Charlotte,
North Carolina (CNN) -- Democrats
opened their convention with attacks against Republicans and a robust defense
of President Barack Obama and capped it with a loving portrait by his wife,
first lady Michelle Obama.
Here are five things we learned:
1. Expectations? Beaten
Remember when the Democratic
National Convention was supposed to be a disaster of untold proportions?
That's the story Republicans have
been telling for months. Convention organizers were struggling to raise money.
Democrats are disillusioned with Obama. The North Carolina Democratic Party is
in shambles.
The GOP succeeded in lowering the
bar so much that the only thing Democrats had to do Tuesday was look into the
camera without drooling.
Instead, speaker after speaker
invigorated the Charlotte crowd with searing attacks against Mitt Romney and a
robust call to arms for President Barack Obama.
Then, as the night concluded, a
beaming Michelle Obama spoke
eloquently about her husband and reminded both the convention audience and
viewers at home why she has an approval rating in the mid-60s4: reveals who you are
rick: We need to grow a backbone
"When people ask me whether
being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when
it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is
still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago," she said to
cheers.
Her testimonial about her
husband's devotion to faith, family and hard work -- and her recollection of
their shared humble beginnings -- was the indisputable highlight of the night
for Democrats eager to draw a human contrast with Romney, the stiff and
buttoned-up Republican nominee.
2. Ted Kennedy still a powerful
Democratic voice The
late Ted Kennedy, who died in 2010 from brain cancer, still has a voice in
2012, particularly in the campaign against Mitt Romney.
Nephew Joe Kennedy, who is
running for Congress in Massachusetts, introduced a video tribute to the late
"liberal lion," and linked his uncle to Obama.
"Four years ago, Uncle Teddy
marveled at the grit and grace of a young senator who embodied the change our
country sorely needed," Kennedy said. "As we pause today to remember
Senator Ted Kennedy, we recommit ourselves to the leader he entrusted to carry
on our cause."
Following highlights of the
senator's work for veterans' rights, raising the minimum wage, health care and
his fight to protect Social Security and Medicare, the video pivots to footage
from a debate in his 1994 Senate race against Mitt Romney.
"I believe that abortion
should be safe and legal in this country. I believe that since Roe V. Wade has
been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it. And I sustain and
support that law, and the right of a woman to make that choice," Romney
said at the debate.
Romney has since changed
positions and now opposes abortion rights, a switch that Republican primary
opponents used to call him a flip-flopper on that and other issues and that
Obama's campaign has similarly used.
Responding to Romney's answer at
the time, Kennedy hit back with an argument still made to this day by Romney's
critics, accusing the Republican of pandering for votes.
"I have supported Roe V.
Wade. I am pro-choice," Kennedy said. "My opponent is multiple
choice."
The video also included a clip of
Kennedy railing against his then-opponent for aligning himself too close to
Democratic views: "Now he's for minimum wage. Now he's for education
reform. If we give him two more weeks, he may even vote for me, because those
are things that I am for."
During the 2012 primaries, Romney
was constantly on defense in his effort to prove his conservative chops.
Resurfacing a Kennedy quote like that could remind viewers of those same qualms
the base has about Romney's conservative credentials.
"I thought that video was
one of the most effective pieces of political communication I've seen in a
long, long time. That was eviscerating, bringing back the debate like that in
this hall," CNN contributor and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos
said.
3. Strickland resurrected
Back in 2010, in the waning days
of his unsuccessful bid to be re-elected governor of Ohio, a fired up Ted
Strickland downed a 5-Hour Energy on the campaign trail -- an unusual move for
a soft-spoken former minister from a town called Duck Run.
It looked like Strickland might
have tossed back another energy drink before taking the stage on Tuesday: The
man who was passed over for the job of Democratic National Committee Chairman
in 2011 showed the White House why that decision might have been a mistake.
Strickland embraced the role of
partisan brawler, riling up the convention audience with barbed,
populist-themed attacks against Romney.
He accused Romney of straight-up
"lying" about Obama's record on welfare. He said Romney is obsessed
with "Bermuda shell corporations" where he can hide his investments
without paying taxes in the United States. And he said that if Mitt was Santa
Claus, "he'd fire the elves and liquidate the inventory."
"Mitt Romney has so little
economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport," Strickland
boomed. "It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands, and winters on
the slopes of the Swiss Alps."
Tough talk? Yes. But it blew the
roof off the arena in Charlotte -- just what the Democrats needed on the
opening night of the convention.
And it wasn't just the convention
crowd that loved it. Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago exploded in cheers
after Strickland finished his speech, a source in the office told CNN.
Not bad for a 71-year-old.
4. Will auto bailout drive Dems
to victory?
Obama's bailout of the General
Motors and Chrysler was given prominent placement in prime time on the first
night of the convention. It's a strategy that the Obama campaign thinks could
be the difference in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Michigan,
major bases for the auto industry.
Strickland spent most of his
speech in the 9 p.m. Eastern hour preaching about the auto bailouts, using
personal examples.
"Ina Sidney is a grandmother
who lost her ability to provide for her family when they closed down the auto
plant in Perrysburg, Ohio. Ina says thanks to Barack Obama for having the
courage to back an industry that others had given up on. She's an autoworker
and a breadwinner once again," shared Strickland.
The bailout was started under
President George W. Bush in 2008, but the next year Obama grabbed the keys to
the program, managing and funding the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, pushing them
both into bankruptcy.
"The auto industry supports
one of every eight jobs in Ohio, and it's alive and growing in America
again," said Strickland.
He attacked the GOP presidential
nominee over his opposition to the bailouts, saying "Mitt Romney proudly
wrote an op-ed entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." You know, if he
had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and
across the nation."
Romney opposed the government
bailout and pushed for a privately financed, managed bankruptcy of the two
automakers.
Two speakers later, more praise
from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff during Obama's
first two years in office.
"I remember when the
president received a report that the auto industry had a few weeks before
collapse. We met in the Roosevelt Room late into the night. Some of the
president's advisers said that in order to save General Motors, you had to let
Chrysler go under. Others said it was throwing good money after bad," said
Emanuel. "Only the president suggested going all-in to save the industry.
Rising above all the voices in Washington, President Obama listened to the
voices that mattered to him most-the voices of the auto workers."
And Emanuel followed Strickland
in attacking the GOP challenger, saying "where Mitt Romney was willing to
turn his back on Akron, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio, the president said, 'I've got
your back'."
In the 10 p.m. Eastern hour,
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley also touted the auto bailouts and Michelle Obama
also praised her husband's role, saying he "fought to get the auto
industry back on its feet."
A Gallup poll from February
indicated that a slight majority of Americans disapproved of the auto bailouts,
but the first night of the Democratic convention made it pretty obvious that
the Obama campaign thinks touting them will motor them to victory in Ohio,
where 18 electoral votes are up for grabs, and also in neighboring Michigan,
another competitive state (with 16 electoral votes) that happens to be home to
the American auto industry.
"Let me give you two reasons
the auto bailout was issue Number 1 on opening night -- no, three reasons:
Michigan, Ohio and unions," CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy
Crowley said.
5. Democrats not ceding any
ground on women's vote
While polls repeatedly show Obama
has a strong lead over Romney among women, Democrats indicated Tuesday night
they're not taking that margin for granted. Speakers routinely reminded viewers
that their party was the one siding with women -- a narrative Democrats have
been pushing all year in their effort to frame the GOP as anti-women.
"For the Democratic women of
the House, our work is not about the next election but rather the next
generation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on stage, flanked by
several congresswomen.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York
added: "When President Obama made health care a right, not a privilege for
all Americans, that was a change that brought hope to millions. Now women are
getting the preventative services that they deserve, including birth
control."
When women were asked in a recent
CNN/ORC International poll which candidate "cares more about the needs of
people like you," 58% of women chose Obama, while 36% chose Romney.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
also came up numerous times throughout the night, hailed not only as a
groundbreaking law for equal pay but also as Obama's first piece of legislation
he signed into law.
Ledbetter herself delivered a
rousing testimony, saying the president came to her defense after she lost her
battle when the Supreme Court threw out her case against Goodyear and Rubber
Co. in 1997.
"But with President Obama on
our side, even though I lost before the Supreme Court, we won," she said.
"I think it says something about his priorities that the first bill he put
his name on has my name on it too."
The night capped off with the
highly-anticipated speech from first lady Michelle Obama, who pointed
frequently to her husband's love for their two daughters and made sure viewers
knew that he was a proponent for women's issues.
"He believes that women are
more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health
care, that's what my husband stands for," she said.
