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Campbell Brown

Day Two of the Democratic National Convention

Aired August 26, 2008 - 23:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN, "AC360" ANCHOR: Hillary Rodham Clinton giving what is no doubt the most watched and perhaps most important speech of her career. John King, as you listened, your thoughts?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She passionately endorsed Obama right off the top before she got to thanking her own supporters. She asked every one of her supporters in this room and around the country, think again and think hard about voting for anybody but Barack Obama.

Anderson, she's a big-game player and this was a big-game speech. She's been criticized for maybe being tepid in some of her speeches coming up to the convention in her support for Barack Obama. You can see it in the hall right here.

The Obama supporters are cheering her as hard as her own supporters. That is what Obama needed, probably what she needed to do for her own legacy in the Democratic Party. But that was a big game, big-time speech.

COOPER: I saw Paul Begala actually keeping score during the speech. Did she hit it out of the park?

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think she did. Of course, I'm biased, I love her. I think Senator Obama has to be happy with this and his strategists.

At least ten times she mentioned Senator Obama by name. Michelle Obama, she was very gracious to her. And she also went right at some of those supporters of hers who might be kind of bitter. She was directing it like a laser beam at them.

I thought it was much more consciously feminist than Hillary was at the beginning of her campaign. I think that's what Barack needs to win those voters over.

COOPER: A lot more to discuss about this speech throughout this hour. We have to take a short break. Our coverage continues and the coverage continues online at cnnpolitics.com.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN, "SITUATION ROOM" ANCHOR: This crowd here at the Pepsi Center in Denver was electrified by Hillary Clinton's speech. She hit all the tones they wanted her to hit and made it clear she wants Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

We're continuing our coverage this hour.

Jessica Yellin is on the floor with an early supporter of Hillary Clinton, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell. Pennsylvania, Jessica, a critical state.

Ask him if he thinks that Barack Obama made a mistake by not selecting Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Governor, I'm being told by Wolf Blitzer who wants to know did Obama make a mistake by not choosing Senator Clinton to be his vice president?

GOV. ED RENDELL, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: Well, Joe Biden is a great pick. But I'll tell you, that was something tonight. We're going to win this thing because of what Hillary Clinton did today and because of what Joe Biden is going to do on Wednesday and Barack Obama is going to do on Thursday.

But that was a powerful message. The best part of the message was when she said to her supporters, did you do this just for me or did you do it for that lady who has cancer who needs health insurance or for that soldier or for that woman who's working under minimum wage.

And if you're a supporter of Hillary, you have to look deep inside yourself. You didn't do it just for her; you did it because you believe in the things she stood for. That was a clear clarion call to her supporters to get over it. Let's go forward and as the great Harriet Tubman quoted, "Keep going. We can't stop."

If you were for Hillary Clinton, we have to finish the job by keep going and going until Barack Obama is in the White House.

YELLIN: When you and I spoke earlier today, you said Senator Clinton could still run for president eight years for now.

RENDELL: Sure.

YELLIN: How did she do for herself tonight?

RENDELL: She did great. Just let Obama run. But the thing that she did, she did great for herself but more importantly, she did great for Barack Obama, great for the Democratic Party and great for America.

YELLIN: Thank you, Governor.

RENDELL: She just blew the lights out.

YELLIN: Thank you, governor. He said earlier to me that he believes Hillary Clinton's voters will cast a tepid vote for Barack Obama in November and a tepid vote he says is as good as any other. After this it sure seems that way.

BLITZER: Jessica, thank you very much.

Anderson, they've wrapped up day two of this convention; a different note than yesterday. Michelle Obama she delivered a beautiful speech and we remember that.

But Hillary Clinton's speech tonight certainly a very different speech, exactly what Michelle Obama and Barack Obama wanted to hear. You could see how excited Michelle Obama was when she was standing up and Joe Biden; they were simply thrilled by what this woman said tonight.

COOPER: This was a speech -- and we're joined again also by Campbell Brown -- this was a speech which got this auditorium out of their seats. I mean, this is a speech which was electrified everyone in this crowd and no doubt, those who support her around the country watching at home.

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Yes. Why exactly didn't he pick her to be his vice president?

BLITZER: I think a lot of people are asking that question right now.

COOPER: And if you're Joe Biden, and you're listening to that, clearly you have your work cut out tomorrow night.

I want to bring in David Gergen, who worked in the Clinton administration, as well as worked in several Republican presidential administrations. David Gergen, had you ever seen Hillary Clinton deliver a speech like this?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, and I must say, Anderson, I'm sure their cynics will find a lot wrong with that speech tonight but I thought she was a class act. In fact, I think it can well be said that nothing has so become her campaign as well as she ended it here tonight.

Her argument as Ed Rendell said, that if you were in this, you were in this all along for more than me. You're in this for the cause, so let's join. And then she did have some humor, that Twin Cities joke, about the Republicans going to the Twin Cities and that's a good place for them because it's hard to distinguish between McCain and Bush. That was well done. It was a nice line.

I thought overall, what you saw here tonight, the reason why I thought this was perhaps her finest hour in politics, it was so unselfish. It was not about her, it was about trying to help the cause and helping Barack Obama and in turn helping the country that she cares about.

So often the Clintons are accused, I think unfairly, of being selfish. But I think this was such a generous act. It was so clear she didn't hold anything back in her endorsement and her calls for unity. It was an authentic call and I think it was a terrific speech. I think that's why Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden should be so pleased tonight, because she did it. We talked earlier tonight about how impossible it was going to be to weave together the themes of women's rights, unity and the economy. And she did all of that, and masterfully and came out I think for the first time, the Democrats can leave this hall really charged up with a real sense of mission for November.

COOPER: Candy Crowley, who has been watching that speech, listening in from the platform. Candy from your perspective, you've seen a lot of Hillary Clinton speeches.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And what I've seen over the time as I started to cover her presidential race, which was last January or the January before last in 2007, is that this is a woman who delivers when she needs to. She is a clutch player. And she certainly seemed to do that tonight.

You saw from the reaction in the crowd, this wasn't just -- I sort of expected it would be, well, here are the Hillary Clinton supporters, you can tell by that clapping. It was this whole crowd that she had on their feet, mostly for the entire time.

What did they say she was going to do when we talked to them? They said she was going to hit John McCain. Check. They said she was going to reach out to her supporters and thank them for what was a historic race. Check. They said that she would call for unity of the party to firmly back Barack Obama and challenge her supporters to look at what the choice is. Check.

They did everything that they said she would do. And I agree actually with Governor Rendell who said he went to that one paragraph about I want you to ask yourself were you in this campaign just for me or were you in it for that young marine and others like him and went on with that. I thought that was probably the most powerful argument she had.

And as David said, the Clintons were so often accused of things and one of them has been well, this is all about the Clintons; the race always about the Clintons. She just turned that right around and said, hey, are you in this for me or are you in this for people who actually need it? Then you need to vote for Barack Obama.

I think in camp Obama tonight, they will be very pleased and I think it puts a lot of pressure on Barack Obama for Thursday night. I think he has to respond in kind in some way to make that unity hold.

COOPER: Suzanne Malveaux is down on the floor with some very strong Hillary Clinton supporters. Apparently they had tears in their eyes during some parts of the speech. Suzanne, what are you hearing from them?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you hear me?

COOPER: Yes, Suzanne. Go ahead. MALVEAUX: I don't have a -- good, good. Ok, good you can hear me. Glad you can hear me. Joining us here obviously very strong Clinton supporters.

Tell me, why is this so important to you? What does this moment mean to you?

ANNE PRICE-MILLS, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Hillary Clinton proved to me tonight that she would have made an excellent president. She was presidential tonight. She's the evidence that women have come so far and to let gender be a hindrance, to let a phenomenal, an intelligent, a powerful, a moving, a motivating person not move us into the next generation, not move us into the future that we deserve, not move us into the green economy that we deserve, not being able to address the concerns that we deserve, and now everybody just want us to suddenly shift.

You just saw it yourselves. You saw it yourself; you know that was a presidential speech. You know it. When you guys look back at the end of this week and you start to tear apart the speeches and you will, you know that was a presidential speech.

She did everything for Obama that she was supposed to do. Now it's time for him to step up and do what he's supposed to do.

MALVEAUX: Will you vote for her when you cast your votes later in the week?

PRICE-MILLS: I was selected to come here as a delegate for Clinton. I will vote for Clinton.

You ask me about my personal vote in November? Obama has two months. I won't vote for McCain. But he has to get me there and I haven't connected with him. Experience speaks to me. I ask everybody all the time, I said, would you take us to heal us? Would you take somebody straight out of Harvard, even if they had the education, and put them as a CEO in the company?

MALVEAUX: Tell me the kind of connection you felt with Hillary Clinton.

PRICE-MILLS: I see in Hillary, I saw in Hillary what my potential future could be. I saw more than just dreams. I saw things that could be reality.

In her eyes and in her words, I could envision the reality of knowing that we can actually have green jobs instead of talks. That we could have the image that we once have of a United States that was respected and that went out and did the jobs that we're supposed to do on the global level. I saw the country that we strived to be and wanted to be and she could have made it happen.

MALVEAUX: Will you cast that vote for him in November? Will you cast your vote for Barack Obama in November or will you vote for McCain or not vote at all? PRICE-MILLS: I will not vote for McCain. I will not vote for McCain. But for the first time since I was 18, and that's been a long time, I may be faced with something I don't want to have to deal with.

I've never not voted. I am one of the strongest Democrats I know. I call up all my family and say, Carl, you need to get out the house, I don't care how much rain is pouring down. I don't what's going on in your schedule, you need to vote.

For the first time I'm faced with not being a person who calls them and says go vote. They may have to call me and tell me and remind me of how hard and how long we strived to get to the right to vote, the right to be here.

Experience counts. I don't care what anybody told you. And his resume is just --

MALVEAUX: Okay. Anne Price-Mills, thank you so much for joining us here on CNN. I appreciate it.

Obviously a very emotional delegate who says that she doesn't even know at this point whether or not she's going to vote in November; a very difficult decision for her -- Wolf, Anderson.

COOPER: Suzanne, on Thursday night after Barack Obama's speech, let's try to find that delegate and see if she has changed her mind after hearing from Barack Obama and from Joe Biden.

Our coverage continues throughout this hour. We have a lot more to talk about, about this speech. A remarkable evening here.

Our coverage continues in just a moment. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: They are clearing out this Pepsi Center here in Denver; 20,000 people had gathered inside. It was really packed but now, slowly but surely, everyone is beginning to leave.

I want to remind our viewers that coming up at the top of the hour, Larry King will be live with a special program. We'll be getting lots of Republican reaction to what we heard tonight from Hillary Clinton, among others.

But the McCain campaign has just released a statement reacting to Hillary Clinton's speech. Spokesperson Tucker Bounds saying this, I'll read it to you.

"Senator Clinton ran her presidential campaign, making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander-in-chief. Nowhere tonight did she alter that assessment. Nowhere tonight did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead. Millions of Hillary Clinton supporters and millions of Americans remain concerned about whether Barack Obama is ready to be president."

Anderson, they didn't waste any time, the McCain campaign, reacting to Hillary Clinton. They've been using her in four separate campaign commercials. It's unlikely they'll use anything she said tonight in a fifth commercial.

COOPER: It would certainly be hard to call anything out of that speech that you could use against Barack Obama.

James Carville, as you end tonight, do you end happier than you were at the end of last night?

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: A gazillion times. I couldn't help but think that people watching this, this is what a major league fastball looks like. Now you've seen one.

And there are stratas in politics like skill sets and skill levels in politics, like there are in anything else. And you saw a lot of pitching so far in this thing. And then you saw one of those, where did that ball end up?

And this was -- I was -- you know, it had a lot to do with the moment, the emotion and everything. But the delivery was almost like she didn't stumble on a line or word. I can't tell you how much she practiced that speech.

COOPER: Have you ever seen her give a speech this well?

CARVILLE: I really haven't. I go back to right at the beginning of the campaign, I think it was at Coretta Scott King's funeral. And she and the president spoke and everybody was saying, well, you know she just is not in the same kind of league.

And the growth here and like I say, what you saw tonight, and I'm not saying this because I'm a Clinton person. This is the Sandy Koufax, this is a major league fastball unlike anything we've seen in this convention.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And it was also so generous. I can't remember a political speech in which a loser was more generous than Hillary Clinton was tonight. And we were talking earlier about a call I got from the folks from the McCain campaign saying that if she said nice things about Barack Obama, she would look inauthentic.

Well, she looked completely authentic in saying the things she was saying about Barack Obama as well as telling her voters why they needed to vote against John McCain. So the campaign picked out one thing.

She was supposed to talk about the economy tonight. I guarantee you that tomorrow night Bill Clinton will talk about the commander in chief issue. But her generosity here tonight was astonishing. Can you remember anyone who has lost for the presidency who was as gracious as she was?

CARVILLE: In 1976, Ronald Reagan never mentioned President Ford's name. In 1980 Senator Kennedy mentioned President Carter's name one time. This is a bad night for Hillary haters. This is a bad night; this is a really bad night for all of the Hillary haters in the press. And it just is.

And I go back, there is a skill level in politics like anything else. You just saw what a hall of famer looks like. And I think you're going to see another hall of famer tomorrow night and Thursday night. I think the depth of the skill -- the skill at the top level of the Democratic Party is as good as I've seen it anywhere in a long time.

BROWN: Let me ask you this. Did she not address the concerns of Democrats who were worried about unity and feeling that everybody needed to come together and she needed to convey all that. But at the same time, independents and anybody out there, we heard the McCain campaign lay out what their argument is going to be and I've been getting e-mails, as I'm sure everybody else has, from Republicans saying she didn't address the bottom line issue; commander-in-chief thing. Are you ready to lead?

There was nothing in the speech that addressed that issue. That's going to keep coming up again and again.

KING: I think the Republicans will continue saying that. And we should make clear that McCain hasn't spent much more than a dime on any of those ads they've released to the media. Most of those ads have not aired in any of the battle ground stations. We sort of have been taken on that one because they put them out in such a timely way, we say wow, look at this. They haven't put much money behind it.

But the Republicans will make that case. I think the fair response is, read through the speech and what she said about John McCain. If she didn't say Barack Obama was ready, she just put him where as she put John McCain down here. So it's a pretty hard argument to make given what she said about him.

BORGER: They've been so clever, the McCain campaign, stirring the pot for the entire few days of this convention so far on the unity question. Well, they started to lose the unity thing tonight.

COOPER: We should point out we don't see the commercial breaks. They actually played one of those commercials during a commercial break on CNN, I've been told.

CARVILLE: The ungraciousness of this entire thing from the Republicans is truly remarkable. Here we are, we're looking at a moment, an emotion, or anything and then you go through and you nitpick something and say gee, they didn't say this or they didn't do that.

KING: Grace is not known to happen nine weeks before a general election as a highly dependable expert; Mr. Carville is not known for it either.

CARVILLE: If you're a Republican, you had a bad night tonight. You had a really bad night. I'm not saying -- we've had bad nights before, but there's no doubt about it. Let's just be very frank. This was not a good night to be a Republican. COOPER: We're going to talk to our entire team in New York, including a number of Republicans who are anxious to weigh in an all this.

We have to take a short break. Our coverage continues and it continues online and you can rewatch some of the speeches; cnnpolitics.com.

Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

We're continuing our coverage of this dramatic night here in Denver, Colorado. The highlight of the night - a very powerful speech by Senator Hillary Clinton. The speech strongly endorsing Barack Obama, making no doubt -- leaving no doubt whatsoever, she wants Barack Obama to defeat John McCain as president of the United States.

I'm also getting -- I just got a little e-mail from one of Obama's aides, giving me a little color on what happened after the speech. As you may know by now, Senator Obama who's been in Billings, Montana and he was watching all the festivities, all the action going on tonight.

I'll read to you what I got from this Obama aide. "After leaving the house party at Billings, Montana -- there's video of where he was -- Senator Obama called and talked for several minutes with Senator Hillary Clinton saying how grateful he was for her support, that she gave a terrific speech and that all those he watched with at Billings, Montana were moved by her video and introduction from Chelsea. Also said he loved her line, and I'm quoting, "no way, no how, no McCain."

Senator Obama, according to this aide, also called and spoke with President Bill Clinton for several minutes saying Senator Clinton could not have been better and made the case for change. Obama said he knew how proud he must have been watching as he was last night watching Michelle speak and how grateful he was for their support.

So clearly, Anderson, the senator, the Democratic presidential nominee, grateful to both of these Clintons, especially Hillary Clinton tonight for this powerful speech she delivered. And I assume we're going to hear another one from Bill Clinton tomorrow night.

COOPER: It will also be interesting to see in the days to come what lines from tonight continue to resonate. That "no way, no how, no McCain" I think is going to be a line we're going to be hearing. Also Bob Casey's line about John McCain is not a maverick, he's a sidekick based on what they say record is.

BLITZER: They've got some pretty clever writers.

COOPER: A number of clever writer lines.

Let's check in with our team in New York who have been listening patiently as well as.

Let's start with Jeff Toobin. Jeff, a pretty remarkable night for those who support Hillary Clinton, those who support Barack Obama. No matter for Democrats around the country, clearly they got a lot to digest, a lot they wanted to hear tonight.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think just to go back to a point earlier in the evening, the star of the night before Hillary Clinton was the Brian Schweitzer, the Governor of Montana. He gave a sensational speech.

And I think he's the Barack Obama of 2008; the comer in the party. I think that he is a really successful governor in prime new Democratic territory.

But as for Hillary Clinton's speech, I think there were two big winners; Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Because she now can say, if somehow Barack Obama loses this election, look, look at my speech at the Democratic convention. Look at what a great endorsement I gave, and I think it was a great endorsement. She did a lot for her own future and a lot for Barack Obama.

COOPER: Alex Castellanos from the Republican standpoint, it would be pretty hard as we were saying earlier for them to be picking sound bites out of that speech and using in commercials against Barack Obama.

ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's not exactly a high bar for Hillary tonight. But I got something I never thought I'd never hear tonight and that's James Carville giving us a lesson on social graces.

I don't think it was a particularly effective speech. Most Republicans or a lot of Americans are going to think that this is not particularly effective.

A couple of things; this is somebody who has spent the last couple of weeks, months, saying that this man, Barack Obama, is not ready to answer the phone at 3:00 in the morning and that was her case, he doesn't have the experience to lead. She said nothing about that tonight.

If I had to give this speech a name, I would call it the lesser of two evils speech. She said she gave all the reasons she ran for president and then says, by the way, if you believe in those, vote for Barack Obama.

So no, I didn't think it was particularly powerful and passionate. We got a glimpse into the Clintons for the past couple of weeks. They're so workmanlike. When they say something emotional you kind of tend to believe them. The emotion was when she's in the complaining and even in the things Bill Clinton said today, which was hey, if a guy agrees with you 100 percent of the time but can't deliver, do you really want to vote for him?

COOPER: James Carville? CARVILLE: Yes. I'm sure we heard a lot about voodoo economics from George H.W. Bush when he was Ronald Reagan's vice president.

CASTELLANOS: We did see this and you know what? He said he was wrong about that.

CARVILLE: We so see through this transparency. When you have a hard-fought primary, a party comes together. There's nothing unusual about that. And what we saw tonight was a party coming together, and coming together in a way that people really didn't think that they were. And like I say, I'm sure this opinion can be bared out again and again. This was a good night to be Democrat.

I'm sure next week in St. Paul it might be a good night to be a Republican. But this was a good night to be a Democrat and that was one heck of a speech.

COOPER: And Carl Bernstein, you've read and you've heard and seen a lot of her speeches. How did it compare?

CARL BERNSTEIN: I got a call from one of her closest friends just at the end who said this is as good as she gets. I think it was. We can see now why at the end of her campaign, she had a real movement behind her just as Obama had a real movement earlier in his campaign.

And what we've seen tonight is the ability of those two movements to come together. And that can make a huge difference in the dynamic of this election.

And to answer Alex's point, this is not going to be Hillary Clinton's last speech on behalf of Barack Obama. She's going to go out there and talk about him being commander-in-chief for just the reason, I suspect, and this is what people are e-mailing me, for just the reason that they know the Republicans will say, hey, she didn't say that. She's going to go out and say.

This is an introductory act to what we're going to see. But she really accomplished something and Barack Obama is getting the convention he wants.

COOPER: David Gergen, do you have any doubt that Hillary Clinton is going to be out on that campaign trail for Barack Obama?

GERGEN: It's extremely clear she's going to be out on the campaign trail and so will Bill Clinton. We'll have to wait to see what he says tomorrow night.

I think the test of the speech, Anderson, will be whether Democrats start coming home. We've been talking now for some days about the fact that only about 50 percent of her supporters have said they would vote for Barack Obama and about 20 percent, 25 percent were wavering, about 20 percent were going to go for McCain.

What we'll need to watch in the next few days is whether those Democrats start coming home. My sense is they will. And that this was very important for them and if she can start bringing them home, that would be a major contribution to this campaign. You will begin to see a lift in his numbers.

He's going to have to carry a lot of weight himself. I think Candy Crowley was right. This puts pressure on him for Thursday night, but that's healthy pressure for the Democrats.

I think the main thing I think that James Carville was right, this was a good night for Democrats because it's a call to come home. And I think you're going to start to see that.

COOPER: Larry King is standing by. He's going to continue coverage about 15 minutes from now. Larry, what have you got?

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: You're right, Anderson. Well, it was all about Hillary tonight at the convention; she certainly electrified the crowd. But did she convince her supporters to back Barack Obama?

We're going to talk with some Republicans whose party and candidate might benefit from the bitterness that's still apparent out there. It's all coming up, "Larry King Live," top of the hour -- Anderson.

COOPER: Larry, we'll be watching. Again, that's about 15 minutes from now. Our coverage though continues over these next 15 minutes.

We have to take a short commercial break. We'll be right back. And again, check out cnnpolitics.com if you want to watch any of Hillary Clinton's speech or any of the other speeches from tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Internet reporter Abbi Tatton has been monitoring your reaction on blog and on the internet. Abbi, what are you reading?

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Well, Anderson, this is brand new. Just as soon as Hillary Clinton stopped speaking, her whole Website, hillaryclinton.com, updated with this message if anyone didn't get the message during her speech.

And the blogs that are actually there on the convention floor with you guys have been posting live video as this has been happening. Looking around the convention floor as Hillary Clinton was speaking, all the signs there that were being handed out to the people on the floor.

If you look at this one, if I can ask you to zoom in on this video right here. This is the guy behind the scenes who's handing out those unity signs. The blog is on the floor saying that was the cry down there when she was speaking of unity.

This speech really reaching out to her die-hard supporters, some of them gathered down the road, if you just pull out that. This is some of the P.U.M.A.S, the die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters, some of them small group gathered in their -- what they're calling -- their headquarters in Denver this week and live blogging as this has been happening. The common section there, you'll still find a fair few people saying things like, Hillary Clinton, 2008. This is a constituency right here that are looking ahead to tomorrow and the mechanics of that role call vote -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, we also have correspondents who have been fanned out throughout this hall.

BLITZER: Right. Suzanne Malveaux, Anderson, is right now on the floor with a special guest -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We're here with the New York Governor David Paterson joining us. Thank you so much, Governor, for being with us.

Very quickly, here, what do you think of Hillary Clinton's performance -- her speech tonight?

GOV. DAVID PATERSON, (D) NEW YORK: I thought it was spectacular. And I thought it was the end game to an approach that Senator Clinton has taken recognizing that her supporters were not just supporting Hillary Clinton the person, but they represent the progress of women which has been a lot slower in this country, not even getting the right to vote until 1920. To a woman who saw Hillary Clinton go right down to the wire and lose might wonder, well, when is that opportunity coming in 2020, 2040, 2060?

And so I think what Senator Clinton had to do was allow her supporters to let off a little bit of steam and then end it here at the convention and get behind Senator Barack Obama whose supporters would rightly have felt the same way had the situation been in reverse.

And now that everybody sees that, the most important line of her speech was, did you get involved in this process just for me? And obviously it's not just her. It's mortgage foreclosures, underemployment, unemployment and underemployment, it's health care and it's the education of our next generation.

MALVEAUX: Governor Patterson thank you sow much for joining us on CNN.

PATERSON: Thank you, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Back to you Anderson.

COOPER: Suzanne, thanks very much.

Hilary Rosen who has been a long-time Hillary Clinton supporter has been listening in as well, the political director of the huffingtonpost.com. Hilary, we haven't heard from you since we heard from Hillary Clinton; your thoughts tonight.

HILARY ROSEN, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, HUFFINGTONPOST.COM: It was pretty overwhelming. I agree with James this was a fast-ball pitch. You know, this was a clarion call, I think, of grace and power. But more importantly, this was a message from Hillary Clinton that basically said, "I am not your therapist. I am a Democrat."

And so, no matters what you're doing, you need to get it together and vote for John McCain. If you care about energy and middle-class tax cut and jobs and health care and getting out of the war in Iraq. I think that that message was so clear. You know, it's -- there may be 50 people in this hall that don't listen to that message, I think, you know. I'm glad we can find the one of them to be the first commenter.

In any case, it is so clear, I think, to the people in this hall that that message of unity resonated. It's the thing that got the loudest applause. You know, she gave that message tonight. That's my view. "I'm not your therapist. I'm a Democrat here. Let's get it together. Let's keep going, let's move on." She wants to move on.

COOPER: Earlier she had called for a catharsis. But you're saying she's not the therapist to bring that about or perhaps it's already been brought about.

Another person who probably did not heed the call was Leslie Sanchez, Republican strategist who's also been listening in. Leslie, your thoughts.

LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think there's a couple of very interesting things here. One, this is a speech directed specifically at women, more so her feminist voters, her supporters. It was not geared at anybody else.

There are so many undertones in there when she talked about the marine, the woman with cancer who put her name on her head. Those are emoted messages, she's painting a picture. But it's almost as if she threw the gauntlet down and said women are really in charge of -- I wrote it here, "the needs of women, we need to fight for change as women."

It was almost like throwing the gauntlet down saying we have to keep up the fight. If you looked at her, she looked presidential, she looked incredibly strong. That's why you can see that emotion from that one Hillary supporter. She's saying, let's keep fighting.

Yes, let's go for Barack Obama, but it's almost like the beginning of 2012. It's also interesting, she didn't mention her husband. She's saying, I can stand alone, I'm strong. Those are interesting messages for a very partisan speech. It was not geared at independents at all.

COOPER: We should point out she did talk about that she seems to recall a prior administration in which they were able to turn around the economy.

SANCHEZ: Not in her video, not in her video introduction. Do you see him? She certainly doesn't even call him by name. She's an independent person.

COOPER: He was in the video introduction. SANCHEZ: Yes and he was very cleverly identified as Hillary's husband. Well, sure. Sure but the undertone of that, the significance of that doesn't change why those women are feeling that way.

COOPER: John King.

J. KING: I think Hilary Rosen made a very critical point. We could tell from the energy in this hall that it was a message that overwhelmingly, positively received. You saw the Obama supporters jumping to wave the Hillary sign. Very well received and the Hillary supporters cheering her on.

I think Hilary is dead right, Hilary Rosen that 99.9 percent of them, these are Democratic activists. They're going to be Democrats come November.

I think the question is, and David Gergen touched on it earlier, let's see a week from now, after the Republican conventions, or two weeks from now, two weeks, 20 days from now, what about Southeast Ohio, the Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary?

What about in Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and in West Virginia and in Tennessee? The people who are more conservative Democrats who may have listened to her argument at the time that Obama did not have the experience or that she was better suited to handle the economy.

Let's see where they are in the five or six battleground states where they could make a defining difference in this election.

BORGER: And those suburban women that Obama advisers say they're targeting. Those suburban women who are between 30 and 60; those lower income minimum wage workers who they think they can target. I think that Hillary Clinton really helped Barack Obama with those voters tonight.

CARVILLE: Can you believe that at a time there was a big argument in the press and in the commentary as to whether Hillary Clinton should speak or not? You stop and you think about that.

COOPER: I don't remember that.

CARVILLE: And, remember, this is Act One of a three-act play. Stand by, Act Two comes tomorrow. Okay? With Bill Clinton and Senator Biden and then the closing curtain as I said to close the deal, they are bringing in one heck of a salesman to get the voters to sign on the dotted line.

It's getting wound up. The talent at the top of the Democratic Party, now, is pretty awesome.

COOPER: Do you think there's going to be a bounce? There wasn't in 2004. John McCain announces on Friday, his running mate, then there's the Republican convention. It's only the fourth time there have been back-to-back conventions. CARVILLE: I'm trying to predict -- I think that generally they come -- in 2000 that Gore got his bounce at the end. Usually it's a kind of cumulative thing. I think she was setting the table tonight, as I said early. I think people are going to decide how much they like the meal after Thursday night.

BROWN: But if she did reach the holdout with that speech, which was the intent, then I think based on the polling there would be a bounce that wouldn't apply to 2004.

BORGER: And you know, the campaign is focus grouping in those 18 battleground states tonight. We'll know a little bit more the answer tomorrow when we talk to them. Of course, they'll tell it all went swimmingly but they are keeping track of how this is playing out every day.

BLITZER: Let me just make one point, Anderson, that there's a wild card that's developing in the Gulf of Mexico right now that could have political ramifications as well. We're talking about Hurricane Gustav, which is slowly moving from the Atlantic into the Gulf of Mexico.

COOPER: One person in Haiti has been killed that we know.

BLITZER: Right, once it moves into the Gulf of Mexico, the waters are very warm there. And it's moving slowly. It's got to hit land somewhere and that could have an impact as early as this weekend or early next week as the Republicans get ready for their convention.

COOPER: Severe political weather expert, Wolf Blitzer. It's something that all of us are going to watching very closely.

CARVILLE: He and I are the only two that are going to study the surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico. Lots is at stake and --

COOPER: We'll certainly be watching very closely heading down south. Let's hope this thing just dissipates but we'll certainly be watching.

It could have, I mean, it could clearly have a political impact. If this thing is happening basically on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina right at the start of the Republican convention.

CARVILLE: I bet you the McCain people are on the phone with FEMA right now saying you get everything into place. The political impact could be, just say this storm hit somewhere in the United States Monday or Tuesday, which it may very well do, you could have a disruption of the coverage of the Republican convention. Obviously, we would as other networks have a lot of people down there. You would not have this blanket to blanket coverage as the Democrats do. It's just something to anticipate.

BORGER: Well, McCain has made a very big point he would have managed Katrina differently than George W. Bush. It's one of the ways he separated himself from the president. It would be interesting to see how he would react in that situation. COOPER: And our coverage, of course, will continue all throughout this week. Whatever develops with the storm, we'll be following that very closely as well.

BLITZER: That's what we do. We're a 24/7 news organization.

COOPER: It's not just an hour of coverage and then a pod cast.

BLITZER: No. We'll do it all. We never stop here.

Anderson, Campbell, the whole political team, thanks guys very much.

Let me do a little housekeeping for all of our viewers right now. Day two is now over. Day three of the Democratic convention begins tomorrow and there's going to be some excitement as we've just heard, Bill Clinton will be addressing this convention here at the Pepsi Center tomorrow night. And Joe Biden, Joe Biden will accept the Democratic vice presidential nomination tomorrow night.

Our coverage will continue with "Larry King Live" right at the top of the hour.

Tomorrow, "American Morning" will be here. John Roberts is here with Kieran Chetry throughout the day. Soledad O'Brien will be doing excellent coverage from the CNN Election Center. I will be back tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern in the situation room. And all of us will continue our coverage throughout the night as we get ready for day three of this Democratic presidential convention.

It's been very exciting. Thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Denver.

"Larry King Live" starts right now.