we need bill clinton to come out and do only what bill clinton can do. he can make the most complicated economic argument seem as simple and as easy as pie. and we need that because reality is we are in a complex economic situation. normal democrats who are not super powered people like bill clinton stumble over very simple stuff even asking are your better off, worse off? bill clinton will knock it out of the park tonight. i got my popcorn. >> i think that's right. i think we all do. levity aside for just a second, i think bill clinton actually has quite a difficult and quite an important role. it's not just to say, yes, i'm in obama's camp now. last night we got wonderful speeches. julian castro was fantastic. his daughter was even just so adorable. michelle proved once again that she is an exceptionally brilliant and beautiful woman. however, both of those speeches were purely emotional in their appeal. i love this man. you can trust this man. the american dream. what bill clinton now has to do is actually make a policy argument. why is it that barack

bill clinton needs to be loved but also to be needed. boy, does president obama need bill clinton to make a very strong case. >> jake, i want to point out the fund-raising, the first line, don't take anything for granted. don't think you can wait until the debate. we have to point out to everybody, october 3rd. again, we are so close to these debates. >> the fund-raiser is so important, it is a divisive advantage over the campaign. now, we're seeing the video introducing president bill clinton. >> from cokie, another thing that the president has to do, it seems to me, kennedy voters now in they're 60s, 70s, hard to believe. john mccain did well among them so he's representing tonight. >> it's true, he's become the senior spokesman. the former bad boy of the democratic party and according to some has now become clearly a senior spokesman. and those voters that he did win when they were younger, he's going to have to appeal to them tonight and a very important appeal because as you say, the older voters are the people that obama is having

bill clinton is still alive and bill clinton is a surrogate for barack obama. what are you guys doing? that said, i think john raises a really good point, patty. we played tape of the president earlier this week. he was asked to grade himself. he said, incomplete. here you have a man who brought america to the thickets of the swamp of policy seamlessly, seemingly effortlessly. the question is, what does the obama administration need to or what does the campaign need to do? what lessons cant they learn frm bill clinton last night? >> i mean, to an extent bill clinton also said the record is incomplete. he just made a very strong case for keeping the incumbent in office in order to complete what has already been started. he said something that the white house has not been able to do, that nobody, he included himself, not even i, bill clinton, which is a big admission for bill clinton, could have fixed the economy in the space of four years but obama has moved it in the right direction. speaking to democrats here over the past couple of days, i think what bill cli

bill clinton just put on a clinic. he explained complicated policy in ways the ordinary guy, the ordinary woman could understand and he explained, i think, some of the issues people have been concerned about. jobs, where are we on jobs? he explained how we got here and he explained what president obama has done and he explained why it would have been impossible. he said even he couldn't do it. to fix eight years of rot in four years. i thought that was critical. >> by the way, sebelius was even out last night. he has said they're not under the hat check. they can come out and campaign. do you have any sense they're going to follow one heavyweights, principals like the first lady? >> i think so, chris. the key to this is bill clinton as governor and as a rising politician learned how to explain, defend, and extol the role of government in american life in a conservative era. he did it. he was the guy rising up. >> out of arkansas. rising up against the reagan tie. how to explain it to the guys in the gas station. and mo

bill clinton talked about that last night. let's listen. >> in tampa, the republican argument against the president re-election was actually pretty simple. pretty snappy. it went something like this. we left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough so fire him and put us back in. >> now you were a key player in the 1996 reelect of bill clinton. barack obama approach this is convention like you did an incumbent. what does he need to do tonight? what does he need to say to the american people? >> i think building on this platform that president clinton has provided if you will as the great explainer of what has happened for the last four years and providing that narrative, now president obama needs to do in my view exactly what president clinton did in 1996. you go back and look at his acceptance speech which i did work on. it is like a second state of the union address for the country. he is talking about the agenda what he is going to do in his second term and i think that now if you think about this as a narrativ

. >>> please welcome president bill clinton. >> bill clinton's speech at the democratic national convention let the world know what it's known for a long time he's the most popular figure in america. >> as another president once said, there they go again. >> but clinton's impact is not just here in america but it's global. >> i love my life now. it's just fun. >> he's taken whatever capital he had as an ex-president and has put it trying to do real good in the world. >> bill clinton is a new kind of world leader. >> he's the single most extraordinary competent politician i've ever met. >> grandly ambitious planetary in scale. >> i want to keep being very active in the things i cared about as president where i can still have an influence. >> when he lands in a foreign country, people go wild. he's such a great ambassador for the united states of america today. >> his one phrase that people have said and that's he's president to the world. >>> 62 heads of state. hundreds of corporate leaders. multinational types. movie stars. an unparalleled collection of the powerful and celebrated gather to

you think about bill clinton and al gore. al gore was able to turn around and win the democratic nomination in 2000. what's interesting here is joe biden is making it very clear now that he's interested in being in the mix for 2016. the placement of this speech tonight, i think, is very telling about the challenges he faces there. the modern traditionist for the president to go one night and the presidential candidate to go the other night. last night it was supposed to be joe biden's night. instead, it was president clinton's night. one of the effects of bill clinton's speech, you saw how there's this clinton renaissance going on. it's really setting up hillary clinton as a front runner like we've never seen before. so i'm really interested to see how he plays this speech tonight. this is a guy who obviously wants obama to get re-elected but also wants to be in the mix for 2016. >> and i think joe biden will clearly make the sort of every-man pitch that you're all talking about. willie, let's go back to bill clinton. i think

but bill clinton went straight for it. >> bill clinton countered issue by issue, the core republican question of whether or not americans are better off under president obama, getting one of his biggest applause lines on the issue of debt. >> the romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility. the numbers just don't add up. i mean, consider this, what would you do if you had this problem, somebody says we got a big debt problem, we have to reduce the debt. what's the first thing he says we're going to do. to reduce the debt we'll have another $5 trillion in tax cuts. heavily weighted to upper income people. so we'll make the debt hole bigger before we start to get out of it. now, when you say what are you going to do about this $5 trillion, you just added on, they say we'll make it up, by eliminating loopholes in the tax code. so then you ask, well, which loopholes and how much? you know what they say? see me about that after the election. now people ask me all the time, how we got four surplus budgets in a row? what new ideas did we bring to washington. i always give a on

classic bill clinton. go with the flow, ad lib. i mean, the teleprompter froze at one point, he carried on. >> it was ad libbed, but also deeply considered. clinton put his finger on the h-bomb of this election, and that is the issue of nursing homes. the ryan/romney plan proposes to hold harmless people who are seniors or over 55 from any cuts to medicare. seniors vote in enormous numbers. it might seem like they have nothing to worry about. but the ryan/romney plan proposes to make big cuts in medicaid, that is the program that increasingly pays for more and more of nursing home care. by talking about nursing homes, clinton put the senior vote back in contention. by reminding them of their fears. people congratulate bill clinton too much for this speech. it's important to remember, that the reason it was powerful was because of the strategic decision by republicans to endorse the ryan plan. they didn't have to do that. and some of us have been pleading with them for a year, do not do this, do not commit this election. do not make

give us some bill. bill clinton. >> bill clinton? >> yeah. tonight, give us a preview. >> i can hardly hear you. >> give us a preview of tonight. >> of what he would do? >> he would say there's nothing wrong with america. it cannot be fixed by what is right with america. i swear to god. >> and i'm curious as to whether donald trump is watching this at home. do you think? do you think? >> trump, he's dying to be here. >> yeah. >> what is it about trump and the hair? have you figured it out? >> i don't know. we used to call it the onion loaf. and it didn't seem to bother him at all. >> the onion loaf? >> yeah. like my hair is an onion loaf. it's the onion loaf. >> do you say huge the way he says it. >> huge! >> one more time. huge. >> huge! >> okay. that's enough. daryl hammond is coming back at midnight. we're going to be here having fun after everything. you'll do bill clinton tonight after bill clinton. eugene robinson, good sport. >>> ahead we'll look at bill clinton taking the stage and what it could be for this convention. you're watching

much of bill clinton. we love him, we work for him and we got him elected, first at governor and did so much. and you know how that turned out. so there is no question that he can provide support to president obama for a second term and that's what we're here for. >> mr. tommy roebuck, thank you to speak with you. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> the entire arkansas delegation very excited to hear from the former president tonight. let's send it right back to you, wolf. >> not just in arkansas. all across this huge arena here. thank you very much, soledad. one prominent democrat, nowhere to be seen right here in charlotte. we're talking about hillary clinton. traveling in asia, keeping up a longstanding tradition of secretaries of state being above partisan politics, but our own jessica yellin had a chance to interview her for her excellent documentary "obama revealed." she is in this unique position, work senators president, but married to a former president. >> that's right. as she said, a once in a lifetim

that is the target for bill clinton tonight. there is one thing that is not in doubt, and that is that this audience is going to love hearing for the former president. you are expecting are rousing acceptance. >> we will have more coverage on the day barack obama speaks. colonel gaddafi's former spy chief is on trial tonight, facing charges of crimes against humanity. one of the most feared members of the regime was arrested in march. he has been accused of ordering the murder of political opponents and has been linked to the lockerbie bombing the reagan the lockerbie bombing. waxman -- has been linked to the lockerbie bombing. >> they are chanting for justice and revenge. the libyan prime minister called him the right arm of old regime. the army chief of staff sent the prisoner was confident he would have a fair trial. libya can still be chaotic. in the violence before just a year ago, he slipped away. , nowd the colonel's son also in custody, awaiting trial. in 2009, states welcomed by the convicted lockerbie bomber when he wa

clinton has become the rock star and tonight is going to be bill clinton night. >> in recent gallup polls president clinton had a 60 percent approval rating and president obama has a 53 percent approval rating. >> they probably won't mention that part. >> they are bringing out the right person at the right time. >> norah o'donnell with cbs this morning is down there on the convention floor. nora. >> scott, we are going to see former president bill clinton call barack obama a champion of the middle class. that has been part of the theme of this election and as bob just mentioned it is an effort to court working class voters we have seen polls that show mitt romney is ahead of barack obama by about 13, 14 points among those types of voters and those voters are particularly important in states like ohio, a key battle ground state, and so i think what you will see is bill clinton, of course, the guy who is known as the man from hope is going to ask voters to once again trust the guy who promised hope and change in the last election. advisors to bill clinton told me today that he is goin

>> of course from bill clinton's perspective, it's always about bill clinton. i think that goes without saying. in this case, their priorities are perfectly aligned here. they both -- each one needs the other as much and a victory for obama works in both of their interests. that's why this whole idea of drying -- trying to drive a wedge between the two of them by republicans backfirefires on the welfare argument and taxes argument and economy argument. i think they've basically just heated up. will clinton outshine obama? of course. he's a super nova. he'll outshine him tonight. but the glow is going to benefit obama on election day. >> there's all this talk they don't like each other they don't get along. isn't politics about self-interest and what you want to do in terms of making your mark on history? >> well, yes. i think dana put it well. politics is about finding where your self-interests overlap. the vin diagram. the romney campaign isn't certain how that works. in this case it's almost a perfect circle from what obama wants and clinton wants. it's a per

bill clinton's loving it. every single minute of it for 48 minutes. it was everything you expect of clinton. it had all the passion. he certainly was eloquent in taking apart republicans. he was at times self indulgent and at times went on and on and on. it's what we come to know as bill clinton. >> what a lot of people said last night and say again this morning that bill clinton articulated in a way that obama campaign itself has not articulated the case for president obama and against mitt romney. do you agree with that? it sounds a little patronizing. like president obama needs bill clinton to take care of him on that. >> i do agree it with. it makes you wonder, the two men talk more often than most people thing and bill clinton loves to give strategic advice. it's surprising he has all got arguments in his head yet you don't hear any of them from president obama or the top surrogates. there is a lot democrats can learn from this speech. i will say as a note of caution, there is a pretty big disconnect between the speech that bill clinton gave and

classic bill clinton. go with the flow, ad lib. i mean, the teleprompter froze at one point, he carried on. >> it was ad libbed, but also deeply considered. clinton put his finger on the h-bomb of this election, and that is the issue of nursing homes. the ryan/romney plan proposes to hold harmless people who are seniors or over 55 from any cuts to medicare. seniors vote in enormous numbers. it might seem like they have nothing to worry about. but the ryan/romney plan proposes to make big cuts in medicaid, that is the program that increasingly pays for more and more of nursing home care. by talking about nursing homes, clinton put the senior vote back in contention. by reminding them of their fears. before people congratulate bill clinton too much for this speech and it was a good speech. it's important to remember, that the reason it was powerful was because of the strategic decision by republicans to endorse the ryan plan. they didn't have to do that. and some of us have been pleading with them for a year, do not do this, do not c

bill clinton is a special person. he is probably the best articulator the democratic party has had maybe in history. and so to have him on your side, as a surrogate, as a spokesperson, as the visionary that he can be, is just a remarkable asset. and we saw it last night. >> why is it for bill clinton to articulate what president obama has done from his perspective and to rebut the republican charges? why hasn't the president been able to do that? and does he have to do it tonight? >> well, i think the president has done it but i think last night the whole country was watching. and it was bill clinton's moment to do it in his way. barack obama will do it tonight in his way. but i think the two of them together will provide the kind of message and the extraordinary able to articulate in a way that only a convention can showcase. and that's what we're seeing this week. >> now, one of the issues that has been fully embraced by the democrats this week is health care and the president's record on health care. no longer defe

clinton. >> new hampshire and bill clinton were stadium number one in the primary. there's always been this bond. what do you think bill clinton can do for barack obama that would -- would be sitting there going, boy, if somehow clinton wasn't speaking you would think, something's missing, what would be missinging? >> i think he will continue to make the contrast case teen the difference barack obama will make for the future of this country and what we would see from mitt romney and paul ryan and i think he will identify with middle america. that's what he does so well, he empathized with families who are struggling, with people who are trying to put their kids through college, people who are hoping to have a secure retirement, people who lost their jobs and may be trying to find another job, and he can make the case for them about why barack obama is going to be so much better to continue to deal with our concerns. >> interestingly enough. mitt romney mentions bill clinton in a positive light on the campaign frail. here's an example. >> president obama tucked away

bill clinton last night. but when he talked about i disagreed with the republicans but i don't hate them. there's so much hate coming out from the other side. i think that turns off independent voters more than anything. they know we disagree. they expect us to find some common ground. >> you think the hate turns them off? >> the hate does, and the carpet bombs with negative ads. people just say finally, enough. i remember when jon corzine told me after he was first elected to the senate, he spent $65 million to get there. and he said, if that campaign had gone on for two more weeks, i would have lost. overwhelmed his opponent, but people reached the point where they said, we're sick of it. there is just too much of it. you've overdone it. >> what does president obama have to do tonight? in a way, tough act to follow. >> there will be a lot of love in that arena for the president tonight. michelle set it up. bill clinton explained it. this president is going to deliver it. >> you're going to have to do someth

clinton, if only we had a bill clinton to cooperate with. he called them out and said that's ridiculous. >> they voted to a man and to a woman against his program in '93. >> he did it all by himself, and people lost their seats. >> they gave the decisive vote of the 218. they mocked her and booed her on the floor and said good-bye, marjorie. they mocked the economic program of your guy. >> and pretended they love him. >> and i had the great pleasure of going into montgomery county six years later and saying margie margolis cost you an extra $35,000 on your taxes and your net worth increased by $23,000. >> up next, barack obama and big business haven't always had the easiest alliance. can he steal a page from the clinton playbook? this is "hardball." the place for politics. >> people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row? what new ideas did we bring to washington? i always give a one word answer -- arithmetic. ♪ [ male announcer ] the first look...is only the beginning. ♪ ♪ introducing a stunning work of technolog

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

elizabeth warren and former president bill clinton. be sure to check out our "news nation" tumbler page for behind the scenes pictures at "news nation."com. that's an interesting scene today behind the scenes. you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership. alright, yand... flip!in? whoa! did you get that? yep, look at this. it takes like 20 pictures at a time. i never miss anything. isn't that awesome? uh that's really cool. you should upload these. i know, right? that is really amazing. pictures are so clear. kevin's a handsome devil. that phone does everything! search dog tricks. okay, see if we can teach him something cool. look at how lazy kevin is. kevin, get it together dude. cmon, kevin. vo: take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3. dnnks hi i hamybdomen..itwo tht icovn

bill clinton goes to bat for barack obama, and now

bill clinton is a democrat, former president. former president's club that's nonpartisan, you might say. i think he understands the challenge this guy faces. another point, both are benefitting. president obama gets a guy that created 23 million jobs. heard the number 4 million last night, they were bragging out that. 23 million jobs. people may remember that. he gets to talk about the economy, i know what a good economy is and i understand the problems this president faced, he is doing a good job, fighting for you, and bill clinton gets what he wants, that stage and national spotlight to say i still matter. remember the i'm still relevant press conference. >> i remember that. >> read you something. obama needs his democratic predecessor to reassure voters the future can look like the past, plenty of jobs and bill has the capital to say the past looks like the future. >> i think, paul, correct me if i am wrong, bill clinton would like nothing more to see his wife run for the white house again, right? yeah. >> one thing more, repe

bill clinton talked about that last night. let's listen. >> in tampa, the republican argument against the president re-election was actually pretty simple. pretty snappy. it went something like this. we left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough so fire him and put us back in. >> now, you were a key player in the 1996 reelect of bill clinton. barack obama approach this is convention like you did, an incumbent. what does he need to do tonight? what does he need to say to the american people? >> i think building on this platform that president clinton has provided if you will as the great explainer of what has happened for the last four years and providing that narrative, now president obama needs to do in my view exactly what president clinton did in 1996. you go back and look at his acceptance speech which i did work on. it is like a second state of the union address for the country. he is talking about the agenda, what he is going to do in his second term, and i think that now if you think about this as a narr

secondly bill clinton. jon: how didn't it escape his notice if they weren't in there in the first place is what i'm trying to say. >> i understand that, busy people, and the president of the united states is a busy person don't always have a hundred percent to detail in every way, and clearly he did intervene. i have to point out that elizabeth warren certainly talked about the god factor, certainly talked about the words in the new testament yesterday, she is a senate candidate from massachusetts. i don't think god was so absent. >> well once again on that issue, even if you concede that the president is too busy to read the platform, fair enough, where is the campaign staff? again if this had been a republican convention they would be endorsing todd akin or something that the mainstream media hated they would be interviewing the campaign manager and strategist and everybody associated with the whip operation. they'd be grilling mayor antonio villaraigosa saying did you really think this asking him the sam

president bill clinton took the nation to school last night. he was able to become a professor of facts, and he began to erase the fact-free presentation we heard a week ago in tampa. so i think now many people, even here in charlotte, did not realize how simple it was to be able to tell exactly what was presented. >> forgive me for interrupting, but the romney campaign is already out with an ad saying look what bill clinton said about barack obama in 2008. they are using unflattering characterizations, unflattering words from clinton back then. what's your response to that ad out just within the last few hours? >> well, you know, if you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw stones. i think that mr. romney realizes that we can bring up clip after clip after clip of republicans who said that he was ill-fit to be president. and so i don't think that's the issue now. let's talk about the issues. mr. romney clearly doesn't want to talk about the issues. i think that's exactly what we want. bring the issues on. that's our strong suit. the polic

>> beat bill clinton. and relegate the energy to bill clinton. remind people a taste of what 2008 was all about. >> he needs to just sort of be okay. and... >> okay? >> and if they stopped tonight it would probably be better. >> and this is interesting theater. i don't think it matters. and i'm fixated on undecided. were are they sth. >> we don't know. we'll know after the debate. >> does that mean there are many undecides? >> only 6. >> greta: panel, thank you for being with us and staying up late for us. we'll be back live at our special time, 11:30 to 1:00 a.m. go to greta wire.com get your coffee ready for tomorrow night. good night from charlotte, north carolina go to greta wire.com. ♪

classic bill clinton. but they were screaming and shouting here when the video to introduce him first came up. when he came out, he had this audience. and even though he gave a classic clintonian long explanation of all of the policy points, he made it and applicable. he said no president, not me or my predecessors, could have recovered from this depression and done it any better. he made the point that we're on the road to recovery. all of the issues that the republicans have hammered away at president obama. obviously, he has his own perspective but as a political document, this speech was extraordinary. and i think it was classic clinton. just one other note. i've been messaging with the clinton traveling party, hillary clinton in timor. it is 13 hours ahead of us. it is already wednesday. she is going to have a news conference. she could not watch the speech. they barely have internet. they don't have television right now. as she travels around timor, talking through her aides and getting reports from

but it mostly boils down to this -- top bill. bill clinton. or at least live up to the set-up that was delivered in vintage bill clinton fashion on actually a night that typically belongs to the running mate. but do not fret for mr. joe biden. he, too, will be on the marquee for tonight. and watching it tonight is cnn's dana bash. dana, you just don't sleep. i see you working until 2:00 in the morning and up again at 5:00 a.m. for the morning shows. so many people say these speeches mean everything. some people say they mean nothing. others say, it's just all about the undecided voters on the other side of the tv lens. >> reporter: you know what, i honestly think the answer is somewhere in the middle of all that. when you talk about undecided voters, the problem both parties have is that pool is very, very, very small which is why i think in both conventions, you're seeing a real -- you have seen a real attempt to galvanize in base. but in terms of what bill clinton did was both. he talked a lot about the idea that you can work across party li

they make it very clear this is bill clinton's speech. clinton did talk with top personnel as the speech came together. they have seen it, they like what he has to say, they expect a good speech. remember, bill clinton intends to make changes right up to the last minute on the big speeches. >> what about the relationship between these two, jon. some have called them frenemies. and now the two of them on the same stage often? >> yeah, it was a brutal campaign. and if you talked to friends of the clintons, they will say it took bill clinton a lot longer to get over it than it took hillary clinton. but what both sides will tell you, he's now 100% on board. he's already cut ads for them, they expect it a very strong no question about it endorsement, big speech tonight. that's why they've given him one of thele few prime time spots they have. >> abc's jon karl right here in the rein with us. our thanks to you. diane and george and the political team will be here at 10:00 p.m. eastern for the convention coverage in prime time. we will see you t

but bill clinton is one of a kind. we all know that. >> sean: what did you say to me on the break when i asked that? >> i said that -- [laughter] >> truthful, he doll a great job, telling people why barack obama shares his values, his positions-- >>> the era of big government. >> passed national health care. >> sean, there is a way that obama can acknowledge that the last fowrz years, he did provide the hope and the change. >> sean: they have been incoherent as a campaign. >> [overlapping dialogue] ! >> simile said, had it comes to this, he thinks that in fact, we are having to dig out a deep hole that was so deep four years ago. but you know what? everybody says -- we are absolutely -- go back to standard economic measures, mr. hannity. [overlapping dialogue] >> sean: it is not just are you better off -- is america better off, as a country? we are more divided. we are more angry -- you can see it here. >> we are not angry. >> oh, come on! [overlapping dialogue] >> i am not angry at all. >> you are yelling now! >> betw

bill clinton is talker and persuader. you think about the ways in which he has a mastery of policy, he marshalls date at that and evidence and then marries that up to incredibly plit wal strategy. it doesn't demean barack obama those are not his skill set. president clinton is not is that inspiring. think back to his -- >> charlie:best i heard brak church in memphis. >> very rare he would have peoplen their feet and in tears in the way barack obama has done over his career. it's an incredible skill he has. i think obama is never going to be that. >> charlie:this convention and we assume the president will perform well. everybody is teed tup and capable as we have seen in the other conventions. where does that lead the campaign? does this put them on a bump ra ject trito put this thing away? >> there's not much give right now in the elector at. i think it's possible that the president could get a 3 or 4 points out of this at least temporary. 3 or 4. convention tend not to linger but that would be a pretty big. >> charlie:u