For One More Night, It's Hillary Clinton's Party

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Clinton Calls for Unity

Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner address delegates on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

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For Clinton and her husband, it has become intensely personal. Already smarting from her primary loss, they were stung further by real or perceived slights, most notably Obama's refusal to give her serious consideration as his running mate and his resistance to a full roll-call vote on the convention floor.

On Tuesday night, however, the Clintons achieved a modicum of revenge.

Mark Warner, the keynote speaker, had that honor in name only. The crowd -- those who weren't at the refreshment stands -- murmured through his speech as if listening to a lounge act. The Democratic crowd was hungry for red meat, but Warner, the Democrats' Senate candidate from Virginia, served only lean protein ("One hundred miles per gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles!").

Before he wrapped up, the keynoter allowed that it was "daunting" to be "speaking before Hillary Clinton."

Things didn't go much better for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who preceded Clinton at the podium. Just before he reached the finale of his speech -- "let's join hands as Americans and go to work to elect Barack Obama" -- a cheer went up near the Arkansas delegation, and television cameras in the hall turned to a skybox, where a spotlight showed Bill Clinton taking his seat.

To see Hillary Clinton arrive for her walk-through rehearsal at lunchtime Tuesday, one could have been forgiven for thinking she is the nominee. A couple of hundred reporters and cameramen awaited her arrival; a Japanese film crew broadcast the moment live. She emerged waving left, right and center, and pointing at the skyboxes. She studied the teleprompters and bopped her head from side to side, as if dancing.

"Are you excited about tonight?" someone shouted out.

"You bet," the pseudo-nominee replied.

Next, it was off to the Sheraton Hotel for a gathering of Emily's List, some of her most dedicated supporters. It took the former candidate a full five minutes of her nine-minute speech before she mentioned Obama. Even then, the line was delivered without a smile.

She delivered the requisite support, urging her followers "to work as hard for Barack Obama as you did for me." But there seemed to be some lingering doubt about Obama as she praised his wife, Michelle. "I know a little about the way the White House works," she said, "and, you know, if the president is not exactly on our side, call the first lady."

Clinton left the stage quickly, and the crowd thinned quickly. People didn't have as much interest in the "special guest" on the program: Michelle Obama.

But by nightfall, Clinton was able to shed her misgivings, at least for the 30 minutes she occupied the stage. She delivered a challenge to her supporters: "I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?" Or, she asked, "Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?"

That question is yet to be answered. But whatever else she was Tuesday night, the orange-clad Clinton could not possibly have felt invisible.