Democratic National Convention Coverage; Live Coverage of Obama's Speech in Norfolk, Virginia
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- right here on the convention floor. And right up there is the podium where the speaker takes center stage. A convention is carefully choreographed. Every primetime speaker gets a chance to do a run-through on stage and get a feel for how it's going to be before the night they actually make their speech. This is the perspective speaker's seat. When they're up on stage, these seats would be filled with people and over there is what they're reading on the teleprompter. To get this show on TV, online, and on the radio, engineers spent weeks laying down thousands of feet of cable to get this convention plugged in. (voice-over): With the production value this high, the stakes are even higher for the political party. In Charlotte, I'm Sandra Endo.</s>ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And CNN NEWSROOM with Suzanne Malveaux starts right now.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats get ready to make their opening arguments in the case for re-electing President Barack Obama. I'm Suzanne Malveaux, live from the site of the Democratic National Convention here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Now, it was just a week ago, we heard Ann Romney's speech on the personal side of her husband. Well, tonight is Michelle Obama's turn. She's not going to have to work as hard to convince folks that President Obama is likable. Take a look at this recent poll. This is a "Washington Post" poll. Sixty-one percent of registered voters say that the president seems more friendly and likable compared to 27 percent for Romney. We're going to have more ahead, what we can expect from the First Lady. Also coming up, the spotlight tonight on a rising star in the Democratic Party. We're talking about San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. He's going to be following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Democrats hope he's going to appeal to the country's growing Latino population. Here's a look at the man and the mission that he's facing.</s>MAYOR JULIAN CASTRO (D), SAN ANTONIO, TX: It's been my pleasure to serve as mayor.</s>MALVEAUX (voice-over): Meet Julian Castro, popular Latino mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and a darling of the Democratic base, who will deliver the keynote speech at the National Convention in Charlotte. Democrats have a long tradition of rolling out the party's rising stars for such an honor.</s>THOMAS BASTILE, POLITICAL SPEECHWRITER: The keynote speech is to set the tone for the entire convention.</s>GOV. MARIO CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We will have a new president of the United States, a Democrat born not to the blood of kings but to the blood of pioneers and immigrants.</s>BASTILE: Bill Clinton gave the keynote speech. Barack Obama has given a keynote speech.</s>CASTRO: I'm Julian Castro.</s>MALVEAUX: Castro knows the burden is on him to appeal to Latinos as well as inspire a broader audience of voters.</s>CASTRO: The choice that we have to make in this election is whether to continue to invest so that everyone can reach the American dream or whether we're going to scale back from that.</s>MALVEAUX: With an estimated 12 million Latino voters expected to cast ballots in November, both campaigns are fighting hard for their attention.</s>MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate.</s>MALVEAUX: That's why Rodolfo de la Garza, a professor at Columbia University, says the choice of Julian Castro to deliver the keynote was smart.</s>RODOLFO DE LA GARZA, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Castro brings, as a speaker, a number of important characteristics. He is smart. He's well educated. He is politically literate. He has a vision and he has ambition. He raised in a highly political family in San Antonio. He understands the limit of ethnic politics.</s>CASTRO: There's a good story to tell.</s>MALVEAUX: Now he'll have to add persuasive speaker to his resume.</s>MALVEAUX: Speeches tonight by Julian Castro and the First Lady Michelle Obama are going to set the tone for the convention. Now, Democrats are going to highlight the president's accomplishments, making the case for giving him another four years in office. So what do they actually need to say? I want to bring in our CNN contributor, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile. Nice to see you, Donna. I know you're tweeting already. You've got a special pass on the floor, is that right?</s>DONNA BRAZILE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I'm an officer of the convention. But, you know, the other pass I was given the first day I arrived, and you know what it says? I'm a volunteer. I'm a volunteer for the Democratic Party. I'm very honored to be here. This is my eighth Democratic convention. Of course, I've been to three Republican convention. At this convention, I get to cast my vote for Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. I know you're very excited. I want to talk about two people. Obviously, we're talking about San Antonio's mayor. We'll get to that. But let's talk about Michelle Obama, because you and I were here four years ago. And the country was getting a chance to know her, getting to know the president. It was a tough time, I think, for her. I think that the nation was trying to figure out who she was. There was a lot of criticism from Republicans about whether or not she was patriotic. There was a lot of defenses from the campaign. And she has since emerged and changed this image. I want you to listen to -- this is an exchange with Michelle Obama from four years ago and how she tried to portray them.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: At first I thought, what kind of name is Barack Obama? And I found out that he grew up in Hawaii. And I found that strange as a girl who grew up on the south side of Chicago. I had never met anybody who lived in Hawaii. That was always where you vacationed. It wasn't where you were from. And I find out that he was biracial. So my assumption was this guy's got to be kind of weird. All right? Probably a little nerdy. I'd already sort of created an image of this very intellectual nerd. And I was prepared to be polite and all that. And then he walked into my office on that first day and he was cuter than I thought he'd be. So that was a first positive impression. But I had to take him out to lunch on that first day and we got to -- we had to talk. And he told me more about his background and he fleshed it out a bit more. I found out that his father was from Kenya, his mother was a white woman from Kansas and he had spent part of his life in Indonesia. And I just found him intriguing.</s>MALVEAUX: All right, Donna. You don't have to laugh about my hairdo from four years ago.</s>BRAZILE: Don't laugh about my gray hairs. You look good.</s>MALVEAUX: Everybody's a little bit grayer four years later. But tell us, what does Michelle Obama need to say tonight? What does she need to emphasize and focus when it comes to her husband?</s>BRAZILE: You know, she's in a very unique position. As First Lady of the United States, she can talk to us about President Obama as the husband, the man, the leader he is. I mean, she knows the trials, the tribulations of being in the White House, being there each and every evening, afternoon, when he comes home -- hearing, I'm sure, some of the things that he's going through. She's his confidant. She's also in her own way a remarkable woman -- a woman of tremendous grace. She is someone that has gotten us all to move a little bit quicker, whether it's exercising, planting vegetable gardens at home, although I still want to talk to her about the arugula thing. I would prefer okra at the White House. But that's another story. But, you know, her dedication and devotion to military families. You know, Mrs. Obama, Dr. Biden, Jill Biden, they take their word very seriously. In going out there, reaching out to military families, husbands and wives whose spouses are serving our country overseas. So, tonight, she's going to do what she did four years ago. She's going to say, you know, this man like, Mrs. Romney, I fell in love with, he's a great leader, he's a wonderful and remarkable human being. But more importantly, I think she's going to help us see the way forward. Forward.</s>MALVEAUX: And she has the goal, and the task -- because I know a lot of people are looking at this, at humanizing him. And people see Mitt Romney and Ann Romney was clearly trying to do that during their convention. They're going to look to her to do the same. I want to play a quick clip on how she tried four years ago. Take a listen.</s>M. OBAMA: Barack still has the same pants and shirts that he had when we got married which is why I crack up when people say he's one of the best dressed men. I think maybe that means he looks good in his clothes because he's tall and thin. But trust me, if you look up close, those pants have a hole in the back and the shoes -- I was looking at his shoes the other day. I was like, you need new shoes.</s>MALVEAUX: It's been a while since, I mean, he's gotten new shoes and everything seems to be going well in that direction. But what more do we need to learn or know about this president, about the family? Because I think we've gotten a pretty good sense of who they are over the last four years.</s>BRAZILE: We've seen them out at sporting events. I live in Washington, D.C. So, of course, we know the president takes his wife to the movies. They go to restaurants. It's always amazing when you live in Washington, D.C., and have the first couple there. When you go to a restaurant, they say, you know, President Obama, Mrs. Obama was here. He takes his wife out. He takes his two girls out. They go and watch the basketball games, baseball games. He's a, I think, like most family men, he cares very deeply about his two daughters. He's, of course, protective, but at times I think he's been a little nervous because, of course, one of his young girls is now a teen. She's a young woman. And so, this is a man who cared deeply about all families, our nation's children. And I think tonight, we'll also see President Obama as dad in chief as well.</s>MALVEAUX: I want to play a clip here, this is of Ann Romney. Obviously during the RNC, she had the same kind of tone, if you will, in her speech in introducing Mitt Romney, humanizing him. But then the last couple days we've seen a change here. I want you to listen to this.</s>ANN ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S WIFE: I'm hearing from so many women that may not have considered voting for a Republican before that said, it's time for the grown-up to come. The man that's going to have -- that's going to take this very seriously and take the future of our children very, very seriously. And I very much believe, Candy, that it is going to be an economic election and I think a lot of women may be voting this cycle around in a different way than they usually are.</s>MALVEAUX: A lot of people are a little surprised. She's not saying it, herself, but she's quoting somebody else saying it's time for the grown-ups to take over here. Usually it's not the First Lady who's in that attack dog position. Is that something you think Michelle Obama can get away with?</s>BRAZILE: I don't think Mrs. Obama will even try to go in that direction. Look, we have a very pro-woman platform. We have a pro- woman health care platform. We have a pro-family and children platform. So I think Mrs. Obama is really going to talk about our nation's children. One of the first things the president did was sign the Lilly Ledbetter Act. That matters to working women in this country that they're paid the same amount of money as men are paid. The president also has been a champion for child health care and that matters in a country when we have so many children, through no fault of their own, fall into poverty. So I think Mrs. Obama's tone tonight is one of welcoming, one to renew America's promise, one to keep our families strong, safe and secure, and, again, this is an effort to tell President Obama's story, the things he's been up to and hopefully she'll make us laugh. Mrs. Romney promised that we would laugh. I didn't laugh a lot last week. I want to laugh. And you know what? When I leave this convention, I want to dance. I want to dance. That's how I hope she gives us. But I want to feel good about where we're taking this country over the next four years because President Obama will be rehired.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Well, Dana, we'll see if people are laughing and dancing tonight. Obviously, it's a big kickoff tonight. Good to se you as always. CNN's primetime coverage of the Democratic National Convention kicking off at 7:00 eastern tonight with colleagues, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and the rest of the CNN political team. And during the 10:00 hour, First Lady Michelle Obama is addressing the delegates. Midnight, Piers Morgan, he's wrapping up the first night of the Democratic National Convention, all tonight on CNN. Health care, gay marriage, abortion rights -- well, they're big controversial issues on the DNC platform this year.