not with so much work to be done. >> announcer: this is cnn. in minutes this the final night of the democratic national convention kicks off right here in charlotte. what happens tonight could change the battle for the white house as we know it. and you're going to see it all unfold live. i'm wolf blitzer on the floor of the convention here in charlotte. and you're in "the situation room." the excitement is already building here inside the time warner cable arena. just hours from now president obama will take the stage right behind me and deliver a speech democrats are hoping will seal the deal for his re-election. let's go to cnn's dana bash out there on the floor of the convention hall. she's getting new information about what the president will say tonight. dana, what are you hearing? >> well, the president's aides and other democratic officials that we're talking to are insisting that he is going to go beyond what mitt romney did when it comes to specifics. they say that at the end of his speech tonight, his acceptance speech tonight, that he is -- the people out there are going to know what a second obama term would look like. they say that he will lay out concrete achievable things. many of the areas that he's been talking about with regard to energy and education. as you can imagine, wolf, they are holding those details close to the vest. but they're putting the bar pretty high on specifics. so we're definitely going to be looking for that. i was told by one source familiar with this that he is going to talk about the issue of israel. unclear how deep he is going to get on it, but you remember mitt romney accused him of throwing israel under the bus last week. and of course we've had a big controversy over the platform and whether jerusalem is the capital of israel. those are the things to look for. big picture what obama officials say is that obviously this is the finale. they feel that michelle obama knocked it out of the park talking about her husband as a husband and in terms of his character. president clinton obviously framed the debate when it comes to the issues they feel like. and he is going to be the one who talks about himself and what he will do if he gets a second chance, a chance at four more years, wolf. >> what about the other speeches tonight, dana? i know the vice president's got a major speech. that will precede the president. but there will be other speeches as well. >> that's right. let's start with the vice president's speech. i just talk today a source familiar with that speech who said it's going to be kind of a series of anecdotes talking about what it has been like to serve at the president's side. and their goal there is to, again, serve as a bit of a character witness, but more specific to president obama's leadership style, how he makes decisions and things like that. i was told that it is a "very generous speech" when it comes to the kind of person president obama is. and of course joe biden is not going to give up a chance of being an attack dog of sorts. going to talk about the contrasts between this president, this administration and mitt romney's. another speaker we're going to be looking for is john kerry who of course was the democrats' nominee back in 2004. he is the chairman of the foreign relations committee. and his speech is going to focus on foreign relations, national security. again, i'm told he's going to hit mitt romney pretty hard on the issue of foreign policy. one last thing i want to mention, and that is gabby giffords, former congresswoman from arizona who of course was shot through the head last year, she is going to be here tonight. we are told she is going to be right up there. and she is going to give the pledge of allegiance in what obama officials say is going to be of course a pretty poignant moment. wolf. >> very emotional moment indeed. and the vice president will be introduced by his son, bo biden. bo will be joining me live before that introduction right here in "the situation room." dana, stay with us. so what president obama has to do tonight will be critically important, but by no means easy. especially coming on the heels of former president bill clinton who electrified this crowd and a television audience last night with his clearly magic touch delivering what might go down as one of the greatest convention speeches in recent history. let's discuss what's going on. our chief political analyst, gloria borger here with more on this part of the story. how big of a hurdle, gloria, does the president face tonight? >> well, i think bill clinton, as you pointed out set the bar really high for president obama. one thing we know about president obama is that he knows how to give a good speech. >> he certainly does. >> but the bar is still set high both by administration officials themselves and by the democrats here and the disaffected democrats watching on television. when you speak to democrats, there's a sense, wolf, that mitt romney left open the door for what the definition of the future is going to be. and the question is whether the president's going to walk through it and frame this election as a choice. you know the obama administration does not want this to be a referendum on the economy. they want to make this into a choice election. the task the president has tonight is to really outline what that choice would be. and that also entails talking about the future. so he has to talk about the future. one thing i'm interested in hearing is whether he takes the baton that was passed to him by bill clinton about working in a bipartisan way. we've got the circumstances of divided government, which will continue if, you know, we'll see what happens. but if there is divided government, wolf, how will president obama deal with republicans differently in the second term? >> a lot of people think there's been sort of an evolution of a message here at this democratic convention over day one and day two. >> yeah. i think it's been very carefully orchestrated as conventions are. first day was the humanizing day, as we saw in the republican convention with michelle obama who by the way had to humanize someone people see all the time but still have a sense that they don't really know who he is. secondly, you had bill clinton doing a defense of the last four years. and pleading for patience for this president. and now we're going to hear from the president himself talking about what a second obama term would really look like. >> a lot of people think the speech needs to be what they say transformational. >> i think we've heard a lot of transformational speeches from president obama. and i think there's a sense among his advisors that this sort of president obama the waters can part, the columns will part for him, enough of that. i think his burden is to prove that he can fix things. the opposite of the burden, mitt romney has, he had to humanize himself. president obama needs to let people know exactly how he will set us on a path towards a sustained recovery in the future. >> this convention hall is really now still about half full, but it's beginning to get full. this will be jam packed within an hour or so. they're getting ready to pound that gavel. very, very soon. >> they're going to close those doors when it is. i'll tell you, wolf. >> day three. we were supposed to be outside right now. but we're inside. and that's fine too. >> we just had a big storm out there. >> i know. we'll see what happens. we're watching it all unfold. gloria's going to be with us obviously throughout the night as well. we're standing by for this the last night of the democratic national convention. the gavel to order about to happen. also, i can't wait, james taylor, yes, he's going to be performing live right behind me in just a matter of minutes. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a reason...to look twice. introducing a stunning work of technology -- the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. how did i get here? 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>> you know, i would say incomplete. >> 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. >> obama campaign officials particularly before president clinton's speech last night, that was the crux of the message that they were desperate for him to get across. >> bill clinton has set him up, but ultimately i think you're right, barack obama has to carry the ball across the line himself. >> let's get straight to cnn contributor and sirius xm radio host pete dominick getting unsolicited advice from an unsolicited panel about this. >> i think it's still pouring outside, but we're going to have a great conversation as always. last night, bill clinton made a lot of claims, a lot of comments. and tonight president obama has to follow him. carly, i know you want to come out of the box on this last night. let's talk about bill clinton. go ahead. >> first of all, you got very upset about ryan for his rhetorical flourishes. bill clinton had lots of rhetorical flourishes, that's the nice way of saying it. the not so nice way of saying it is he left out a lot of facts. but specifically to the question, i think bill clinton is right, that no president could have fixed all this in four years. the problem is that's not the question people are asking. it's not what voters are looking for. the majority of voters think we're headed in the wrong direction. and sadly the facts back them up. poverty at a 50-year high. small business creation at a 40-year low. president clinton talked a lot last night about global competitiveness. what he didn't mention that was in barack obama term, we went from being measured the number one most competitive economy in the world to number seven. >> i get exhausted with the blame game. president clinton did it last night. it's exhausting. democratic presidents created 42 million jobs, republicans created 24 million jobs does anybody on this panel really think these were exclusively democratic or republican policies -- >> or government. >> bill clinton deregulated the financial industry. he repealed glass steeg el. he's as much to blame for the economy as president obama is or anybody else. there's tons to go around. >> hold on, cowboy. >> all right. >> look, it took from 1929 to 1945 to get that bus out of the ditch. this bus was in the ditch four years ago. we know that. it was tipped upside down. it's back on the road and moving down the road. and you can't tell americans it's not getting better because they know that. >> that's a heck of a sales pitch. you're saying it's not that bad because it's not as bad as the great depression. that's not probably the message that obama wants to run out there tonight. >> but let me finish that. without the actions, without the recovery act, without putting these dollars in the state capitals, without getting more highway dollars -- >> there we go. that's better, all right. >> without that investment, we may well have been in the great depression. we had a great recession instead. the bus is back on the road. and on the move. >> first of all, no matter what we talk about, the big dog barked last night. i mean, let's just give credit where credit is due. >> it was a great speech. >> it was a great speech. >> a story, but a speech. >> first of all, you had michelle obama like lady gaga, then you had bill clinton kind of like elvis. tonight you're going to have justin bieber, michael jackson and prince all rolled up together. and i'm going to tell you right now -- >> justin -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> listen. barack obama has been set up now to make the case. the reality is he has not been able to do everything he wants to do. to your point i hope that he will actually take responsibility for his part of it. but the republican party is not taking responsibility for their part of it. so we're in a situation right now where the republican party has been acting like lucy holding the ball every time barack obama tries to kick the ball, they move it. >> that's missology -- >> hold on. my question for van though is what exactly should he be saying? because what i think democrats miss in that narrative is, yes republicans have been obstructionist and so on. but huge chunks of the remaining obama agenda are deeply unpopular. climate change -- >> how about -- >> explain them they're not so unpopular. >> let's go back to the governor's analogy. great depression lasted from 1929 to 1945. you know why it lasted so long? because we tried exactly the same policys that are failing right now. >> oh, come on. >> unemployment was at 18%. you know what got us out of the great depression? you bet. war spending. [ overlapping speakers ] no, no. what we did in the great depression that made it even worse was become protectionist, not negotiate trade deals. there are such vast differences between -- >> not opposed to trade deals. >> there is such a vast difference between president clinton, who was aggressively promoting trade, who aggressively worked with republicans, who aggressively balanced the budget. and president obama who has done less to negotiate free trade agreements than any president in modern history. [ overlapping speakers ] >> do you know how long those -- >> guys, the worst part of this conversation is having to interrupt it. when we come back, we're going to give everybody our unsolicited advice. stay right here. i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life. warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. all right. we're back here in downtown charlotte at the arena where the gavel is about to drop. just a few minutes away of the final night of the democratic national convention. president obama is going to speak. we might have some other speakers. anybody you know? time to give our unsolicited advice for the final time. start again with van jones. van, take it away. >> my advice is to president obama. i think that in this speech he has a chance to deal with a credibility issue. most of the time he's getting beat up because people don't believe he's credible. i think one way you gain credibility is you take responsibility for the mistakes you've made. if you don't do that, then people don't believe you on the next step. romney did not take responsibility for his own party's obstructionism or role dysfunction in d.c. i think he lost credibility. bill clinton didn't take responsibility for his own role in deregulation. i think if obama steps forward and takes some responsibility and explains what he has done and was wrong, i think he buys credibility to keep the country with him for another four years. >> what's an example of something you think he should -- >> you're asking me. i would say the way he handled wall street. i think a lot of people felt wall street got bailed out and left out. i think it hurt his presidency. >> see him take credit for that one. >> i'll tell you what, if he just gets up there and does a blanket defense and does not admit to any failure at all, i think he plays right into the hands he doesn't get it. he should give it tonight himself from the podium. >> my unsolicited advice is to the democratic party. and it comes under the rubric of careful what you pray for. no, i'm not talking about tomorrow's jobs report. although i'm sure there are a bunch of political strategists trying to think through what they're going to say tomorrow morning when the jobs report is not stellar. no, i'm thinking about it from the point of view of the democrats narrative that republicans have become so extreme. i've been shocked, actually, the last two nights. we had audiences here booing when god was being put back into the party platform. we have people who are clearly anti-free trade, something that president clinton was always very pro. this is a party that has become not just pro-choice, which i respect, but pro-abortion. any abortion any time any time anywhere for any reason at taxpayer funding. sandra fluk, a very wonderful and smart young woman, she's talking about not just insurance programs covering contraception, i can support that, she's arguing for contraception that's free for every woman. that is at taxpayer funding. i think this is a party that has become actually quite extreme. this is a party that didn't say one thing about $16 trillion worth of debt. so careful what you pray for because i think there's an opportunity now for the republican party to turn around and say let's talk about who's extreme. many of these views i think are totally out of touch. and last, but not least, how many people basically said over the last two days government is what holds us together. not a mention of church or synagogue or charity or community. government is what holds us together. that is an extreme view. >> my unsolicited advice is for voters, for the public, for viewers, for everybody, because this last two weeks i learned one of the most important lessons of my life that we all keep learning. and that's don't judge a book by its cover. i'll go down the line. if you don't know who van jones is and you believe what you heard, you're wrong. give him another shot. he's been a mentor, friend and inspired me f. you don't know carly fiorina and i don't agree anybody is pro-abortion, i disagree with almost everything, nobody's been a better friend and i know i can call her, talk to her and i can have this conversation. ross -- >> we actually really dislike each other. so he's just going to skip over me. >> ross isn't a good person. but he's very, very smart. [ laughter ] people don't know he's got one kid at home, another on the way. he's banging out these columns. and his blog, which i'm reading, which i retweete