Politics

They billed the gathering in a Charlotte, N.C., Holiday Inn conference room Tuesday as the first national meeting of Mormon Democrats.

Don't laugh. Crystal Young-Otterstrom says she figures there are 1 million of them out there, and she's determined to find them.

"It's like a missionary effort," Young-Otterstrom said in a room packed with the curious, the media and a cadre of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints making the argument that the Democratic Party best represents their personal and religious values.

Good evening from Charlotte, N.C., where Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz gaveled the convention to order promptly at 5 p.m. ET. in Charlotte's Time Warner Cable Arena.

Schultz, who is also the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said that throughout the next three days, "we will demonstrate we need to keep President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden four more years."

The Democratic National Convention began Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. Robert Siegel talks with Mara Liasson about the day's events.

It's been a momentous year for the LGBT community. At the Democratic National Convention, delegates are voting to approve a platform that includes a gay marriage plank. This follows President Obama's announcement in May that he supports gay marriage. These developments, on top of other support from the administration, have led gay and lesbian donors to step up their contributions to the president's re-election campaign this year. Audie Cornish talked with gay delegates and fundraisers about what this year has meant for them.

Robert Siegel and Melissa Block report that as the Democratic National Convention gets underway, the other running record of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is taking the spotlight. Debate over his reported marathon time has become a popular subject in the blogosphere. Ryan misstated his over four hour time as being under three hours.

Hispanics were a major focus of the program at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Democrats, beginning their convention in Charlotte, N.C., are hoping to capitalize on their current advantage with Hispanic voters.

As the Democratic National Convention begins in Charlotte, host Michel Martin checks in with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is chairing the event. The Los Angeles Mayor says the Democrats have grown more jobs in the worst recession since the great depression in four years than President Bush did in eight.

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

That classic question — so famously asked by then-candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980 — is again a topic of great debate as Democrats kick off their 2012 national convention in Charlotte, N.C.