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.

Five lines that killed on Day 1

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.

Rising star in Democratic Party first Latino to deliver keynote address

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.

Fact Check: About those 4.5 million jobs ...

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.

Secretly scheduled guests revealed

"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.

Obama praised; Romney pilloried at convention

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.

Speaker lineups show both parties want women vote

Sandra Fluke's Speech Made Republicans Crazy. Which Is Just What the Democrats Want. By Amanda Marcotte

For a short period yesterday evening, a moment of panicked confusion broke out among those of us obsessively watching and tweeting the Democratic National Convention, when Sandra Fluke did not go on stage as scheduled. It turns out that we needn't have worried; convention organizers made an apparently last minute decision to move Fluke's speech to later in the night, giving her a prime-time audience. It's a move that indicates Democrats have finally stopped freaking out at the first sign of reactionary histrionics, and instead have embraced the strategy of taking the fight to conservatives.

After decades of playing along with conservatives who dress up their hostility to female sexuality as nothing more than an interest in "life," Democrats have finally realized that baiting the anti-choice right into showing its misogynist, sex-phobic side may just be a winning strategy.

Apparently, all it takes to set off the desired response is a reasonably attractive 31-year-old law student who is willing to speak about contraception in public. Twitter absolutely exploded last night with conservatives returning to the claim that being a mild-mannered thirtysomething who is engaged to be married makes a woman a pervert and radical feminist beyond all imagining. The Moderate Voice and Salon collected some of the more creative right wing reactions on Twitter, and here are some of our "favorites":

Sandra Fluke Speech Text: Read The Democratic National Convention Remarks

Posted: 09/05/2012 10:01 pm Updated: 09/05/2012 11:54 pm

Sandra Fluke delivered her speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.

Below, the Georgetown University law student's remarks as prepared for delivery.

Some of you may remember that earlier this year, Republicans shut me out of a hearing on contraception. In fact, on that panel, they didn't hear from a single woman, even though they were debating an issue that affects nearly every woman. Because it happened in Congress, people noticed. But it happens all the time. Many women are shut out and silenced. So while I'm honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you. I'm here because I spoke out, and this November, each of us must do the same.

During this campaign, we've heard about the two profoundly different futures that could await women—and how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past. Warnings of that future are not distractions. They're not imagined. That future could be real.

In that America, your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. Who won't stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party. It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don't want and our doctors say we don't need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don't. We know what this America would look like. In a few short months, it's the America we could be. But it's not the America we should be. It's not who we are.

We've also seen another future we could choose. First of all, we'd have the right to choose. It's an America in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance; in which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives; in which we decide when to start our families. An America in which our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters—not his delegates or donors—and stands with all women. And strangers come together, reach out and lift her up. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here—and give me a microphone—to amplify our voice. That's the difference.

Over the last six months, I've seen what these two futures look like. And six months from now, we'll all be living in one, or the other. But only one. A country where our president either has our back or turns his back; a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward, or one that forces our generation to re-fight the battles they already won; a country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom, or one where that freedom doesn't apply to our bodies and our voices.

Sandra Fluke

Public Interest Law Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center

Thank You, Affordable Care Act!

Posted: 03/22/2012 1:49 pm

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with several media outlets in an effort to tell the stories of women who would be helped by comprehensive reproductive healthcare, particularly affordable access to contraception through insurance. While this experience has been emotionally and physically exhausting, I have been repeatedly moved by the hundreds of women and men who have contacted me to show support. Lest we forget where this conversation started, I would like to take this opportunity to take a step back to exactly two years ago and acknowledge the tremendous difference that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is making and will continue to make in women's lives everywhere.

This law, also known as health reform, will benefit over 45 million women in our country through increased access to preventive care services without copays and deductibles. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act's new requirements that private insurance and Medicare cover these services without cost-sharing, by the time the law is fully implemented in 2014, women will benefit from, among other services: mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, pre and post natal care, flu shots, regular well-baby, well-child and well-woman visits, domestic violence screening, and the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives.

If this seems too good to be true, think again. This is the product of women in action - this is what happens when women stand up for what they and their families need to be healthy and are finally heard by people at the highest ranks of our government. This is what it looks like when government works for us and prioritizes our health.

And just as we will not be silenced when we are verbally attacked for speaking out, we will not go back to a society without this care. My colleagues and friends at my university who struggle with polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, unintended pregnancy, and even the terrible consequences of sexual assault understand what it's like for someone else to make their health care decisions for them. New moms who need to space their children, young women who are starting their careers, and low income women who struggle to afford basic necessities understand the need to control their reproduction. I have tried to represent them by talking about their experiences - but any influence I might have is only due to their courage in coming forward.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, that courage is reaping as yet untold benefits. I look forward to the day when students at my university finally have the comprehensive reproductive health coverage they need to stay healthy. I look forward to never again hearing about a friend who lost her ovary to a tennis ball-sized cyst because she couldn't afford to keep paying for contraception out of pocket. I look forward to the unintended pregnancy rate in our country, which is stuck at half of all pregnancies, finally declining. I look forward to more women surviving breast and cervical cancer because they were diagnosed early. I look forward to the end of gender rating in insurance, which can inflate premiums for young women by 150% compared to their male counterparts, and which costs women of all ages an extra $1 billion per year. And I look forward to knowing that when my friends choose to start their families, they will not be faced with the 87% of individual insurance plans that do not currently cover maternity care, and they will not be labeled as having a "preexisting condition" if it turns out they need a C-section.

I know that when women have the opportunity, they will take care of their health, which in the end benefits both our families and our country. On this second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I express my gratitude and celebrate the new opportunity for healthy lives, before, during and after our reproductive years.

Sandra Fluke is a third-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center and has served as President of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice.

Follow Sandra Fluke on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SandraFluke

Nancy Cronk

Progressive Outreach, Colorado

Limbaugh Smackdown and Women Unite

When the GOP decided to create a fictitious "war on religion" to smear President Obama, and chose contraception coverage for employees of religiously-based hospitals and universities as their battle-ground, they had no idea what they were starting. Women across America realized it could potentially be a two-fer for Republicans -- not just an attack on the president's character, but also a pre-meditated, Rovian-style attempt to undermine the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

And they thought we wouldn't even notice. "Stupid women -- too busy raising children and buying hair products to notice some of their health care benefits are being taken away," must have been their thinking.

The argument that requiring religiously-based institutions and organizations to provide contraception coverage is an affront to the First Amendment fell on disgusted, disbelieving ears. The United States government requires people to do things that violate their spiritual beliefs every day. For example, a number of religions believe war is morally wrong, yet, every working adult is required to pay taxes which support the Department of Defense. Some religions find eating pork offensive, yet no one has declared that food off-limits under the school lunch program. Some faiths believe in healing through prayer, yet the government can, and does, require families to seek medical care for their dependent family members. With hundreds of religions in this country, and many levels of observance within each one, it is impossible to please everybody.

Freedom of religion is a straw-man argument, and American women's bullshit detectors are going off at record decibals. Add to the contraception debacle the many anti-choice bills being presented in states all over the nation this year, and you get millions of women madder than Tom Tancredo lost in the middle of a Cinco De Mayo crowd with no one willing to give him directions in English.

How angry are American women? When Rush Limbaugh personally attacked law student Sandra Fluke on his radio program last week, calling her a "slut," women took to the Internet to boycott his sponsors. Within three days, he lost 15 sponsors and two radio stations (and counting).

Meanwhile, women are organizing all over this country, in ways I've not seen since Gloria Steinem and her contempories in the 1970s. When Tea-Party Republicans held a hearing on contraception that did not include any women on the panel, Nina Elansi posted an angry YouTube video, produced in her kitchen. Within hours, it was seen by Karen Teegarden in Birmingham, Mich., who decided to do something about it.

Using Facebook, Karen declared there would be a nation-wide March against the War on Women. Word spread quickly. Within a few days, organizers were volunteering to plan marches all in every state. One of the first was Colorado, where Colorado Springs activists passed the baton to Denver activists.

Two weeks later, the National March Against the War on Women is becoming well-organized. Volunteers have emerged in 50 states; the orginal organizing page has nearly 19,000 members, and is growing rapidly. At last count, the Colorado march page has more than 700 members. Perhaps the most astonishing sign of success is our leadership groups (made up of volunteers) have as many registered Republicans as Democrats and Independents... and some are men.

As Republican member "Jane" from Douglas County put it today:

I'm a Republican and I have always been a Republican because I believe in conservative fiscal policy. None of the Republican presidential candidates are worth taking seriously -- I couldn't vote for any of them. And, I'm a mother. I am protecting my daughter's right to make decisions about her own body. I'm thrilled to be involved with this movement.

Please join us to Unite Against the War On Women. March with us on April 28. Show the world Americans will not tolerate women being treated as second-class citizens. Do it for your mothers, sisters, nieces, daughters and granddaughters. And do it for mine.

Follow Nancy Cronk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Nancy Cronk

For Women's Rights, Another Round of Defensive Victories

Emily Douglas on March 15, 2012 - 6:06 PM ET

In recent months, a bubbling stew of Republican extremism, tone-deafness and rank misogyny aimed at a series of poorly chosen targets (Planned Parenthood, Sandra Fluke, breast cancer activists who also use birth control) have turned pro-choice women into a potent and wide-awake political force. A DCCC appeal decrying the “war on women” raised over $1 million. In last week’s cover story, Elizabeth Mitchell reported that Planned Parenthood drew 1.3 million new supporters in 2011 and raised $3 million in the wake of the Komen controversy alone. Viewed one way, what should be happening is happening: women are waking up(E.J. Graff), making their displeasure known, and wielding political capital accordingly (Irin Carmon). The attacks on birth control are turning off independent and moderate women, who are now taking a second look at the once-beleaguered president. And Obama will be ready for them: he is staking his re-election in large part on women voters.

Moments like this are clarifying, and can act as a teaching tool. Americans, who strongly support access to birth control and the birth control coverage mandate in specific, are catching on to Republican hostility to a key tenet of contemporary American culture. The attacks on birth control are demonstrable proof that the religious right, including the Republican presidential candidates, intends, at root, to re-impose archaic sexual mores and roll back the clock on women’s equality. It is about women, not about unborn babies. Irin credits the amped-up outrage to the “growing realization that these aren’t isolated incidents, but rather systematic attacks based on a worldview that is actively hostile to female self-determination.”

But we can’t forget the conversation we’re having is about defending what we have, not demanding what we don’t. The Affordable Care Act will increase the number of women who, directly or indirectly, access birth control with government support, but the federal government’s family planning program, Title X, already exists and enjoys broad public support. By contrast, the using of healthcare reform as a moment to reopen the debate over public funding for abortion in the debate over healthcare reform was a non-starter. The compromise we ended up with will require women receiving government assistance to obtain insurance through the exchanges to sign up for a separate rider that covers abortion—paid for with their own money. Reconsidering the Hyde Amendment was not up for discussion.

I’m reminded of a superb Nation editorial that ran just after Komen reversed its decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood: “But the Komen reversal, like the defeat of Mississippi’s Fetal Personhood Amendment this past fall, while sweet, was ultimately a defensive victory. The campaign succeeded not in advancing reproductive healthcare but in preventing a loss of such services. It was fueled not by an ambitious vision but by outrage…”

Obama’s #1 pitch to women voters—that the first bill he signed helps ensure equal pay for equal work—exemplifies this problem. Yes, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act corrects a great injustice—the requirement that employees file a pay discrimination claim within an impossibly short window of time since the first discriminatory paycheck. But the reality is that this only corrected a harmful Supreme Court decision from a year before—and doesn’t address the other factors that drive pay discrimination.

The news today that 31 percent more women are living in states with abortion restrictions than did in 2000 is a timely reminder that we’re living in a world not of our own making. The politics of the moment may be baffling—as Cecile Richards said recently, Mitt Romney’s “attacks [on birth control] make no sense given where the American voter is.” But the underlying reality—that, on a national level, those of us who supports women’s rights aren’t setting the agenda—is crystal clear.

Related Topics: Reproductive Rights | Conservatives and the American Right