Watch
live video here and join the conversation as we live blog the 2012 Democratic convention
4:02 PM PT: Welcome to the party! We might not have Deval Patrick or Julián Castro or Michelle Obama too look forward to tonight, but we'll just have to settle for Elizabeth Warren and Bill Clinton. So it's not that bad at all. Here's tonight's schedule.
4:06 PM PT: Elizabeth Warren will lead off the 10PM ET hour and President Clinton will follow her around half-past the hour. We appear to be running slightly behind schedule, but coming later this hour will be former (and future!) Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Other highlights tonight include Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, Sandra Fluke, Rep. Barney Frank, and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka who is now on the stage.
4:08 PM PT: Here's a few excerpts from President Clinton's speech.
4:11 PM PT: As you may have heard, President Obama's speech tomorrow night has been moved indoors. One thing he won't be competing with is the NFL season opener, which is traditionally held on a Thursday but this year has been moved to tonight. The game—Cowboys vs. Giants—starts at 8:30. If you're watching the game but want to keep tabs on what's happening in Charlotte, this is the place to be!
4:15 PM PT: In other news:
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) - The Secret Service said Weds. it is investigating the reported theft of copies of Mitt Romney's federal tax records
— @kasie via TweetDeck
PricewaterhouseCoopers, from whom the tax returns were allegedly stolen,
says there was no theft.
4:18 PM PT:
Trumka: "Mitt Romney doesn't know a thing about hard work or responsibility. We're the ones who build America." #dnc2012
— @JoshDorner via web
4:23 PM PT: Nancy Pelosi has taken the stage—making the case for a Democratic House. The focus of her speech is the Democratic commitment to the American dream, by building ladders of opportunity so that everybody who works hard can succeed. She hasn't (yet) mentioned the debt limit debacle, but that alone should disqualify the GOP, shouldn't it?
4:25 PM PT: Pelosi's biggest applause line so far: pointing out that Democrats are the party responsible for protecting the right of women to control their own bodies and for passing Obamacare, which guarantees that being a woman isn't treated as a preexisting condition.
4:27 PM PT:
And while we're on the subject, how about
contributing a few bucks to the Speaker Pelosi Project to put John Boehner out of his crying misery.
4:33 PM PT: One thing certainly has changed from yesterday: today's speakers are eager to make the case for President Obama. It's a big difference from the GOP, where each speaker (aside from his relatives and business partners) seemed completely uninterested in actually arguing for Mitt Romney's election.
4:38 PM PT: Barbara Mikulski is speaking now on behalf of the Democratic Senate women—they had to lower the podium way down so she could speak and be seen. She's standing with 8 other Democratic women in the Senate. There's a total of 12 female Democrats in the Senate and five Republicans.
4:39 PM PT: Editing is a terrible thing to waste:
4:42 PM PT: So the female Democratic Senators are rocking it to Katy Perry. Yup.
4:44 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): New thread here.