Clinton urges support for Obama

Hillary speaks, receives good response at DNC

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

DENVER -- Journos and pundits have been proclaiming that if Hillary Rodham Clinton had one overarching goal in her speech to the Democratic National Convention, it was to unify a fragmented party.

While it's too soon to tell, she did manage to bring an overcrowded Pepsi Center to a state of rapt attention, even among the hundreds who couldn't get a seat inside and had to watch on monitors in the outside hallways.

Before Clinton spoke, people arrived in noisy droves, shouting and laughing in anticipation, their whoops and calls echoing in the Pepsi Center entrances and hallways.

As seating filled up, scores of people crowded near entryways to get a glimpse of the podium. Alas, most views were blocked. People then headed for monitors.

As Clinton took the stage, the applause outside in the lobby areas and hallways thundered along with the thousands inside. Then quiet fell as she spoke.

Clinton wasted no time, saying within her first minutes that the time had come for all Democrats -- including those who voted for her -- to join in her support for Barack Obama.

"My friends, it is time to take back the country we love," she said. "It is time now to unite as a single party with a single purpose."

She spoke of the need to help the less fortunate and to repair the nation's ills brought about by the Bush administration.

At least one woman who supported her felt ready to support Obama after the speech. A California woman who attended the convention "just as a citizen" said she thought Clinton had been direct, honest and classy. As a result, "I'm going to go volunteer for Obama campaign."