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Clinton urges party unity, McCain's defeat

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | elizabeth.moore@newsday.c

August 27, 2008

DENVER - Vowing "no way, no how, no McCain," Hillary Rodham Clinton urged divided Democrats last night to come together to elect her primary opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

"It's time to take back the country we love," Clinton told the roaring Democratic convention audience at Denver's Pepsi Center, which greeted her like rock star and frequently drowned out her speech with long applause. "Whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We're on the same team and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines."

Responding to the relentless divide and conquer strategy this week of the presumptive Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, that has highlighted her primary-season criticism of Obama, Clinton turned the tables by emphasizing McCain's ties to the unpopular President George W. Bush.

"We don't need four more years of the last eight years," she said.

Alluding to the Republican convention coming up next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul, she said, "It makes perfect sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together in the Twin Cities because these days they are awfully hard to tell apart."

The stakes for Clinton's speech could not have been higher. The Gallup Organization yesterday reported McCain had a 2 percent lead on Obama, edging ahead of him for the first time since Clinton left the race. Obama's selection of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden had gained him no "bounce" in the polls.

Clinton herself now enjoys 80 percent approval ratings among Democrats, Gallup reported, and three out of four Democrats would like to see her run for president and be a major-party spokeswoman over the next four years. Other polls continue to show that Clinton's supporters are lukewarm in their support for Obama.After leaving a house party in Billings, Mont., Sen. Obama called and talked for several minutes with Hillary Clinton, saying how grateful he was for her support, that she gave a terrific speech and that all those he watched it with were moved by her video and introduction from Chelsea. Also, he said he loved her line, "No way, no how, no McCain."

Obama also called and spoke with Bill Clinton for several minutes, saying Hillary Clinton could not have been better and made the case for change.

There may have been a tad too much "I" in Clinton's speech to please the Obama campaign. Her appearance opened with a biographical clip crafted for Clinton by Linda Bloodworth Thomason and often included lines and passages reminiscent of her own campaign speeches. But Clinton clearly aimed her speech in part at comforting her most ardent supporters and providing some of the catharsis she has said she believes the party needs to move forward and unite behind Obama.

"To my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you because you never gave in and you never gave up," she said to roars of laughter.

But the delicacy of the situation was most clearly underscored by the lengthy discussions over how to organize or perhaps stage-manage -- today's roll call.

At the state delegation meeting yesterday morning, some were privately discussing how the details of the roll call had not yet been worked out -- whether New York would be called in alphabetical order and then throw votes to Obama, thus beginning some unanimous acclaim, or whether it would be called earlier or later.

"It seems to be a little more of a problem than I anticipated," former Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler told The Associated Press. "All you need is 200 people in that crowd to boo and stuff like that and it will be replayed 900 times. And that's not what you want out of this."

Staff writers Dan Janison and Nia-Malika Henderson contributed to this story.