DNC article

Every four years, Republicans and Democrats respectively come together to celebrate their party’s ideals and to nominate their candidate for president of the United States of America.

Following the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa Bay Aug. 27-30, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) was held in Charlotte, N.C. Sept. 4-6.

The Democratic presidential candidate for this year is incumbent President Barack Obama. According to the official DNC website, nearly 6,000 delegates from around the country took part in the convention, up from the 4,419 delegates who participated in 2008. Each one of them made the trek to the convention to show their support for President Obama’s campaign for re-election.

“Charlotte in 2012,” a website created by the city to promote updated information on events related to the convention, mentioned the excitement of hosting such a large event.

“Hosting the Democratic National Convention is a proud moment for Charlotte and the state of North Carolina. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for local residents to experience history in the making and join the tens of thousands of media, delegates, elected officials and special guests in convention-related activities.”

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine delivered his speech at the DNC Tuesday night. Kaine is running against Republican George Allen for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.).

“It’s great to be here, especially with my friends from Virginia. A few years ago, few imagined that Virginia would be a battleground state,” Kaine said. “Virginia had last voted for a Democrat for president in 1964, but we proudly cast our electoral votes in 2008 for President Obama. In 2006 and 2008, we elected two outstanding senators—Jim Webb and Mark Warner. And together, we’re going to win again in 2012.”

Former President Bill Clinton also addressed the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, Wednesday night. Clinton went off-script and over his scheduled time to address the crowd.

“I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty,” Clinton said. “I want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already-weak economy, and then just six weeks before his election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression—a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs that he saved or created, there’d still be millions more waiting, worried about feeding their own kids, trying to keep their hopes alive.”

Other keynote speakers from the convention included Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards.

The convention was supposed to end with President Obama’s address to a live audience of 70,000 at Bank of America Stadium, but inclement weather forced the acceptance speech into the much smaller Time Warner Cable Arena.