CHARLOTTE — The Democratic Party opened its national convention here Tuesday hoping to launch President Obama into the final stretch of his campaign for a second term with the same promise and grassroots energy that he mustered four years ago.
But it also opened with a series of sharp attacks against Republican Mitt Romney.
A video tribute to the late Edward M. Kennedy prominently featured footage of a political debate from 1994, the year Romney challenged Kennedy for his U.S. Senate seat.
“I am pro-choice. Mitt Romney is multiple choice,” Kennedy says in the clip, zinging Romney for changing his views on abortion. (Republicans were not amused: GOP Chairman Reince Preibus tweeted after the video aired: ‘Classless Dems use tribute video of deceased Ted Kennedy to attack Mitt Romney.”)
Later, Nancy Keenan, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, railed against Romeny and Republicans generally for their positions on women’s health issues: “Women in America simply cannot trust Mitt Romney.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) continued his assault on Romney for not releasing more tax returns.
Calling Romney a “tea party ideologue,” Reid said: “We can only imagine what new secrets would be revealed if he showed Americans a dozen years of tax returns, like his father did,” Reid said, referring to former Michigan governor George Romney. “Mitt Romney says we should take his word that he paid his fair share. His word? His word? Trust is built on transparency, and Mitt Romney comes up short on both.”odebate between Kennedy and Romney when the Republican challenged
First lady Michelle Obama was scheduled to headline the first evening of the three-day convention, and she said in a round of interviews Tuesday that she will use her time on stage to talk about her husband’s character and values.
“Somebody who believes in honesty. Somebody who believes that the truth matters. He was raised to know that we didn’t get here – none of us – our own,” she said in an interview with Yolanda Adams, a syndicated radio host and Gospel music artist. “With every policy he has put forth, he tells us who he is. I’m reminding people of who Barack is and those values are what guide him and those are the values that need to guide this country for the next four years and beyond.”
Also scheduled to appear was San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the convention’s keynote speaker and a 37-year-old Hispanic politician widely seen as a rising star within the Democratic Party.
In the convention’s first hours, the stage hosted a diverse stream of speakers including Mary Kay Henry, the president of Service Employees International Union, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn. A collection of nine women, either members of or candidates for Congress, joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a stream of short speeches focused on women’s issues that brought delegates in the Time Warner Cable Arena to their feet.
Speakers invoked much of the same language that Obama has been using on the campaign trail. Timothy M. Kaine, the former Virginia governor and current U.S. Senate candidate, laid out the choice that voters face between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
But it also opened with a series of sharp attacks against Republican Mitt Romney.
A video tribute to the late Edward M. Kennedy prominently featured footage of a political debate from 1994, the year Romney challenged Kennedy for his U.S. Senate seat.
“I am pro-choice. Mitt Romney is multiple choice,” Kennedy says in the clip, zinging Romney for changing his views on abortion. (Republicans were not amused: GOP Chairman Reince Preibus tweeted after the video aired: ‘Classless Dems use tribute video of deceased Ted Kennedy to attack Mitt Romney.”)
Later, Nancy Keenan, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, railed against Romeny and Republicans generally for their positions on women’s health issues: “Women in America simply cannot trust Mitt Romney.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) continued his assault on Romney for not releasing more tax returns.
Calling Romney a “tea party ideologue,” Reid said: “We can only imagine what new secrets would be revealed if he showed Americans a dozen years of tax returns, like his father did,” Reid said, referring to former Michigan governor George Romney. “Mitt Romney says we should take his word that he paid his fair share. His word? His word? Trust is built on transparency, and Mitt Romney comes up short on both.”odebate between Kennedy and Romney when the Republican challenged
First lady Michelle Obama was scheduled to headline the first evening of the three-day convention, and she said in a round of interviews Tuesday that she will use her time on stage to talk about her husband’s character and values.
“Somebody who believes in honesty. Somebody who believes that the truth matters. He was raised to know that we didn’t get here – none of us – our own,” she said in an interview with Yolanda Adams, a syndicated radio host and Gospel music artist. “With every policy he has put forth, he tells us who he is. I’m reminding people of who Barack is and those values are what guide him and those are the values that need to guide this country for the next four years and beyond.”
Also scheduled to appear was San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the convention’s keynote speaker and a 37-year-old Hispanic politician widely seen as a rising star within the Democratic Party.
In the convention’s first hours, the stage hosted a diverse stream of speakers including Mary Kay Henry, the president of Service Employees International Union, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn. A collection of nine women, either members of or candidates for Congress, joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a stream of short speeches focused on women’s issues that brought delegates in the Time Warner Cable Arena to their feet.
Speakers invoked much of the same language that Obama has been using on the campaign trail. Timothy M. Kaine, the former Virginia governor and current U.S. Senate candidate, laid out the choice that voters face between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.