From the New York Times:
With her husband looking on tenderly and her supporters watching with tears in their eyes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton deferred her own dreams on Tuesday night and delivered an emphatic plea at the Democratic National Convention to unite behind her rival, Senator Barack Obama....
Declaring herself to be “a proud supporter of Barack Obama,” Mrs. Clinton urged Democrats to put aside their loyalty to her and unite behind Mr. Obama — or risk continuing Bush administration policies under the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.
“Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” Mrs. Clinton said, beaming as the convention hall burst into applause. “And you haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.”
She added, “No way, no how, no McCain.”
Mr. Obama praised Mrs. Clinton’s speech as he watched Tuesday night from Montana.
“That was excellent, that was a strong speech,” Mr. Obama said from Billings. “She made the case for why we’re going to be unified in November and why we’re going to win this election. I thought she was outstanding....”
Mrs. Clinton also provided some of the night’s sharpest lines of attack on Mr. McCain in her convention speech. “It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart,” she said, referring to the site of the Republican National Convention...
With delegates waving banners that read “Hillary” or “Obama” on one side and “Unity” on the other, Mrs. Clinton encouraged supporters to rally behind Mr. Obama for the sake of struggling Americans she met during the campaign.
“I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?” Mrs. Clinton said. “Or were you in it for that young marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage?”
From the Washington Post:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton roused the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night with sharp criticism of Sen. John McCain and a full-throated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, her former rival for the party's nomination, urging Democrats to put the long and bitter battle behind them and unite to take back the White House in November.
"You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," Clinton told an audience packed to overflowing at Denver's Pepsi Center. "No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president..."
Clinton described the passions that drove her to seek the presidency, including a desire to rebuild the economy, enact universal health care, end the war in Iraq and stand up for what she called "invisible" Americans. "Those are the reasons I ran for president. These are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should, too," she told an audience that included her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and Obama's running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).
When she finished, the white placards that had greeted her gave way to narrow blue-and-white signs that said "Obama" on one side and "Unity" on the other, as well as signs that said "Hillary" and "Unity..."
"It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities," she said, referring to the site of the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. "Because these days, they're awfully hard to tell apart."
Obama aides said he called Clinton after watching her speech at a house in Billings, Mont., and thanked her for her support. He also called Bill Clinton and congratulated him on his wife's performance.
From the New York Daily News:
Hillary delivered.
Or at least, that's how Barack Obama saw the New York senator's emotional plea to her most passionate foot soldiers Tuesday night, when she beseeched them from a stage she had hoped would be hers not to defect to John McCain.
"Yay!" Obama shouted softly as he watched from a living room in Montana while Clinton declared herself a "proud supporter" of Obama in Denver.
"That was excellent, that was a strong speech," Obama said. "She made the case for why we're going to be unified in November and why we're going to win this election. I thought she was outstanding..."
"I thought it was a tremendous speech," said Neera Tanden, the woman who directed Clinton's famously detailed policy proposals and now runs Obama's domestic shop. "She did everything she needed to do to unify the party.
"There's not much more she could have done," Tanden said.
"She made it very clear from the beginning that the way she was going to continue fighting for what she believed in and what she was passionate about was by fighting for Sen. Obama," said Sarah Hurwitz, Clinton's former top speech writer. "She made it very clear to all of us who worked for her that she expected other people to do the same."
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Hillary Rodham Clinton said all the right words last night to unite a party battered by a divisive nomination battle. But she's done that before, with some of the same words, long before the Democratic National Convention opened.
What mattered this time, with thousands of delegates inside the hall cheering her on and millions of her supporters watching on TV, was how Clinton offered her support to the Democrat who beat her for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama.
From her first words, there was no doubt.
“She absolutely delivered – for Obama and for herself,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, a respected nonpartisan newsletter, who was in Denver's Pepsi Center. “Right from the get-go, she embraced Barack. . . . The Obama people got exactly what they wanted and what they needed.”
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the University of Southern California hailed it as “one of the best speeches she has ever given,” adding, “She really knocked it out of the ballpark...”
But last night she hit all the right notes, delivering a speech remarkably free of any sense of defeat, self-pity or what-might-have-beens. She thanked the 18 million Americans who supported her in the primaries, but then all but commanded them to put aside their displeasure with the outcome and get behind the Illinois senator as he leads the party into battle.
The Colorado sunlight burned off the early morning chill, drying the dew on the grass. Peppy rock tunes blared from the speakers. At the sight of the motorcade pulling up behind the small outdoor stage, those in attendance hushed and rushed toward the stage. Children leaned over the railing to catch the first glimpse of the special guests taking part in the Democratic National Convention's Delegate Service Day.
