DENVER - After serving in government as both an elected official and as an appointed officer for four decades, Leon Panetta has seen much of the sweep of recent American political history  - especially as it pertains to the nation's civil rights movement.

That's why on Thursday, Panetta, whose served as a former director of the U.S. Office on Civil Rights, former member of Congress and former White House chief of staff said it's time for California and indeed the whole nation to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to really supporting civil rights and the power of diversity.

"We cannot blow this moment in history. We just cannot blow this moment," Panetta told the California Democratic Party delegation at its fourth and final breakfast meeting of the convention. "We have a special responsibility to make sure that we do everything possible to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. This election and how we respond to it may well represent the very soul of our state and of our nation."