Tonight, former President Bill Clinton is headlining the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC. His highly anticipated speech could show he is the Democratic Party's best weapon in November. Last night we heard from a man who worked in the Clinton administration and served as President Obama's White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Now the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel talks with Soledad O'Brien on "Starting Point" about trying to bring back the enthusiasm for hope and change that defined the Obama campaign in 2008.

"I saw the president make the tough calls in the situation room. And today our troops in Iraq have finally come home so America can do some nation building here at home. That was a change we believed in. That was a change we fought for. That was a change president Obama delivered," he says. "My goal last night was to give people I thought I had a unique perk as chief of staff worked for two presidents and give a front row seat in the Oval Office."

Emanuel also argues that President Obama needs more time in office to fix the rough economy.

"Until the middle class feel comfortable that they can own a home and save for retirement and send kids to college and pay for health care, the basic pillars of middle class, our work is not done," he says.

"I think the president has very clear responsibility, to layout a vision for the future and make clear the choices," he adds. "You will have in my view after this election an agreement between the parties about the shape and role of government."

Soledad also asks Emanuel to weigh in on a comment from RNC chairman Reince Priebus, who said on "Starting Point" fmr. President Clinton will help the GOP argument against Obama, because "he's going to illustrate to the American people that Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton." Emanuel shared his experience working in the Clinton White House.

"I was in the Clinton White House. Republican Congress voted against his entire budget in '93, to start the lay the groundwork for a balanced budget. They voted against the health care plan that President Obama finished. When he was sending troops to Kosovo and Europe to actually bring peace the first time in American history the Congress did not support a war even while the troops were in the air. They were not exactly partners in bringing back the 22 million jobs that were created in the private sector and a balanced budget in the efforts of what happened there. People may remember a period of time of bipartisanship. I was in the Clinton White House, that's not how we lived it. That's not how it happened. It was the same type of battles we have today against a party that put ideology over progress," he says.

The Democratic National Convention is in full swing in Charlotte, North Carolina this week. Last night, First Lady Michelle Obama took center stage and appealed to women across the country. Tonight, Georgetown University graduate and women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke will speak at the DNC to rally support among women for the president as well. Fluke made headlines after conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh insulted her for supporting Obama’s health care law requiring contraception coverage.

Fluke joins Soledad O’Brien on “Starting Point” this morning to share her thoughts on whether there is a “war on women.”

“I do think that a lot of women feel like they’re under attack,” Fluke says. She refers to legislatures across the country trying to “limit access to reproductive healthcare, attacking fair pay, the way it was in Wisconsin, the Violence Against Women Act being controversial for the first time.”

“And women feel that,” she says. “I’ve talked to a lot of them across the country and they really do feel like this is a shift, and not in their favor.”

Fluke also addresses the latest poll showing a gain in support among women for Mitt Romney, but still leaving President Obama with a gain at 54% leaning Obama to 42% leaning Romney. She thinks there is a clear choice this November in regard to policies for women. “President Obama has always been ahead with woman throughout this campaign,” she says, “and I’m sure that he’s going to be ahead with them on Election Day.”

Fluke is uncertain about Mitt Romney’s views on abortion. “What I find disturbing about Mr. Romney’s position is that he’s taken so many different ones on the issue of access to abortion, she says. “And I don’t expect to see a leader moving and quivering with the political times."

As you have heard, the tone of the speeches here at the Democratic National Convention went from brazen attacks on the Romney campaign to inspirational speeches from First Lady Michelle Obama.

On "Starting Point" this morning, Governor Dannel Malloy (D-CT) talks to Soledad O’Brien about President Obama’s track record in office and the strong arguments against Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

"If you can't stand the heat you should stay out of the kitchen," Malloy says. "Mitt Romney has a record and we can talk about it. It's fair game to talk about. Speakers are going to do that. We're going to also talk about what the president has accomplished. And he's accomplished a great deal and actually much more than he gets credit for."

Gov. Malloy also challenges Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) on his claims that the country is not better off with President Obama.

"Let's stop for a second. Which president saved the automobile industry? Your candidate wanted the automobile industry to go bankrupt. That's what he said. He wrote an editorial in the paper. That would have cost another million jobs. In fact it would have taken the great recession into the great depression. And by the way, when you talk about your desire to create jobs, where have you been on a jobs bill?"

Read the transcript from the interview after the jump.

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Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) on the message the Democratic party needs to deliver to voters at the Convention in Charlotte.

At 5:00pm Eastern this evening, the 2012 Democratic National Convention will officially be called to order. There are a series of speakers scheduled for the week, most notably First Lady Michelle Obama tonight and keynote speaker San Antonio's Mayor Julian Castro.

It will be the first time that a Latino gives the keynote speech of the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the week, Democrats are also going to try to convince voters that they are better off now than they were before President Obama took office.

DNC chairwoman and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) shares details on the agenda for the convention.

"Over the course of the week, you'll hear a very different tone than the one that you heard last week in Tampa, which was really essentially one nonstop series of attacks on President Obama," Wasserman Schultz says. "We're going to layout the case for moving the economy forward. President Obama and speakers throughout the week will talk about and have an honest conversation about where we were when he first took office and where we are now after four years of his policies and 29 straight months of job growth in the private sector. We need to continue to move forward and we've got a ways to go. But we're moving in the right direction and need to focus on rebuilding our economy from the middle class out and bottom up and not go back to the failed policies of the past."

Schultz also addresses Soledad's question as to whether Mitt Romney really attacked President Obama in his Republican National Convention speech.

"I was pretty disappointed [Romney] was as disingenuous as he was in saying that he had been rooting for President Obama to succeed...in my home state, the night Mitt Romney won the primary, he said you have to remember what this election is really about, to his supporters and his answer was not creating jobs or getting the economy turned around, it was defeating Barack Obama.
So spare me if I don't really trust that Mitt Romney has been rooting for President Obama to succeed. We need to talk about how to move forward together and help make sure that everyone in America has an opportunity to be successful, not just people who already are like Mitt Romney has proposed," she says.

Schultz also addresses the main question of the convention: Are we better off than we were four years ago?

"Yes, we're absolutely better off. There's no question when President Obama took office, he inherited the largest set of problems of any president since FDR. The economy under President Bush and the previous six months had lost 3.5 million jobs and we were hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month when he took office. Now again after four years of President Obama's policies, not only do we stop the hemorrhaging, but we began to turn things around," she says.

This year, many of the rising stars in the Democratic side aren't in Capitol Hill, they are from City Hall. More than a half dozen mayors scheduled to speak in Charlotte this week, and one is Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. This morning on "Starting Point," Nutter previews what he'll say in his speech.

"I'm going to talk about real facts about the real president, Barack Obama, the things he's done that I've experienced certainly in Philadelphia, particularly focused on education, investment in infrastructure, support for cities," he says. "More than 80% of the country's population lives in cities. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, our job is to get things done and make things happen and support the public that we serve. We don't really have a lot of time for gridlock and talks and resolutions, and you can't continue doing as we see sometimes in Congress, just kind of kick the can down the road. Mayors, much like the president, we have to serve people, and the president has done that. And the commentary from earlier, people seem to forget where we were."

Nutter adds, "there has been progress and things would have been that much worse but for $787 billion economic recovery package, the largest in the history of the country, reforms on Wall Street. A lot of people talked about making health care affordable, president Barack Obama actually did it. Said he would end the two wars, did that. Killed bin Laden and GM is back and auto industry is saved when Mitt Romney said let it die. So he actually has a record."

In the clip below, Mayor Nutter details how the stimulus went to help shore up the economy in Philadelphia.