the republicans wouldn't allow her to testify about access to birth control caused quite a stir and of course earned her a place at the podium tonight. sandra fluke. [crowd cheering] >> some of you, some of you may remember that earlier this year, republicans shut me out of a hearing on contraception. in fact, on that panel, they didn't hear from a single woman [crowd booing] even though they were debating an issue that affects nearly every woman. because it happened in congress, people noticed. but it happens all the time. noom women are shut out and silenced. so while i'm honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you. i'm here because i spoke out. [crowd cheering] and this november, each of us must speak out. during this campaign, we've heard about two profoundly different futures that could await women in this country. and how one of those futures looks like an obsolete relic of our past. warnings of our fortune are not distractions. they are not imagined. that future could become real. in that america. your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. [applause] a man who won't stand up to those slurs or to any of the extreme biggated voice big bigos own party. it would be an america in which you have a new vice president who cosponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency room. an america in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultra sounds, that we don't want. and our doctors say that we don't need. an america in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it. [ applause ] an america in which politicians redefine rape and victims are victimized all over again. in which someone decides which domestic violence victim deserves access to services and which don't. we know what this america would look like. in a few short months that's the america that we could be but that's not the america that we should be and it's not who we are! [ cheering and applause ] we've also seen another america that we can choose, in that america we'd have the right to choose. [applause] it's an america in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance. in which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives. in which we decide when to start our family. an america in which our president when he hears that a young woman has been verbally attacked thinks of his daughters not his delegates or his donors. [ applause ] and in which our president stands with all women and strangers come together and reach out and lift her up. and then instead of trying to silence her you invite me here. and you give me this microphone to amplify our voice. [ applause ] that's the difference. over the last six months i've seen what these two futures look like and six months from now we're all going to be living in one future or the other. but only one. a country where our president either has our backs or turns his back. a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward or one that forces our general operation to refight battle, is that they already won. [ applause ] a country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom. or one where that freedom doesn't apply to our bodies or to our voices. we talk often about choice, well, ladies, and gentlemen, it's now time to choose. >> the georgetown law student who became a cause because she spoke up and challenged the policy that in effect said that contraceptives could not be covered by health care policy. if you are just joining us you're watch pbs "newshour" special coverage of the 2012 democratic national convention. coming to the podium now, jim sinegal, c.e.o. of costco. >> i grew up in pittsburgh where my father worked. i graduated from the public high school, attended a community college and a state university. my first job was at a retail warehouse. then three decades ago a friend and i had a big idea for a small business. one that we would start in seattle, washington. [ applause ] a warehouse store that would provide our members with great products, low prices while treating our employees fairly. today our small company has been blessed with success, huge success. i might say bulk success. costco is the fifth largest retailer in the u.s. and seventh largest in the world. [ applause ] in tampa last week we heard all about job creators. but at our company we recognize that job creation requires time and investment and commitment to the long term. it requires companies that grow not executive who reap and run. that's how we do our part to build an economy that lasts. autocrossco we've created over 116,000 american jobs -- [ applause ] and during the next 12 months we expect to add another 7,000. we're proud that costco pays the highest wages among our peers, that would provide benefit and health care packages that are second to none. and just as importantly that we've grown our business by promoting from within. so that we're not just giving costco people jobs we're empowering them to build careers and support middle class families. [ applause ] at costco we know a thing or two about what it takes for business to succeed. for a company to do well by its shareholders and do the right thing for its employees at the same time. we don't want one set of rules for ourselves and another for our employees. we remember back what it's like to be an employee. that's why we want to be part of an economy built to last. some of my friends in corporate america say that they need a government that gets off the backs of businesses. and that's why many of them are supporting the opposition with donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars. but i think they have got it all wrong. business needs a president who has covered the backs of businesses, a president who understands what the private sector needs to succeed. a president who takes the long view and makes the tough decisions. and that's why i'm here tonight supporting president obama. [ cheering and applause ] a president making an economy built to last. in order for companies like costco to invest, grow, hire and flourish the conditions have to be right. that requires something from all of us. and if you ask the innovative growth companies across the country they will tell you exactly what that something is. they will tell you, america needs to be a nation with the best education system so that workers can get the training they need to join or stay in the middle class. america also needs to be a nation that spurs research and innovation so that our products and industries of tomorrow are invented here at home. america needs to be a nation with an affordable energy of all kinds so companies can keep their costs down and their production line comings and products moving. america also needs to be a nation with the safest, most efficient transportation system. so people and goods can connect with opportunities and markets. america needs to be a nation that pays down its debt in a balanced way so businesses have a predictable environment in which the plans to invest and trade. america needs to be a nation with a sensible immigration law. laws that are humane and practical. laws that help businesses retain qualified employees. and america needs to be a nation where everyone follows the same set of rules of the road. so that small businesses can compete with the big and so that small businesses can become big. so that break-through ideas and hard work are rewarded more than speculation. stow that more start-ups succeed and fewer -- these are the investment that business want. these are the building blocks of president obama's plan for the future and that's why i'm proud to stand with him. [applause] three decades ago my business parter and i started a company, we sacrificed, we struggled, we risked our own money, we relied on ourselves, our initiatives, our enterprise, this in part is why our company succeeded. but here's the thing about costco story. we did not build our company in a vacuum. we built it in the greatest country on earth. [ cheering and applause ] we built our company in a place where anyone can make it with hard work, a little luck and a little help from their neighbors and their country. i'm here tonight because costco's story is the american story. because it's a story that president obama is helping millions of dreamers and doers to write anew for themselves i'm here tonight because i believe he deserves four more years to help us write the next chapter. thank you very much. >> woodruff: at the beginning of the 10:00 hour we heard first from sandra of course very popular in this hall for standing up to conservative talk show host who gave her a hard time. and that was the c.e.o. of costco. now one of the bright lights and great hopes in the democratic party, elizabeth warren running for senate in massachusetts. elizabeth warren. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. i'm elizabeth warren. and this is my first democratic convention. [ applause ] >> audience: warren! >> okay, enough. i never thought i'd run for the senate and i sure never dreamed that i'd be the warm-up act for president bill clinton. [ applause ] he's an amazing man who has a good sense, married one of the coolest women on this planet. [ applause ] i want to give a special shout out to the massachusetts delegation. i'm counting on to you help me win and to help president obama win. i'm here tonight to talk about hard working people. people who get up early, stay up late, cook dinner and help out with homework. people who can be counseled on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors and the lady down the street whose car broke down. people who work their hearts out that are up against the hard truth. the game is rigged against them. it wasn't always this way. like a lot of you i grew up in a family on the ragged edges of town, my daddy sold carpeting and end up maintenance man. after his heart attack my mom worked at sears to hang on to our house. all three of my brothers served in the military. one was career, second good union job in construction. the third started a small business. me, i was waiting tables at 13 and married at 19. i graduated from public schools and taught elementary school. i have a wonderful husband, two great children and three beautiful grandchildren. and i'm grateful down to my toes for every opportunity that america gave me. this is a great country. [ applause ] i grew up in an america that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class that allowed millions of children to rise from poverty and establish their lives. an america that created social security and medicare so that seniors could live with dignity. an america in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better. but now for many years our middle class has been chipped, squeezed and hammered. i talked to a construction worker i met from massachusetts who went nine months without finding work. talked to the head of a manufacturing company in franklin trying to protect jobs but worried about rising costs. talked to the student in worcester who worked hard to finish his degree and now he's drowning in debt. their fight is my fight and it's barack obama's fight, too. [ applause ] people feel like the system is rigged against them and here's the painful part. they're right. the system is rigged. look around, oil companies guzzle down billions in profit, billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. and wall street c.e.o.s the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs still strut around congress, no shame, demanding favors and acting like we should thank them. does anyone here have a problem with that? [ cheering and applause ] well, i do, too. i talked to small business owners all across massachusetts, and not one of them -- not one made big bucks from the risk that brought down our economy. i talked to nurses and programmers, sales people and firefighters, people who bust their tails every day and not one of them -- not one stashes their money in the cayman islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. [ cheering and applause ] these folks don't resent that someone else made more money. we're americans, we celebrate success. we just don't want the game to be rigged. we fought to level the playing field before. about a century ago when core rose sieve ways threatened our economy, the american people came together under the leadership of teddy roosevelt and other progressives to bring our nation back from the brink. we started to take children out of factories and put them in schools. we began to give meaning to the word consumer protection. by making food and medicine safe. we gave the little guy the better chance by preventing the big guy from rigging the market. we turned adversity in to progress because that's what we do. [ applause ] americans are fighters. we're tough, resourceful and creative. and if we have the chance to fight on a level playing field where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot, then no one -- no one can stop us. [ applause ] president obama gets it because he spent his life fighting for the middle class. and now he's fighting to level that playing field. because we know the economy doesn't grow from the top down but from the middle class out and the bottom up, that's how we decree tate jobs and reduce the debt. [ applause ] and mitt romney wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires but to middle class families hanging on think by fingernails, his plan will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to $2,000. mitt romney wants to give billions in breaks to big corporations, but he and paul ryan would pulverize financial reform, vaporize obamacare. the republican vision is clear. i got mine, the rest of you are on your own. republicans say they don't believe in government. sure they do. they believe in government that helps themselves and their powerful friends. [ applause ] after all, mitt romney is the guy who said, corporations are people. no, governor romney, corporations are not people. people have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance, they live, they breathe and they die. [applause] that matters. that matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people. and that's why we need barack obama. [ cheering and applause ] after the financial crisis president obama knew that we had to clean up wall street. for years, families had been ripped by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages. i had an idea for consumer financial protection agency to stop the rip-offs. now the big banks sure didn't like it they marshaled one of the biggest lobbying forces on earth to destroy the agency before it ever saw the light of day. american families didn't have an army of lobbyists on our side. what we had was a president, president obama leading the way. and when the lobbyists were closing in for the kill, barack obama squared his shoulders, landed his feet and speed firm and that's how we won. [ applause ] by the way, just a few weeks ago that little agency caught one of the biggest credit card companies cheating its customers and made it give back every penny it took plus millions ever dollars in fines. that's what happened when you have a president on the side of the middle class. [ applause ] president obama believes in a level playing field. he believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. a country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves, has a chance to build a business. and anyone who works hard, who builds the security and raise is family. president obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries do. [ applause ] and i can't believe i have to say this in 2012, a country where women get equal pay for equal work. [ applause ] he believes in a country where everyone is held accountable, where no one can steal your purse on main street or your pension on wall street. [ applause ] president obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges and science and in the future. so we can create new opportunities so the next kids can make it big stand the kid after that and the kid after that. that's what president obama believes. and that's how we build the economy of the future. an economy with more jobs and less debt. we root it in fairness, we grow it with opportunity and we build it together. [ applause ] i grew up in the methodist church and taught sunday school. and one of my favorite passages, scripture is inasmuch as ye have done it on to one of the least of these my breathren, ye have done it on to me. matthew 25:40. the passage teaches about god in each of us. that we are bound to each other and we are called to act. not to sit, not to wait but to act all of us together. senator ted kennedy understood that. four years ago he addressed our convention for the last time, he said we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. generation after generation americans have answered that call and now we are called again. we are called to restore opportunity for every american. we are called to give america's working families a fighting chance. we are called to build something solid so the next generation can build something better. so let me ask you, america, are you ready to answer this call? [ cheering and applause ] are you ready to work for good jobs and strong middle class. are you ready to work for a level playing field. are you ready to stoned another generation of americans that we can build a better country and a newer world. joe biden is ready, barack obama is ready. i'm ready. you're ready. thank you. god bless america. >> woodruff: not an empty seat in the house in the time warner cable arena here in charlotte, north carolina. as massachusetts candidate elizabeth warren finishes her remarks to the delegates you can see them standing, cheering, waving. waving signs, we are getting close to the moment when former president bill clinton will speak. right now we're going to hear from the chair of the convention, the mayor of los angeles, antonio villaraigaso. >> pursuant to our nominating rules, only one candidate is qualified to be the nominee of our party for president of the united states. our next speaker will place before you that nomination. ♪ >> unemployment in june was the highest in march of 1984 -- >> u.s. economy has been in a resection. >> ten million americans still officially unemployed. >> there is nothing wrong with america that cannot be cured by what is right with america. we believe that in -- we have got to go beyond the brain dead politics in washington and give our people the kind of government they deserve, a government that works for them. after years of hard effort, the longest economic expansion in history. we proved that we could find a way to balance the budget and protect our values. >> we have lots of evidence that focus on the middle class get better results. i personally believe that if the american people give you the honor of serving, you should keep on doing it when you leave office. i set up this foundation so that i could pursue causes that i can still have an impact on as a private citizen. it is a results-oriented foundation committed for taking on the world's biggest challenges. my life has been a balance between fulfilling initiatives that i always wanted and responding to things that come up. >> what should our shared values be? everybody counts. everybody deserves a chance. everybody's got a responsibility to fulfill. we all do better when we work together. >> he's helped to