News Chelsea Clinton on her big convention moment, what she hopes Bill will be called 
 
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 Chelsea Clinton, who just gave birth to her second child last month, said she expects her "heart will burst” when her mother becomes the first woman to accept the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday night. 
 
 “This election is so important to me, because I'm now a mom. And as proud as I am of my mom, this election to me is fundamentally about my children, about Charlotte and Aidan,” the former first daughter told TODAY’s Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview. 
 
 “And I couldn't imagine a better president for them. I couldn't imagine a better grandmother for them, either. And so I think just standing there, thinking about my children and looking at my mom, I think it's going to be overwhelming.” 
 
 RELATED: President Obama heaps praise on Hillary Clinton at DNC 
 
 Clinton said she will speak from the heart Thursday when she introduces her mother at the Democratic National Convention. 
 
 The 36-year-old will become the only person to have both parents receive nods for president and hopes to tap into her experience of having parents who have been in the public eye her entire life. 
 
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 “I just hope that people understand even a little more when I'm done than when I started about why I love her so much and admire her so much,” she said. 
 
 RELATED: Chelsea Clinton welcomes baby No. 2, a boy named Aidan Clinton Mazvinsky 
 
 The job will be critical, as Hillary Clinton fights high negative ratings, even from some in her own party. 
 
 Chelsea Clinton acknowledged she needs to overcome a disconnect between the presidential candidate Republicans described last week at their convention and “the person that I know" and hopes to convey in her convention speech. 
 
 “That's not the person that I know," she said about the negative portrayals of her mom. 
 
 "That's not the person that I grew up with, that I'm so proud to stand beside and to introduce here in Philadelphia.” 
 
 RELATED: Donald Trump calls on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails 
 
 Republican nominee Donald Trump has taken to calling Clinton “Crooked Hillary,” and last week delegates at his party's convention frequently broke into chants of “lock her up.” 
 
 But Clinton described her mom as a fighter. 
 
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 “She’s tough and she can take whatever people say about her,” she said. 
 
 There is one parallel between the conventions: Clinton will introduce her mother, just as Ivanka Trump introduced her father in Cleveland last week. 
 
 Clinton said she considers Ivanka a friend. 
 
 “And yet clearly, Ivanka and I have very different views about who we think should be our president, who we think best represents our country,” she said. 
 
 "I think it's clear that Mr. Trump is running his campaign and saying what he thinks is important in this election,” Clinton said. “I think what we're seeing here in Philadelphia is a very strong contrast to that. And my mother's not engaging in divisive, bigoted rhetoric.” 
 
 Clinton also was asked a question she said she gets all the time: What would her father, former President Bill Clinton, be called should he return to the White House? 
 
 "He likes to hearken back to his kind of Irish roots, so I think he'd love to be called 'first laddie'” she said with a laugh. 
 
 But Clinton doesn’t think that will catch on. 
 
 “So I'm definitely voting for 'first gentleman,'” she said. ||||| Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes the stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Associated Press) 
 
 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Their political fates now entwined, President Barack Obama is imploring voters to elect Hillary Clinton to the White House, joining a chorus of Democrats vouching Wednesday night for her readiness to be commander in chief at time of volatility around the world. 
 
 "Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect," Obama said in excerpts released ahead of his remarks at the Democratic convention. "And no matter how daunting the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits." 
 
 Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, introduced himself to the nation as a formidable foil to Republican nominee Donald Trump. 
 
 "Donald Trump has a passion," he said. "It's himself." 
 
 "Believe me!" he exclaimed over and over, imitating Trump's tone as he ridiculed a list of the Republican's promises. 
 
 For Democrats, the night was steeped in symbolism, the passing of the baton from a barrier-breaking president to a candidate trying to make history herself. 
 
 Obama's robust support for Clinton, his political foe-turned-friend, is also driven by deep concern that Republican Donald Trump might win in November and unravel the president's eight years in office. 
 
 Trump fueled more controversy Wednesday when he encouraged Russia to meddle in the presidential campaign. On the heels of reports that Russia may have hacked Democratic Party emails, Trump said, "Russia, if you're listening," it would be desirable to see Moscow find and publish the thousands of emails Clinton says she deleted during her years as secretary of state. 
 
 Wednesday night's Democratic lineup was aimed at emphasizing Clinton's own national security credentials. It was a significant shift in tone after two nights spent reintroducing Clinton to voters as a champion for children and families, and relishing in her historic nomination as the first woman to lead a major political party into the general election. 
 
 The convention's third night was also a time for Democrats to celebrate Obama's two terms in office. Vice President Joe Biden, who decided against running for president this year after the death of his son, called it a "bittersweet moment." 
 
 A son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden appealed directly to the working class white voters who have been drawn to Trump's populism, warning them against falling for false promises and exploitation of Americans' anxieties. 
 
 "This guy doesn't have a clue about the middle class," he declared. 
 
 Kaine also picked up the traditional attacking role of the presidential ticket's No. 2. With folksy charm, he tore into Trump, mocking his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border, asking why he has not released his tax returns and slamming his business record, including the now-defunct Trump University. 
 
 "Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth," Kaine said. "Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew." 
 
 Liberals, particularly those who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have grumbled about Kaine being on the ticket, particularly because of his support for "fast track" approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Several delegates held up anti-TPP signs as he spoke. 
 
 In a move aimed at broadening Clinton's appeal, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — an independent who considered launching a third party bid for president — endorsed the Democratic nominee. A billionaire businessman himself, Bloomberg took aim at Trump's bankruptcies, reliance on foreign factories and other economic experience: "The richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy." 
 
 President Bill Clinton, filling the role of devoted political spouse, joined the crowd packed to the arena rafters in cheering the attacks on Trump. 
 
 Clinton's campaign believes Trump's unorthodox candidacy will turn off moderate Republicans, particularly women, who worry he's too unpredictable to take the helm in a turbulent world. They recognize that Republicans, as well as many Democrats, have questions about Clinton's character but hope to ease those concerns. 
 
 Still, the core of Clinton's strategy is putting back together Obama's winning White House coalition. In both his campaigns, Obama carried more than 90 percent of black voters, the overwhelming majority of Hispanics, and more than half of young people and women. 
 
 That coalition was vividly on display in the first two nights of the convention in Philadelphia. Women lawmakers were prominently featured, along with young activists, immigrants, and mothers whose black children were victims of gun violence or killed during encounters with law enforcement. 
 
 Gun violence continued as a theme Wednesday night as families of mass shooting victims took the stage. Delegates rose in an emotional standing ovation for the mother of one of the victims in last month's Orlando nightclub shooting, who asked why "commonsense" gun policies weren't in place when her son died. 
 
 "I never want you to ask that question about your child," Christine Leinonen said. 
 
 Capping the somber section of the program focused on gun violence, a group of Broadway singers performed a rousing rendition of "What the World Needs Now Is Love," as the audience sang and swayed in unison. 
 
 Clinton's convention has been awash in history, with energized delegates celebrating her formal nomination as the first woman to ever lead a major political party in the general election. Some supporters of Sanders, her primary opponent, continued to voice their displeasure. 
 
 But Sanders, meeting with New England delegates, said, "As of yesterday, I guess, officially our campaign ended." 
 
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 AP writers Kathleen Hennessey and Ken Thomas contributed to this report. 
 
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 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Catherine Lucey at http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey ||||| Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images 
 
 While Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the first female major-party presidential nominee hardly represents the end of sexism as we know it, there is plenty of evidence of progress. As Clinton battles her opponent, courts donors, and presents informed policy positions, it becomes harder and harder to imagine a time when the world saw her political competence and ambition as an anomaly and preferred instead to focus on her cookie-baking skills. 
 
 But a recent side-eyed takedown of Chelsea Clinton in the Daily Mail for missing her daughter Charlotte’s first day of school suggests that the decline in interest in Hillary’s domestic bona fides may have less to do with evolving attitudes on the responsibilities of mothers, and more to do with the fact that the presidential nominee no longer has school-aged children at home. 
 
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 The Mail's story on Chelsea’s great transgression is an remarkably unselfconscious example of mom-shaming. Let’s begin with the headline: “It takes a village! Chelsea Clinton’s husband Marc and their nanny take Charlotte to her first day of preschool—which she misses to campaign for her sick mom.” You know who else Marc is besides Chelsea’s husband? Charlotte’s father, originator of half of her DNA, equal participant in her creation, and equal shareholder in her well-being. 
 
 The handy bullet points that the Mail places on top of their stories are written in the same “bad mommy!” spirit. In them, the tabloid emphasizes again that it was not-yet-two-year-old Charlotte’s apparently momentous first day of school. They then point out that Chelsea had to miss it because she is campaigning in North Carolina in place of her mother who “was also unable to join Charlotte or watch baby Aidan because she is recovering from pneumonia at her home in Chappaqua.” (Because if she wasn’t sick, of course Hillary would spend a Monday morning with her grandchildren seven weeks before the election.) They end their summary by making it quite clear as to why dads are no substitute for moms: “Marc was seen on his phone while he and the nanny took Charlotte to school” and “[a]fter dropping Charlotte off, Marc enjoyed lunch for an hour-and-a-half with a friend.” Later in the story, we learn that all this took place while son Aidan was “presumably home with another nanny.” Presumably, but with mom far away, grandma sick, and dad off palling around and sipping Diet Coke with one of his “boys,” we’ll never know for certain. 
 
 Earlier this morning, Fox 32 Chicago posted the Daily Mail story on their Facebook page, asking their readers to “sound off” on whether or not Chelsea Clinton should have been there for her daughter’s first day of school. Was that a major parenting miss, or “is it acceptable for one parent to drop the child off? The best responses will go on air!” Wisely, the station has since deleted the post, which leaves us without an answer to these particular queries, but does provide an answer to the larger question of whether or not anyone should be inquiring into such matters in the first place. They shouldn’t. 
 
 The fact is, this discussion would have never occurred in the first place if Chelsea were a guy. Male Chelsea’s absence at drop-off would simply not register as news, thanks to the fact that fathers have never been accountable for being there for their children at all times. Moms, on the other hand, are always accountable, even when not physically present. Trump’s announcement of a maternity leave policy, as opposed to a family leave policy, is a testament to the fact that such thinking is alive and well.
– As the Democratic National Convention heads into its final night, viewers may experience a subtle sense of deja vu from last week's RNC event: the presidential nominee being preceded by an intimate speech from a daughter. It's Chelsea Clinton's turn to "sell Mrs. Clinton to the American public," as the New York Times puts it, wondering if the former first daughter's spin will tend toward Hillary's role as a feminism advocate—the theme Thursday night focuses on women's issues—a doting mom, or both. Chelsea Clinton may even touch upon Trump: Per the Los Angeles Times, the younger Clinton told Today Thursday morning that the way she's heard the GOP nominee talk about the US is "far more upsetting … than anything they said about my mom." As for the main event herself, the New York Times notes Hillary Clinton has a tall order before her on the DNC stage Thursday night: to start to win back citizens' trust, make a case why Trump is too "erratic" to be president, and "own her flaws" about everything from her highly publicized email server issues to problems she's dealt with in her personal life. Another challenging task: making a speech that gives a shoutout to President Obama's achievements but lays out new goals of her own so she doesn't seem like a clone.