Dems: RNC Bombed, Bring on Charlotte

As the Republicans came off their convention week with very little bounce, Democrats descended on the Sunday talk shows today to drum up their own soiree in Charlotte, which kicks off Tuesday. "I think the race is exactly where it was before they walked in [to Tampa], and now it's our turn," David Axelrod told Fox News, according to the Hill. "We have a lead in this race, it's a slight lead. We expected a close race, and we're going to have a close race." Other familiar Democrat themes today included lies and liars, notes Politico, with Obama 2012 deputy Stephanie Cutter telling CBS that the RNC amounted to "a week of personal attacks, empty platitudes" in which "lying was a virtue. I heard a lot of things that weren't true this week." Elsewhere on your pre-DNC Sunday dial, as per Politico:

• Rahm Emanuel on Mitt Romney's RNC speech: "Coming out of the convention, they didn't want a debate about Clint Eastwood. They wanted it about Mitt Romney's ideas. The reason they're (talking about Eastwood) is that Mitt Romney's speech was so devoid and vacuous of any ideas."
• Robert Gibbs on the enthusiasm gap this time around: "Nobody is sitting up here saying this is 2008. What has happened since the election in 2008 and right now, again, is this huge economic calamity caused by a series of bad decisions that were made before the president ever got there."
• Antonio Villaraigosa on the GOP platform: "It looks like the platform of 1812. Reagan would be turning in his grave."
• Newt Gingrich on Karl Rove's joke about murdering Todd Akin: "Rove said some terrible things ... for which he has apologized, which should remind us, people make mistakes. In the age of Gabby Giffords, it is not a joke to say that a member of Congress ought to get murdered."

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)