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First Lady Fires Up the Democrats; Obama Speech Moved Indoors; Bill Clinton Preps DNC Speech; Pres. Obama's Scorecard; U.S. Debt Hits $16 Trillion; Soaking In The Convention Enthusiasm

Aired September 05, 2012 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from the Democratic National Convention in Charotte, North Carolina, I'm Suzanne Malveaux and we are bringing this to you live.

The Democrats getting the mojo back after a high-powered start. More big names coming out tonight to bolster the president's cause and beat back the Romney campaign. I want to get right to it.

We are here with Dana Bash and political insiders and we will hear from them in a few moments. Tonight, Democrats will hear from former president Bill Clinton and last night it was the first lady's turn and she talked about the personal side of President Obama and the values that guide him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: He believes that when you have worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. No, you reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed. So 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 of those years ago. Yes. He's the same man who started his career by turning down high-paying jobs and instead, working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shutdown fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work. Because for Barack, success is not about how much money you make, it is about the difference you make in people's lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. That was Michelle Obama last night and we were watching it together and one of the things we were joking about is that she raised the bar when it came to the guns, right? We all -- and we are all going sleeveless now and we have to work on the biceps.

And seriously, people were talking about that as well, and it is blowing up on Twitter. In all seriousness, we did see Michelle Obama who is very comfortable in her own skin and seemed like she was relaxed and really delivered a personal message. And Dana, this seems like it is first lady who is growing, and who is evolving here, and we don't see Hillary Clinton, but Michelle Obama bringing in the women here.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and you heard her appeal to the women not as overtly as Ann Romney did, because they don't have the gap that the Republicans do, but it was fascinating of the way she felt she had to reintroduce the country to the person Barack Obama, and talking about his rusty old car and the way he asked her out on the date and of course, the kind of father he is. And of course, for the political goal talking about the way he grew up, and that is really a central part of what she needed to do, and I think that we will hear it throughout the entire week, the whole idea that they both have middle-class values, and middle-class upbringing and middle- class, middle-class, middle-class.

MALVEAUX: And how is this playing because you have the Romney ads out saying, welfare, and go ahead and write a check and you don't have to do anything and the notion and the idea that the Democrats are giving everything away for free, and she did emphasize, look, we believe in hard work and value people who work hard and we don't begrudge successful people which is a pushback from the Republican line.

BASH: Oh, no question about it. They all talked about hard work, and Michelle Obama did, and Julio Castro did, and a number of the speakers and there were a number of remarkable speeches given and even the Republicans who are very partisan admit that. But the bottom line at the end of the day is though when they talk about how you get to where you need to go, the American dream, and there still is a very stark difference of philosophy, if you are really digging down, and you don't have to dig that deep between what you heard from Tampa last week, and the Democrats talking about investing, investing, investing, and the Republicans talking more about letting it happen without the government.

MALVEAUX: And what did you think as a Republican, because we watched this speech together last night and you weren't too critical.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I have met Michelle Obama and I can tell you that the White House may not have changed Barack Obama, but it has changed Michelle. She is a political pro. She is terrific in the delivery, and she knew exactly what to do and she did it. Ann Romney knew what she had to do and did it. Both spouses in this case are terrific assets for their husband. Michelle went out there, and she knew how to energize the base, but at the same time in a race with the Romneys and ones were eating tuna and one was in a rusty car and so after we got past the race of who was poorer and lived more humbly as young people, we could get to the policy. So it was a different speech policy-wise, but humanizing the men they were married to, and you see Obama in four years, he's no longer the poor Chicago state senator that we first met in 2004. He is now a millionaire who has been living in the White House and flying around in Air Force One, and so she had to humanize him and not just Romney.

MALVEAUX: It is the argument that your parents make. I had to go to school uphill both ways.

BASH: Barefoot. MALVEAUX: Yes, barefoot as well.

And Marie, what is the appeal to women, because you have different models the Michelle Obama model and Ann Romney of a different generation. She is not wearing sleeveless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, what Michelle Obama did masterfully last night and she has become a political juggernaut for the Obama campaign and really come into her own, but what she did last night is two-fold. She was able to rev up the base in terms of talking about her husband and everything that she has done and the record, because I think that is critical, and Republicans like to say that Democrats and the president are running away from the record, and they are not. They are actually embracing it. But she also reached out to those swing moms as I call them, the women who might have been a little bit disillusioned or disappointed and not yet get, but might have been a little disillusioned in the slowness of the hope and change and she was saying to them unequivocally, this is the same guy I fell in love with 24 years ago and ie, the same guy you fell in love four years ago and he will continue to fight on us, and you can count on him, and he is not going to fail.

MALVEAUX: And the change of the venue, and you were all at the RNC and the hurricane and all that, and now we have rain and we have thunderstorms and the venue has now been moved so it is a much smaller venue, and how is that going to impact how we are going to hear the acceptance speech?

NAVARRO: We know for sure now that the weather gods are nonpartisan and they are just as angry at Republicans as they are at the Democrats. They are not liking the political houses.

MALVEAUX: And that is mother nature. And that is the women.

BASH: Yes. Yes.

NAVARRO: I will be greatly thankful that we are in a covered area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I will say that perhaps on a much smaller venue, can you imagine that Michelle Obama and can you imagine when the president gets to the venue. It is going to blow the roof off.

BASH: Making lemonade out of lemon --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the disappointment of not all of these people.

MALVEAUX: And 50,000 fewer people they will hold. And obviously, able to pack the stadium, but not the same kind of participation and exposure. They will be outside, Dana, you know.

BASH: And show them basically the same thing as the people in the arena do. And many of them seem to be out of luck, because they were being bussed in, and it is not that they had a place to go. Some might be here, I'm told, but some in holding rooms and overflow rooms, but already, they are saying that the president is going to hold a conference call with them, with the folks who can't come tomorrow. Our Peter Hanby sent an e-mail going around one to the state delegations saying, sorry, if you have one of these, it is no longer valid and nothing we can do. It is a big organizing problem.

MALVEAUX: Yes. A big challenge.

I have to wrap it up real quick.

NAVARRO: In Denver with him speaking at the stadium is powerful image and not the same, but as a Republican, I give him the benefit of the doubt that sit is about weather having been soaked now five times in two days and not about the attendance, but you never know, it is a great excuse.

MALVEAUX: And the optics without the two Greek columns will bode well for them.

And I don't know about the Greek columns.

And we have to go to break, and we have to pay for the show. Ladies, always good to see you.

Well, it took a hit last week in Tampa of course, and they are going to continue to fight back the Democrats, and the prime time coverage of the DNC is kicking off at 7:00 p.m. with my colleagues Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and the full CNN political team. During the 10:00 p.m. hour, Bill Clinton addressing the delegates, at midnight Piers Morgan wrapping it all up at the CNN Grill.

What would four more years of the Obama campaign look like? We're going to take a look back at the promises kept and the promises broken in his first term.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Big buzz at the convention right now is of course Bill Clinton's speech tonight. A lot of speculation of what the former president is going to say and whether or not he can reenergize the apathetic Democrats or influence the independents. And what about the relationship between Clinton and Obama? it was not always so friendly, and we know that. Earlier today, I talked with a man who knows Bill Clinton very well personally and professionally and his former chief of staff, close friend Mack McLarty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: You grew up in Hope, Arkansas, and you know Bill Clinton.

MACK MCLARTY, FORMER CLINTON CHIEF OF STAFF: Lifelong friend. MALVEAUX: You know him better than many of us do, and what can we expect when he takes the podium to support and present President Obama?

MCLARTY: Well, it is a big night for President Clinton and a big night for President Obama and a big night in the campaign. I think that you will see a bridge this time not just to the future, but the past and the future linking. Last night the first lady and Mayor Castro was really kind of look ahead. Look to the present. I think that President Clinton will clearly focus his speech on the economy. And he will compare and contrast in my judgment pretty sharply the differences of the Republican party, and the Republican candidate and President Obama and the policies that are basically similar to the Clinton policies and provided a good measure of prosperity in his two terms. He might mention that once or twice.

MALVEAUX: I'm sure he will. And there is a lot of nervousness among the Obama campaign that, you know, President Clinton goes off script and does what he wants and does not follow the talking points that we have seen many times in the campaign.

MCLARTY: I have seen it up close and personal here.

MALVEAUX: He is not being vetted here. Is there any daylight here between them?

MCLARTY: Well, I don't believe there will be any, and unlike Clint Eastwood who did get off script perhaps, but President Clinton is about as experienced and polished a political leader as there is in the world, and this is something that he likes to talk and knows the subject. He has been reaching out to the economists and so forth to get the facts in order, so I don't think that there is any daylight. I really don't. I think it is a strong compelling speech, but he will frame it in a way that I think that people will understand it.

MALVEAUX: And let's talk about the relationship, these two men, because obviously when I covered him four years ago, my goodness. In South Carolina.

MCLARTY: Little different.

MALVEAUX: And one of the most tense times of the campaign.

MCLARTY: Difficult time.

MALVEAUX: And how did they manage to get to this point to bridge that gap?

MCLARTY: Well, part of the South Carolina and that campaign, I mean, obviously, President Clinton was supporting his wife. It is always a little bit emotion when you are supporting is someone in your family than when you are running yourself, and that entered into it. It is a tough campaign. The beginning of it, Suzanne, was Hillary Clinton and she has been in my judgment and I am not an objective observer, but she is an extraordinary secretary of state and team player and beginning of the relationship and President Obama and President Clinton have had re: conversations and they frankly agree on so much of the policies and they are different in personalities.

MALVEAUX: You know Clinton very well.

MCLARTY: And the president, it is generational to start with. It is a different generation and a different time and place. I think that the president will probably note that and perhaps a subtle way tonight, but he won't be too nostalgic and dwell on the past. He will make the points and move forward I think.

MALVEAUX: And finally welfare reform, you were critical with that legislation, that piece of legislation under President Clinton, welfare reform. Right now the Romney campaign is essentially making an issue of it saying that the Obama administration is trying to ease the work requirements, and that has been debunked on many levels here, but should Clinton go for it and say, you are distorting my record?

MCLARTY: I think it is likely he will. It is a landmark legislation that moved millions from welfare to work and it is part of his personal opportunity and credo theme, and the new covenant and that is very near and dear to his heart. So it is likely he will debunk it. I don't believe it stands up from scrutiny from the Republican side. That is a weak argument.

MALVEAUX: All right. Mack, good to see you, and inside perspective on the Clintons and appreciate it. Looking forward to the remarks tonight.

MCLARTY: We are, too, and I told him to be serious, thoughtful and short.

MALVEAUX: We will see if he listens.

MCLARTY: We will see.

MALVEAUX: All right. Appreciate it.

When asked what grade he would give himself on the performance of the White House, the president said incomplete and we will take a closer look at the president's report card coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL (D), CHICAGO: There was no blueprint or how- to manual for fixing a global financial meltdown, an auto crisis and two wars and a great recession at the same time. Believe me, if it existed, I would have found it. Each crisis was so deep and so dangerous. Any one of them would have defined another presidency. We faced a once in a generation moment in American history. Fortunately for all of us, we have a once in a generation president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Rahm Emanuel talking about the crisis facing the president when he took office. He was the chief of staff in the first two years of the Obama administration and he is now the mayor of Chicago and one of the several speakers last night at the Democratic national convention making the case for a second Obama term.

Election season comes with a lot of promises as we know and no different for Barack Obama back in 2008 and he had a long to-do list when it came to becoming president, and how many of those has he been able to check and say next to it, I have done it? White House correspondent Dan Lothian finds out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama rode into Washington on a wave of hope and change.

OBAMA: Yes, we can.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): He promised to take bold swift action on the ailing economy and break the partisan grip on Washington by ending petty grievances and ending false promises.

OBAMA: There are some who question the scale of our ambitions, and who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done.

LOTHIAN: The bar was set high, and the to-do list was long.

BILL ADAIR, EDITOR, POLITIFACT.COM: He had only been in the Senate a short time and he really needed to prove himself to a lot of individual Democratic constituencies, so he made dozens and dozens of small, but very narrow promises.

LOTHIAN: Politifact, the online site best known for rating the truth in campaign ads, has compiled the Obamater scorecard. A team evaluated 508 promises made and concluded that he's kept 37 percent, has broken 16 percent, and 22 percent are labeled "in the works."

One big stumble came soon after taking office when this campaign promise...

OBAMA: I will follow through on closing Guantanamo.

LOTHIAN: ...was broken. Legal hurdles and Congress trumped an executive order to close the detention facility within a year.

Another promise that ran into Republican opposition: repealing Bush-era tax cuts for the very rich.

And with homeowners, especially in states like Florida and Nevada trying to recover from a crippling mortgage crisis, there is no promised $10 billion foreclosure prevention fund.

ADAIR: He made some really sweeping promises of changing the culture of Washington and bringing the parties together and he ran into trouble there. There has been a real realization on the part of the White House that some of the things that he said back there in the 2008 campaign were not realistic in the way that Washington operates.

LOTHIAN: The list goes on and no comprehensive immigration reform, and no cap and trade system, but the White House would rather focus on the promises kept like health care reform. It is controversial, but the measure is law, and the president bailed out the auto industry and Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy that banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military was repealed. The report card gives a thumb's up on national security.

OBAMA: My goal is to no longer have troops engaged in combat in Iraq.

LOTHIAN: That war ended in last December, but in addition the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down and Osama bin Laden is dead.

OBAMA: The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant achievement in defeating al Qaeda.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We want to talk more about the promises given and kept. And joined by Melody Barnes.

And even before you were the adviser in the campaign, and four years ago or five years ago, he would acknowledge in the speeches when it got close to the fact that he knew he was going to win, I am going to disappoint people, because there were so many promises, and such vision around this president, and the possibility of what he could do, and you are economic advisory strategist, and you are handled this to- do list, so overall, did he overpromise and overreach in what he tried to accomplish in the first four years?

MELODY BARNES, OBAMA CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, it is great to see you, and I don't think so. The president spoke to what is inherent in all of us the aspirational nature of Americans. We have big dreams and we work towards those dreams and in 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 years, the things that are big things the once in a generation things and the things that no other president has done to accomplish, he did. Look at health care, and my former boss Senator Kennedy talks about that as the goal of his lifetime, and 40 years in the Senate, and President Obama achieved that. He got that over the goal line and we are excited to talk about those accomplishments.

MALVEAUX: Do you think that the first two years in office, and he had a Democratic majority in the Senate and the House, and do you think that you could have pushed through more in that time before you lost it?

BARNES: It is so funny, because a lot of people will talk to me about this. Let's think about the times we were in losing 800,000 jobs every month, and the economy teetering and about to go off of the cliff and the auto industry about to be decimated, and he saved the auto industry, and brought the economy back to the point of stability, and now growth 29 months of consecutive private sector job improvement. So those are big, big problems that we didn't even realize how huge they were until we got into the transition, and walked into the White House. So we had to deal with that and get health care done at the same time when he had a Congress that was saying, a Republicans who were saying no way, no how, and there is a filibuster that prevented a lot of things from happening.

MALVEAUX: I want to specifically talk about the African- Americans because this is Bloomberg news and they have an excellent article out today, and they ask, are blacks better off under President Obama? And statistics 14.1 percent black unemployment which is twice of 7.4 percent of whites and if you take a look at the day of to inauguration it was 7.1 percent for whites and 12.7 percent for blacks and a lot of the African-Americans say, I love this president, and I love that he is trying, but I'm not doing so well under this administration and how do you respond to that?

BARNES: Absolutely. And I have talked to a number of people about this, and when the country catches a cold, the African-American and the Latino community catches pneumonia. These are problems that started long before the president got to the White House. We know how devastating the unemployment numbers are and we know that the median household income in the African-American communities was very, very low, and these are problems that were being built upon and what the president has done is to try to bring all of that back and bring the whole country back.

MALVEAUX: And how does he do that moving forward if he gets another four years?

BARNES: Well, people have heard that before and he wants something to targets the community specifically and deals with the issue, because these numbers are getting worse for African-Americans?

Well, any number of things. First of all the president put forward the American Jobs Act and specific things in there that target unemployment and target growth that will bring back entire, the entire country, but also very specifically help the African-American community, and we are already seeing when it comes to housing a place where African-Americans have most of the assets and most of the wealth, and we are seeing the foreclosures going down and seeing the housing prices going back up, and those are all promising signs. We are also looking at places where we have looked and tried to increase and work with the urban communities that are struggling as well as rural communities that are struggling and in the strong cities and communities initiative and that is something that has us working with the mayors and the city infrastructure.

MALVEAUX: And the president has actually used the executive order to get a lot of things done, and do you think that he was naive in some ways in going into the office thinking that I will be able to compromise and I will be able to work with Republicans here, because I mean, what does he do if he wins another four years, because he is going to be dealing with the same dynamic that he promise d to really get rid of partisanship in Washington? That has not happened at all.

BARNES: Well, it takes two to can tango, and I don't think he was naive because he accomplished that in an Illinois statehouse. He accomplished when he was in the Senate. But I don't think what he expected is given the level of crisis facing the country that there would be people willing to play politics, willing to jeopardize the lives of the American public, simply to try and win an election. So I think he didn't expect that, but he turned around and used executive authority where he's had to. We've done that to improve our public schools, to raise standards, to support teachers to ensure that failing schools and high school dropouts, a problem that's prevalent across the Latino and African-American community in particular, that w'are turning those schools around. He's used that to try and move us forward in terms of an energy economy. So he's using all of the tools at his disposal to try and worke around an intransigent Republican majority.

MALVEAUX: We'll have to leave it there. And obviously the President gives himself an incomplete, and it is incomplete. We'll see if he gets another four years where it goes. Melody, thank you so much. Good to see you as always.

BARNES: It's a pleasure to be with you.

MALVEAUX: San Antonio mayor Julian Castro made a name for himself at the DNC last night but his daughter actually stole the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR JULIAN CASTRO, (D) SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: When it comes to getting the middle class back to work, Mitt Romney says no.

AUDIENCE: No.

CASTRO: When it comes to respecting women's rights, Mitt Romney says no.

AUDIENCE: No.

CASTRO: When it comes to letting people love who they love and marry who they want to marry, Mitt Romney says no.

AUDIENCE: No.

CASTRO: When it comes to expanding access to good health care, Mitt Romney says --

AUDIENCE: Mitt Romney says no.

CASTRO: Actually -- [ laughter ]

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Julian Castro, there last night in Charlotte, the keynote speaker of the evening. That last line referenced Mitt Romney's perceived flip-flop on health care reform. This was Mayor Castro's debut on the national stage. He is the youngest mayor of any major American city and the speech last night really cementing his status as one of the Democratic Party's rising stars. We're going to talk about that. But the real showstopper, Julian Castro's daughter, Carina Victoria, you got to see this. She was caught on the stadium cam for the DNC stealing her dad's big moment in some ways. She was doing a little hair flip, a little posing, a little fashionista action. It's actually getting a lot of buzz this morning.

Well, I want to bring in former Ohio governor Ted Strickland who delivered one of last night's most memorable lines, saying, and I'm quoting here, "If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves." Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FORMER GOVERNOR TED STRICKLAND, (D) OHIO: Mitt has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the cayman islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. [ applause ]

In Matthew chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, my friends. Any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Governor Strickland joins us here. I've got to ask you the first question. Did you write your own material?

STRICKLAND: Part of it.

MALVEAUX: Did you write the line about the Santa Claus? Because that was -- that was actually the one line that everybody responded to.

STRICKLAND: No, but I contributed to it. We modified that a few times. The scripture reference was mine, obviously.

MALVEAUX: Okay. Were you fair when you talked about the economic patriotism here, this idea that his own behavior and what he does in his business and his taxes is linked to his love of the country? I mean, is that really a fair criticism? I mean --

STRICKLAND: You know, I don't question Mr. Romney's love for America. I know he loves America deeply. What I mean with economic patriotism, and I was very careful to say "economic patriotism", that has to do with how he uses his personal resources and where he invests them. And I compare it to Americans during World War II when the country was in need of investment and Americans were asked to buy war bonds, to use their resources to inve invest in America, and they did in large numbers to help America.

Mitt Romney is a wealthy man, but rather than invest his wealth in America, he chose to take that wealth and invest it elsewhere in the Cayman Islands and in Bermuda and elsewhere. And I think that gets to his sense of responsibility to this country. MALVEAUX: Governor, how do you respond though? I mean, the pushback here, because this is not a man who is breaking any laws. He is actually abiding by the rules of the system, this is a capitalist society, and he is essentially a successful person. There is nothing that he is doing that is counter to what our country was even built on.

STRICKLAND: No, I've never accused him of breaking the law. But what I've accused him of doing is putting his own interests above what I think that anyone who wants to be the president should be doing. What if all Americans felt that they could get a better deal in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands and they took their resources out of American institutions and put them in foreign bank accounts? What would that do to the country? A president should do more than just meet a minimal legal standard; a president should set an example. And I don't think Mitt Romney has set a good example with his own behavior and he has refused to release his income tax returns.

MALVEAUX: There are some people who look at that though and they believe that you're punishing success, that people who are highly successful and very wealthy and in some ways are using the system to become more wealthy -- and they're being slapped down, that they are beingvilified under this administration.

STRICKLAND: Well, you know, I watched the Republican Convention, much of it, and they did celebrate what they called success. I think what they celebrated was really selfishness. The Democratic Party and I think President Obama has a different definition of success. And success is when prosperity is shared generally, when the common good is enhanced, and so I don't begrudge Mr. Romney of being a wealthy man or of doing whatever he can to avoid paying, you know, more taxes. But it's something that the American people have an absolute right to consider.

And I believe that the American people have a right to see his income tax returns. He tells us that he has paid all of the taxes he's legally obligated the pay. We don't know that for sure, but he can convince us.

MALVEAUX: We can deal with that debate another time. I want to talk about your home state of Ohio. You mentioned the fact that the auto industry is coming back, the bailout worked, that the President was on the right side of that issue. Why do you suppose your state of Ohio is still very much in play, very much a battleground state, not necessarily in Obama's column?

STRICKLAND: Well, most of the polling that I have seen has had the President with a small, but a consistent lead over the last three or four months.

MALVEAUX: So why isn't it bigger? I mean, you're talking about bailing the auto industry out.

STRICKLAND: Because Ohio is the ultimate swing state. No candidate and no political party can ever take Ohio for granted. It's always going to be a hotly contested state. It's being a hotly contested state this year, and Ohio is a microcosm of America. You know, I'm very proud of Ohio for that reason. Because, I tell people and I really believe this, that if you were to shrink America, you would end up with Ohio, because we have a little bit of everything that exists in the larger country. We have farming, we have manufacturing, we have Appalachia, we have ethnic and religious and cultural and racial diversity. And that makes Ohio a very, a wonderful mix of all that exists in America.

MALVEAUX: And we'll see which column it goes in this go-around, whether or not Romney or Obama.

STRICKLAND: I'm sure it's in Obama's column.

MALVEAUX: Governor, good to see you.

STRICKLAND: Hey it's good to see you. Thanks for having me.

MALVEAUX: Sure. Something else we're keeping an eye on: this is a huge earthquake that just hit Costa Rica. We're going to get the latest details up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Costa Rica got a violent wake-up call this morning. A 7.6 magnitude quake off of the Pacific Coast of the country, very close to the capital San Jose. There is a tsunami warning out for much of the Pacific coastlines of Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. Now the quake has knocked out phone service and electricity as well to the area.

And in Canada, somebody tried to kill the newly-elected Premiere of Quebec. That is what police say after they tackled the gunman, who opened fire at a victory speech in Montreal. One person was killed; another was hurt. The premiere-elect was not injured. Pauline Marois, she is province's first ever woman Primer and of course her party strongly favors turning Quebec into a completely separate country from the rest of Canada. It is a very divisive issue up north.

Republicans have been doing all they can to tie the President to the rising national debt, and that number just hit a new milestone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The U.S. just marked a new milestone that nobody is really celebrating. This is the national debt clock. It passed the $16 trillion mark this week. Alison Kosik, she's live at the New York Stock Exchange to talk about what does this means, Alison. When you look at this number, $16 trillion debt, what does that mean to the average person? Can you break it down?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well besides having your eyes sort of pop out of your head when you see that number, let me turn that around kind of for you, Suzanne, and tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that each of us is on the hook for thousands of dollars of debt. But hitting the $16 trillion mark is yet one reminder that we are close to hitting the debt ceiling again. Right now, the debt limit is at $16.394 trillion and guess what that means? It means fasten your seatbelt for another fight over spending and taxes. This fight over all of this happening after the election, of course, because politicians, they don't want to touch the issues.

So the big question is why is the country's debt rising so fast? And this is kind of an easy answer: we're spending more money than we're taking in. And there are two ways to fix that: you can cut spending or you can raise taxes. And clearly neither is an easy solution. Higher taxes are going to hurt many Americans who are struggling enough as it is, and when the government cuts what it spends, that hits the economy as well, because it cuts into the services the government provides for us. It cuts into hiring and overall economic growth. You know, Suzanne, it's just one of the many issues lawmakers have to keep in mind when they tackle the debt and deficit problems later this year when they finally get to it on their own time.

MALVEAUX: And, Alison, of course, the big question a lot of people have been asking lately, are we better off than we were four years ago? And I know that CNN Money asked folks in cities across the country if they feel they're better off. What did they say?

KOSIK: Yes, and so what we did here was, we had some CNN producers go out across the country and ask some of the following questions to people who live in Los Angeles, in Atlanta and in Dallas. And they asked the following. They asked, are you making more money than you were four years ago? Do you have more in savings than you did four years ago? Has your housing situation gotten better in the last four years? Now take -- you can listen to this. Here's what some people said about making more money.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you making more money now than you were four years ago?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I make about a third of what I made four years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm making less money. And the sad part is, I actually have a master's degree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, even like a corporate job right now doesn't pay like what it was paying four or five years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm making the same amount of money and able to save a little bit, but same - same as before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four years ago, struggle. Today, even more struggle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: So, if you want to give your two cents, and who doesn't on this question, of whether or not you're better off today than you were four years ago. Today, CNN Money is asking all Americans, how you feel about your financial situation compared to four years ago. If you want to answer this, go to cnnmoney.com, and take the poll yourself. And what it does, Suzanne, it does ask the same questions. So far we've gotten more than 1,200 votes on this interactive poll and about two- thirds of those who voted say they're making more money. So you're seeing a difference there online than you're seeing out in the field.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. And also, Alison, real quick, a check on the markets. How are they doing?

KOSIK: Markets are pretty quiet today. The Dow is up about 30 points. You know, the big wait is on for the jobs report coming out on Friday. Everybody is kind of holding their breath for that. And then, of course, the Fed meeting coming next week.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Alison, thank you.

So, if you want to know what it's like to be on a convention floor before a big speech, I'm going to give you a guided tour, up next.

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MALVEAUX: Here at the DNC in Charlotte, North Carolina, energy inside the convention hall, lots of it. I'm going to take you on a little tour. Take a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I brought home three berets and just put a little bit of bling, bling, put my (INAUDIBLE) inauguration earrings on and I'm set.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I tell you what, I wore this in 2008 and I said -- you know, I said, oh, well, we did it great. So I'm wearing it again in 2012.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love the flag because I think the Republican think it's theirs, so I wear it. I just --

MALVEAUX: From head-to-toe, I noticed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Head-to-toe. Even my socks and look at my shoes.

MALVEAUX: Oh, my goodness.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: We are going to have a big gap -- a big gender gap and we're going to bring Republican women over to the Democratic side.

MALVEAUX: Are you confident with that?

WATERS: Oh, yes. I feel very good about it.

MALVEAUX: On television, it looks really, really big. But when you get down on the floor, it is really crowded. Actually I want to take a look at -- we are broadcasting -- our own cameras on Wolf Blitzer getting ready here. Right next door you've got ABC. And right next door to them, you've got Fox News.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America is a very diverse country of people from all over the world and that's -- that's what we like to show in our Democratic Party is, that's what our party is like and that's what America's like.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The message is very simple. Middle class incomes are declining. It's harder for middle class people to make do. Which party cares about the middle class? Which party is going to make sure that the middle class incomes start improving again? We are.

WENDELL PIERCE, ACTOR: Back then it was a changing of the guard. And now it's guarding the change, because he has kept the promises that I voted for. He was the change that I wanted. And from day one until today, until I like to say to Mr. Romney, I am more excited about supporting President Obama today than I was the day I voted for him.

MALVEAUX: Do you have an Obama poster on your wall that's fading?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not fading. It's nice and bright. And we're all looking forward to re-electing him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Ron Paul might have not been featured at the Republican National Convention, but he was speaking his mind last night with Jay Leno.

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MALVEAUX: Texas Congressman Ron Paul noticeably absent from the Republican National Convention last week, but his appearance on Jay Leno's show last night caused a little bit of a stir.

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JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": What did you think of Romney's speech?

REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Well, it was nice. He said a lot of nice things.

LENO: Yes. PAUL: It wasn't anything that I could say -- except a few, that, you know, it was -- it was very pleasant and all, but it wouldn't have been the speech that I would have given. I would have talked more about maybe foreign policy and some other things.

LENO: Yes, there was no mention of --

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