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Best Advice: Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida tells us her best advice.
What does President Obama need to do in his DNC speech? Socarides and Hoover weigh in
President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to the Democratic National Convention late Thursday to accept his party's nomination for president. Former adviser to President Clinton Richard Socarides and CNN contributor Margaret Hoover weigh in on what President Barack Obama needs to do in his speech to convince both democrats and independents to vote for him in November.
“I think President Obama’s going to talk about where do we go from here. What is going to be different in these next four years, what is his plan, what is his vision for a second term,” Socarides says. “He’s got to be positive and say what is going to be new, what is going to be different.”
Hoover, a former White House appointee under the Bush Administration, argues that Obama needs to be “convincing and compelling” for both democrats and independents. “He knows he has to say what he’s going to do in the next term, but he also has to answer the implicit criticisms that many people haven’t tackled head on until Bill Clinton last night,” Hoover says. “What about the spending? Independents are concerned about the spending. What about the unemployment? 23 million people are unemployed. What are you going to do differently in the next four years?”
Fmr. Clinton White House comm. director Don Baer says Clinton speech 'created forward motion' for voters
Former President Bill Clinton officially nominated President Obama for a second term at the Democratic National Convention last night, making an impassioned plea for the president while under the spotlight himself. Joining John Berman on “Early Start” this morning is the man who helped write Clinton’s own 1996 re-nomination speech, Don Baer.
Baer, the former communications director and chief speechwriter for the Clinton Administration, and current CEO of the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, weighs in on the Clinton speech and what Obama needs to say tonight.
“It was a full speech, and a terrific one,” he says. “He provided a storyline for what the last four years have been about to really frame it and help explain it to the American people.” Baer says he did something else that was very important. “There’s a positive forward motion to that story,” he says, “and that’s what the American people need to hear.”
Baer believes Obama should build on the platform Clinton has provided for him. “Now President Obama needs to do,” he says, “exactly what President Clinton did in 1996.” Baer says that speech was “like a second State of the Union address. He’s talking about the agenda, what he’s going to do in the second term.” Baer thinks Obama should follow that lead.
“There’s been a forward momentum, but now we need to know how we’re going to finish the job,” Baer says. “I think that’s president Obama’s part tonight.”
Will August jobs numbers be 'anemic'? Christine Romans previews Friday's less-than-optimistic forecast
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - The stakes are high and the forecast is gloomy, ahead of the August jobs report scheduled to be released Friday by the Labor Department.
A month ago, that report showed businesses added 163,000 jobs in July. Job gains at that level were the strongest in five months, but still were not robust enough to keep up with population growth. The unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3%.
Unfortunately, August doesn't look like it fared much better.
Employers probably added about 120,000 jobs, keeping the unemployment rate at its current level, according to economists surveyed by CNNMoney. The August jobs report is a critical one, given the Federal Reserve meets less than a week later.
This morning on "Early Start," Christine Romans looks at the jobs forecast and explains why she describes it as 'anemic.'
Read more: Outlook gloomy for August jobs report
What's trending for Sept. 6th, 2012
School bans Peyton Manning's #18 for gang activity associations, and Bill Clinton gets a "Text From Hillary."
CNN Contributor Ryan Lizza on Bill Clinton speech: “This was an amazing speech”
Day two of the Democratic National Convention wrapped up last night with a powerful speech from former President Bill Clinton. Clinton’s speech was highly anticipated by both parties and it was the highlight of the night. CNN Contributor and Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker Ryan Lizza joins John Berman at the CNN Grill in Charlotte this morning to weigh in on the Clinton-Obama relationship and the speech that officially nominated President Obama for a second term.
“When you know that these guys have had this difficult relationship,” he says, and then you watch him logically make “the case for why Obama is better than Romney, it sort of to me makes the power of the argument a little stronger.”
For skeptical Obama voters from 2008, “Who better to make that case to you than someone who’s also been skeptical of Obama for a long time,” he asks. “In terms of the voters they’re trying to reach, this was the guy to do it,” Lizza says. “This was an amazing speech."
CNN Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash agrees. It’s hard to deny the power of President Clinton’s speech when he’s given it in a way “that looks like he’s really emoting and he really means it.”
Early Start Instant Poll: 'God,' Jerusalem and the Democratic Party platform
(CNN) – Democrats voted to update their party's platform Wednesday evening at their convention to include a reference to Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, as well as the insertion of the word "God," neither of which was included in their platform this year but was in previous platforms.
President Barack Obama himself intervened regarding the Jerusalem language, a senior Democratic source told CNN, adding, that he thought the original draft was "a strong statement and he didn't want there to be any confusion about his unshakeable commitment to the security of state israel. The issue of the day is Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah."
This morning, we want to hear from you. Do you think the party platform should include this language? Vote in our poll below.
Read more: Democrats update platform with Jerusalem, God reference
Will fmr. President Clinton steal spotlight from President Obama at DNC? CNN contributor Ryan Lizza weighs in
Bill Clinton will deliver a speech late Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention to offer his support for the president, but Ryan Lizza tells John Berman that the former president has a rocky history with Barack Obama.
“It’s a long, complicated relationship. [There were] lots of bad feelings on both sides for a really long time after that famous wrenching primary between Hilary Clinton and Obama,” says Lizza, a CNN Contributor and Washington Correspondent for “The New Yorker.”
“The relationship really didn’t get better until 2011 when Barack Obama and his political advisors are thinking about the 2012 campaign and looking at the poll numbers, and saying, ‘You know what, the most popular national Democrat these days is not Barack Obama, it’s Bill Clinton,’” he adds.
So, how did Barack Obama and Bill Clinton begin to rekindle their shaky relationship? Over a game of golf, Lizza says.
The former president will have a prominent role at the DNC late Wednesday, but Lizza says it will be "a Bill Clinton speech." "He will be writing it, I'm sure he will let [the Obama campaign] see it at the appropriate time, but this is a Bill Clinton production," Lizza adds.
Creative Coalition's Tim Daly: Defunding arts programs in America is 'bad business'
Creative Coalition president and Actor Tim Daly is in Charlotte, NC for the Democratic National Convention, one week after attending the Republican National Convention. He's working to improve the dialogue around funding arts programs in America, and he tells John Berman on "Early Start" that it's one of the most important investments the country could make.
"Entertainment is the second largest export of the United States of America," Daly says. "It's a huge driver of our economy. And I would like it to be spoken about by politicians on both sides for the same amount of gravitas and respect that we speak about the automobile industry or the pharmaceutical industry or the insurance industry. It's a huge part of who we are. And, you know, I would especially like the Democrats and someone like Kal Penn who owes everything he has to the arts to talk about the vibrancy and the importance of the arts in this country. You know, the Creative Coalition are big defenders of the national endowment for the arts."
Daly notes that some studies have shown that students who get a full education including a focus on the arts are more likely to graduate from high school. He also addresses GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's claim that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts if he were elected president.
"That is bad business, because every dollar spent by the federal government on the national endowment for the arts reaps them seven tax dollars in return. Now, those are odds you take to Vegas or Wall Street any day of the week. And if Mitt Romney knows anything about business, he would know that that is a good investment," he says.
Best Advice: Gov. Ted Strickland
Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio shares with us his best advice.
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