President Obama Arrives in Charlotte to Hear Bill Clinton's Speech at DNC

President Obama traveled to Charlotte, N.C., tonight to hear former president Bill Clinton nominate him for reelection and listen to Clinton make the case that Americans are better off with Obama's promise of "shared responsibility" than what he called Mitt Romney's "winner take all" philosophy.

Clinton headlines the second night of the Democratic National Convention and will officially nominate Obama, a role typically performed by the nominee's running mate.

Obama, it was learned this evening, will be in the hall for the speach. The president stayed in the White House with his two daughters on Tuesday night to watch his wife Michelle gave an emotional speech backing his character and his presidency.

Though Clinton and Obama have sparred in the past, especially during the 2008 Democratic primaries that pitted Obama against Hillary Clinton, Obama is betting that the former president, a Democrat who oversaw nearly a decade of economic prosperity, will remind voters of what having a Democrat in the White House can mean for their wallets.

Clinton is expected to make the case that Obama alone is capable of fixing the economic mess made by Republicans.

"In Tampa the Republican argument against the president's re-election was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn't finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in," he will say according to released excerpts of his speech.

"I like the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators," he says.

Clinton is also expected to say that a vote for Obama represents a vote for doing what is best for the country, not just for oneself.

"The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a you're-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility -- a we're-all-in-this-together society -- you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden," he says.

Clinton's speech marks the apex of a previously rocky relationship with Obama. When Obama ran against his wife Hillary Clinton in 2008 for the Democratic nomination, Bill Clinton often jabbed Obama on the stump, even calling his campaign a "fairy tale."

Hillary Clinton, now President Obama's secretary of state and a possible 2016 contender, will not be at the convention. She is on an 11-day tour of Asia and the Pacific and is expected to be in the tiny island nation of East Timor at the time her husband takes the stage.

Democrats may be betting that Clinton will remind voters of more prosperous times under a Democratic president, but the Republicans said the former president's presence will only remind voters of Obama's failures.

Former House Speaker and onetime Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told USA Today that Clinton's appearance "an enormous risk" that would remind voters of how "pathetically bad Obama has been."

GOP vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, campaigning today in Iowa, said Clinton would do little more than deliver "a great rendition of how good things were in the 1990s. But we're not going to hear much about how things have been in the last four years."

Loyalists defended the campaign's decision to parade out Clinton tonight.

"A former president who is very popular who can explain about the policies and the parallel tracks the two presidents have had in the sense of investing in education, investing in research and development, alternative energy and green energy and a responsible way of balancing the budget," Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations said today on "Good Morning America."

"I think he can do nothing but help and the notion that Newt is going to give our party strategic advice, no thank you," he said.

Clinton, whose administration was marred by a sex scandal and impeachment trial, is more popular today than most public officials. 

Democrats hope that popularity will rub off on Obama, who according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, has the lowest favorability rating of any incumbent president entering a convention.

Throughout the evening, party loyalists and leaders addressed the convention in support of President Obama.

"To those like Mitt Romney who want to take us backwards, let's send a strong message in November: as we say in Brooklyn, "Fuhgeddaboutit," said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to cheers.

Just before Clinton speaks Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren will address the convention, evoking the memory of Ted Kennedy and hammering the key idea that Obama will be better for the middle class.

"Let me ask you... Are you ready to fight for good jobs and a strong middle class? Are you ready to work for a level playing field? Are you ready to prove to another generation of Americans that we can build a better country and a newer world," she asks.

The convention met with brief controversy this afternoon. A vote was taken to amend the party platform with language that affirmed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and included the word "God." The original platform did not contain that language. The change was made by voice vote.