. looking forward to see what the convention will bring to his city. >> you can already feel the excitement in our community. you can see and feel the energy even in this room. and when i look at how this room has been transformed into a convention hall, i know that the queen city will put on a first rate, 2012 democratic national convention. >> among the speakers on the first night, michelle obama, president obama, and biden will accept their party's nomination thursday. >> some voters in northern virginia will be heading to the polls on tuesday. a special election held to fill the 45th district house of delegate seat once held by david. democrat rob and republican, timothy mcgee and justin are competing. the winner will finish england's term, which ends next november. he resigned his seat this summer. >>> could take a while before the gulf coast is dried up from isaac. left some homes under 12 feet of water. more

at the opening session -- in a time warner cable arena in charlotte. we cover it through the acceptance speech of the president on september 6. thank you so much for being with us here in florida. coming up next is our coverage of the convention continuing. we show you the program from politico.com and where there group of professional observers talk about what they saw and heard tonight. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> welcome to political live, wrapping up the 2012 republican national convention in tampa, florida. let's start out with one of the most bizarre scenes in prime- time convention history, a rambling interview of clint eastwood looking at an empty chair, leaving the floor befuddled. a night that ended with a forceful conclusion to what most people will say was a very fine speech by mr. romney. i am joined by my colleagues. mike allen, editor in chief of political. john harris -- what did you think? >> if you wondered what a business-oriented presidency is go

box, that's what the folks here in charlotte, north carolina call this time warner cable arena, which next week will be the home of the democratic national convention. it's here that president obama gets his shot to try to fire up his base and win over undecided vote serious like the republicans did last week. before splitting up to campaign, mitt romney and paul ryan put a positive spin on their republican convention. >> coming out of tampa, we have given or fellow countrymen a very clear choice. >> you listen to the last guy running for president. he was unable to do it. >> reporter: in his soaring speech last night, romney did not lay out specifics. >> i have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. >> reporter: nor did ryan wednesday on taxes, spending, medicare, as campaigning resumed, joe biden took a shot. >> congressman paul ryan has given absolutely clear definition to all those vague commitments -- >> reporter: a lot of buzz today is not about the romney speech, it's about clint eastwood's odd chat with imaginary barack obama. >> people, uh -- people were wondering -- yo

this is time warner cable arena, the site next week of the democratic national convention where president obama will take his shot at firing up his base and trying to win over undecided voters like the republicans just tried to do. paul ryan and mitt romney tried to put a positive spin on the republican convention. >> we have given our fellow countrymen a very clear choice. >> if you listened to the last guy running for president. he laid out what he was going to do. he was not able to do it. it is time to give someone new a chance. >> in a soaring speech last night, romney did not lay out specific. >> i plan to care -- a plan to create 12 million new jobs. >> campaigning resumed and joe biden took a shot. >> congressman paul ryan has given it absolutely clear definition to all those vague commitments. >> a lot of the applause today is not about to run the speech, but clint eastwood and his chat with an imaginary barack obama. >> people were wondering -- >> viewers saw that instead of moving tributes. >> what happened with clint eastwood is not going to decide the outcome of this campaign

the time warner cable arena in charlotte, north carolina.can convention hasn't cooled yet, but the party's newly minted nominees are out there on the campaign trail, tweaking a schedule to squeeze in a presidential looking visit to a disaster zone. cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta is in new orleans with details. what's the latest with mitt romney, jim? >> reporter: wolf, mitt romney was scheduled to visit three battleground states today. at the last minute, his campaign aides scheduled a stop here in louisiana so mitt romney could go and visit some of the storm damage in this state. it is a sign that this campaign with just two months to go will have plenty of twists and turns, including one last night. >> mitt romney! >> reporter: just before takeoff from florida, mitt romney picked up where he left off at the convention, returning to a sales pitch to independent voters that chose the president four years ago. >> you listen to the last guy running for president, he laid out what he was do, he was unable to do it. time to gi

>>reporter: it is interesting at the time warner cable arena crews had seven weeks to put this togetherm an nba arena to a state-of-the-art convention facility so they released this video showing the crews hard at work. there is fine tuning going on both the crews setting up the convention and the technical crews who are going to be broadcasting it live, including some of our finest people, and the bottom line, when the convention is over, they got three weeks to put things back the way they were so the charlotte bobcats can start the season. the recent polling suggests that president obama and joe biden have work to do here in the state of north carolina. polling here suggests that this state is a battleground neck an neck. >>trace: and the bobcats have their own work to do. we now have campaign contributor, ed and julie. the republicans are saying, ed, it appears, that the democrats cannot stand on their record. you hear joe biden talking yesterday or today, and he thinks they can. it looks like they are going to be touting what they have done the past 3 1/2 years. >> whatever our imp

we're at time warner cable arena in charlotte where next week democrats from all over the nation will come to renominate president obama. his competition got the jump on him today being the first to get a look at the effects of this week's hurricane along the gulf. chief political correspondent carl cameron has that story from new orleans. >> this was a big week for us. >> reporter: the morning after formally accepting the republican presidential nomination, mitt romney, wife ann, and paul ryan held a departure rally in florida and went to isaac-damaged louisiana, through flooded streets and neighborhoods. he consoled residents of hard-hit lafitte, thanked emergency responders and got briefed on rescue and relief efforts by louisiana governor bobby jindal. >> people around the country know that folks here need help. >> we live in a very generous country. the american red cross, the southern baptist foundation. >> the people here, some 5,000 or so, how many of them are in shelters or outside of your homes, you think. >> that were supposed to evacuate? to be honest? you'll meet the mayo

it took seven weeks for the work crews to transform the time warner cable arena from nba home court tof the art convention hall. democrats will take screrpt stage. work crews get three weeks to transform the hall back to the home court of the charlotte bobcats. harris? >> harris: obviously the democrats will fire back at the republicans. what kind of preview did they get today? >> interesting because the republicans essentially labeled president obama during their convention as a nice guy but his policies have failed. we expect that democrats will fire back essentially saying that mitt romney doesn't have any new ideas. today we got a bit of a preview in ohio from vice president biden. >> what they didn't say but for the sack files y'all made and the courage of the president of the united states, all those g.m. plants would be closed. here all across the country. 200,000 auto workers who have been added to the rolls since reorganization would not be working. we would have lost a million jobs. [ applause ] that's a small preview of what we would hear when the democrats take charlotte in

this is the time warner cable arena. taking a look at the podium.t the podium looked like, the fema, americans coming together. -- the theme, americans coming together. designed to fit within this kind of unique space. it is smaller than the previous setting. people will be on three sides of the speakers as they are surrounded by delegates. it allows the speakers to be surrounded by the delegates. let's take a look for imminent -- for a minute. take a look at the schedule, too. the platform to be unveiled on tuesday. we will year from a number of people. including the first lady, michelle obama, on day two. bill clinton is one of the noted speakers. we will also hear from elizabeth warren. day three, thursday, vice- president biden and president obama, both speaking on the last day of the convention. about 20 minutes, we will take some of your phone calls. let's see what you think about the road to the white house. both candidates -- make sure you have the hashtag in your tweet. before we go to your calls, we will take a look at paul ryan. he was in