Michigan Delegates Say DNC Will Draw Sharp Contrast to RNC

Michigan delegates say they're set to move the country forward and to help Barack Obama win the November election.

Lansing's Mark Brewer, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte will strike a sharp contrast to last week's Republican National Convention in Tampa.

"We won't have people talking to empty chairs," Brewer said, referencing Clint Eastwood's unscripted performance at the RNC last Thursday.

"Last week they were big on platitudes and short on specifics," Brewer said. "No talk on how they were going to voucherize Medicare, privatize Social Security, Romney has surrounded himself basically with Bush retreads. If he's elected he will take us back."

Brewer said it's important the DNC draw that contrast, point out that it's time to move forward.

"In Michigan, if Mitt Romney were president the auto industry would be gone today," Brewer said. "The president did a very brave thing by coming to the rescue of the auto industry and Mitt Romney famously said 'let Detroit go bankrupt.'"

Brewer said the country isn't where it needs to be, but reminds people "we were losing a millions jobs a month when Obama took office."

"We are going in the right direction, we are digging out of a huge hole," Brewer said. "That's the contrast we draw to four years ago."

Edna Bell of Detroit is a 14th Congressional volunteer in Michigan. While she said our country isn't where she would like for it to be four years after the election of Barack Obama, it's moving in the right direction.

Bell, a precinct delegate and a national delegate at-large, attended her first convention in 1996 and said she stays involved in the political process because of her children and her grandchildren.

"They need to see a country that cares about them and works to make sure they are OK," Bell said.

She said she hopes the Obama administration, and the DNC itself, will loudly tout the things that it has done in the last four years.

"I'm hoping all of our speakers this week will talk about all the promises that were kept and how we move forward," Bell said. "I hope they will tout those good things, and not cow-tow to what others say have happened."

Bell said no one else is talking about the things that have changed in four years and that she hopes that the Democratic Party will be its "biggest champions."

"Things have changed," Bell said. "I talk to every day people who are finding jobs or who are getting two or job offers. Things are getting better, they still need to get a lot better, but they are better than they were. We can see a path."

Bell said there are several issues she would love to hear discussed at the DNC this week, one being Obamacare and the "good things it has done." Jobs that have been saved. Good things that are being done for the middle class and the students. And the truth about Medicare.

"That's the things people aren't saying," she said. "Medicare is a huge issue, those of us on Medicare appreciate him saving Medicare for us."

To win this year, Bell said Obama is going to have to talk about the good things, something she said she's not sure he's capable of doing.

"He has to talk about the good things he's done, but I'm not sure he's capable of blowing his own horn," Bell said. "He needs to get people energized again, get them out again to vote, the same way he did four years ago."