-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm suzanne malveaux live from the site of the democratic national convention and tonight, of course, president obama's big night as he takes the center stage to make the case that he should be re-elected for a second term. bill clinton fired up the crowd last night and a top democratic strategist says it is now up to president obama to tell the country what he is going to do in the next four years. we will look at the job facing the president and highlights from clinton's speech that brought the crowd to its feet over and over again. and former congresswoman gabrielle giffords likely to get a huge round of applause. we are told she will attend the convention and lead the pledge of allegiance. and he was part classroom teacher, and speech giver as he nominated the president and laid out why he thinks that americans should re-elect him. >> if you any that the president was right to open the doors of american opportunity to all of those young immigrants brought here when they were young so they can serve n the military or go to college, you must vote for barack obama. if you want a future of shared prosperity and the middle class is growing and the poverty is declining and the american dream is alive and well again and where the united states maintains the leadership as a force for peace and justice and prosperity in this highly come pettive world, you have the vote for barack obama. all right. cnn political editor paul steinhauser, and good to see you. when we were watching the speech some political pundits thought it was the best speech he had delivered but i didn't think so, because he has delivered stronger speeches before, u it did something for the crowd. everybody rose to the occasion and felt like finally somebody who would push it forward. sglt and the big speaker on the platform to say, yes, we are better off now than we were four year s s ago as the democrats h been hammering the democrats over the past few months. and he talked about the achievements of the president over the last four years and did the contrasting of what mitt romney and paul ryan would do versus president obama would do, and that teases it up for president obama tonight. >> and one of the things that people talked about is that bill clinton has a way of making things simple, understandable, and that you can follow, and almost like a classroom session on here is why the health care reform law is good for you and why the economic plan needs another four years and how important that the president tonight actually is able to arctticulate it the way that bi clinton did. >> yes, and he is a master of that and being a professor in a i with wa, and he said to the crowd, listen, listen, this is important and talk about the contrast between what the president would do and mitt romney would do. now, for barack obama tonight for the president tonight, what does he do? he needs to talk about what he will do over the next four years and bill clinton has teed it up and how to resuscitate the economy and that is his goal to lay out specific plans of what he would do if he were re-elected. >> and talking about the body language and taking the pictures here of what was last night extraordinary because it was a surprise for the people in the audience that they didn't know that the president would come out and president clinton like bowed to president obama and they had a warm embrace. they are not two men and two leaders who are particularly close, but they are now strategically embraced. >> well, you covered it four years ago and it was not the closest, and these two men maybe not friends, but they share a common goal and working hard towards it. >> what are you watching for tonight? >> well, we have not talked about it, because president biden got shorted last night, because that was bill clinton last night and he will speak in the 9:00 hour, and i want to see how much of an attack dog is he, because that is the role of the vice president, and i want to know he goes after mitt romney and paul ryan. we will see if the president delivers, but i have a feeling that it will be an impressive speech. >> it is a high bar and the first lady and then president clinton and now he has to deliver. >> the delegates say that the speeches are wonderful, but they will look at tomorrow's unemployment report and say this is the real story, jobs, jobs, jobs, and this is the real important number. that is how they will push back. >> thank you, paul. it is an important number. we will see you later. and of course, the president has to explain to democrats why and whether he has fulfilled the promises, and what does he need to stay on stage to build the case for his re-election? let e let's find out. >> reporter: his oratory drove his ascent to the presidency. >> i say tonight, there is not a liberal america or a conservative america, but a united states of america. >> reporter: he has made a sport of outspeaking the adversary. >> john mccain says that he would like to follow osama bin laden to the gates of hell, but he won't follow him to the gates where he lives. >> reporter: and yet he faces the biggest challenge tonight, can barack obama top barack obama? >> the expectations game tonight works against the president. it is a speech that will be compared to the '08 speech. >> reporter: obama comes from a long line of presidential party candidates who faced similar challenges. recall bill clinton's snoozer of a speech. >> in closing -- [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: became history when it was replaced by the 1992 rousing speech. >> i have news for those defenders of greed and the status quo, your time has come and gone. >> reporter: it is up to obama to live up to clinton's second successful convention speech. >> tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century to meet our challenges and protect our values. >> the president has to make a case for his own re-election, and to remind voters why he re-elected him in the first place and what are the choices he has made that are helpful and successful despite the fact that there may have been some things that the president did not achieve. >> reporter: that means obama's convention speech needs to be more clinton than carter. >> as i have said many times before, we could have an american president who does not govern with negativism and fear, but the future. >> he is giving a speech in an environment where most people believe that the economy is not improving. so he's got to find the silver lining in all of this, and try and convince people that it is enough to give him that second term. >> my father was a foreign student. >> reporter: this time, no falling back on the compelling personal story that candidates often use to sell themselves to voters. and he'll no longer be making a presidential first as an african-american, so instead of hearing a lot of this -- >> the change we need doesn't come from washington, but change comes to washington. >> reporter: expect a lot of this. >> you need somebody who is going to wake up every single day and fight for american jobs and investment here in the united states. that is with what you need. that is why i'm running. >> reporter: tonight of course a big night with president obama and vice president joe biden accepting the party's nomination. our coverage of the convention starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern. president clinton vigorously defended the president's facts, and we will check it out. rahm emanuel is no longer working for the administration, but he is still defending his former boss. 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to avoid the overly political events. and bill clinton's performance did not disappoint the fellow democrats. around the convention hall, they were pushing back that in 2008, it is much different economy than he had. >> president obama started with a much weaker e kconomy than i had. and listen to me now. no president, no president. not me, and not any of my predecessors and no one could have fully repaired all of the damage that he found in just four years. >> i want to bring in tom foreman and that line got such an applause, i mean, that is really the main message here going forward for the next couple of months, but you are check facts and what is true and not true that we heard? >> well, it is a tricky line, because what they are i treeing t -- are trying to say that barack obama by natural heir is like me, but don't hold him to the same standard, because everything is so different right now. and everything is is so different so it is a difficult needle to thread right there, but one of the things that he lit the crowd up last night when the president was speaking is that he talked about the statistical rebuttal to all of the republican complaints about barack obama's job creation measure. saying, look h, look at t, look democrats and the republicans and you may see a different line. >> 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 24 million and democrats 42. >> oh, man, they loved this part and went crazy over this. look at the math first and make sure it is right. the bureau of labor statistics says in 1961 the total private employment was around $46 million in july of this year it was around $112 million so, yes, the difference is 66 million job, and yes, when you compare that to which presidents were in office at which times, you find that almost twice as many jobs were created under democrats than under republicans on all of these facts that bill clinton is right. now, as is often the case when we look at these, you do have to consider some context however. mr. clinton didn't pick 1961 out of a hat. the truth is, you can make the numbers do a lot of tricks. if you went back much further to include the giant post war boom under dwight eisenhower then the equation would change and so 1961 was a targeted date to produce a certain result that plays to the democrat's favor and that is what they are supposed to do. but in addition economic trends must be considered here. while influenced by presidents, the economy acts in its own way and spans different administration administrations, and that can make a big difference. for example president obama as the democrats point out was s saddled with a very bad economy coming out of george bush. they say that's not his fault. the opposite is also true. often presidents are saddled with very good economies in a changeover and they have benefited from it. many republicans will argue fervently that the reason that bill clinton did so well with jobs is because of the bush reagan years set up a positive business environment that paid off in the clinton years, and you can agree or disagree, but the economy does not start and stop at the beginning and the end of each administration and that is part of the equation that you have to consider in all of this. finally this one thing, population matters. the size of the population matters. since 1961, the country is about 50 million people bigger than it was back then. you have to think about, that suzanne, because the simple truth is that a much bigger country does and must produce many more jobs. the democrats have held the white house more in the past 20 years by a couple of years. >> right. >> and president bush had a disastrous turn at the end of the term that the jobs were lost, and so look at that, it is a more complex equation than what was presented there, but president clinton was overall correct in what he said. >> we don't expect that the president will get into the complexities, but certainly moving forward we expect to hear the details coming from the president and the surrogates about how to try to tackle this. it is the first time that you actually heard somebody lay it out in that kind of omethodical way and use those facts and figures. >> very compelling argument, but i do want to say to this, one of the most important things when you look at the economy over and over again that the presidents constantly get in trouble over the economy and they get credit for the economy, and they probably don't deserve either one as much as we tend to give it to them, because they can only do so much for good or ill. >> and they are not only coordinated candidate, but they are still an important part of the campaigning, the president's super pacs. over the next 50 years we need more food produced than the last 50 years combine and it is 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filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. on every one of our carda reminder...ate. that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers. we have members. american express. welcome in. i want to talk about money and how much it takes to run a campaign and how much it takes to actually get elected. it is a lot. nonpartisan group that tracks political spending predicts that when it is all over this is the most expensive election year ever for both democrats and the republicans. let's talk to bill burton about this and he used to be the deputy press secretary at the white house and now senior strategist for the super pac usa action and bill, you are now in the money game. and it is a lot of money. >> i am. >> and how much did you raise in the last month or so? >> $10 million in august which is the best month. >> why so important this go around and so expensive this go around to raise that kind of money to elect the next president this is. >> well, the supreme court changed some of the rules that you can fund elections and republicans got into it right away and spent $1 million in the midterms to defeat the democrats across the country, and so me and my colleague shawn left the white house and when we heard that carl roef and the koch brothers were going to wash over the president e's message, we wanted to raise money to get the message out what are the differences of president obama and mitt romney and how can we educate the voters about his business experience and how the educate the countries. >> and people go, oh, my god, think of the influence this money has on a campaign and really they take a look at the billionaires and the millionaires in the country, a small group who has an overwhelming influence on theed a veer t-- ed advertising and s much around, that you think that the system is corrupt? >> well, it is broken in a serious and profound way, and that a big difference of where the democrats and the republicans are on this. >> how so? >> if president obama is elected he will continue the fight for reform and work with folks to try to get it. he has been pushing for the disclose act and thinks we should have a constitutional amendment, and if mitt romney is elected with all tof the money coming in on his side, i doubt he will be for this kind of reform, but to paraphrase donald rumsfeld, you go to the election with the rules you have and not the rules you wish you had. so we are not going to give them any advantages and compete to win. >> and where the dollars so important in the next 60 or so days? >> well, we want to communicate with the voters abouthe issue that are important in the election and the economy and the jobs and we spend mostly on television advertising and online to reach the voters more engaged with social media and the state wes are primarily focussed on include florida and ohio and virginia and other swing states. >> how competitive are you when it comes to the romney campaign, are you outfund-raising and outspending the romney folks? >> no, they will have much more tremendous more money than we will, but we don't feel we need as much to make the case about mitt romney. because people know a lot about president obama, and they have strong opinions about how they feel he has done and they either agree or disagree and they know him of six years of basically living in their living rooms, so for mitt romney, not so much, and to educate the voters on how he made the money and the impact on the middle-class americans and what the policies would do for the middle-class americans is a much less expensive endeavor. >> we spent times over at the policy rooms for years and years when you were the deputy press secretary, would you come back to the white house and give up all of the money? >> no, i have a little boy and i enjoy spending time with him. >> thank you. good to see you. >> the democrats changed the platform but the way they did it is causing controversy and i want to take a look at it and talk to the committee national chairman. and a creamy yogurt flavored coating. quaker yogurt granola bars. treat yourself good. try this... bayer? this isn