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 Convention to unite behind her rival, Senator Barack Obama, no matter what ill will lingers.

Clinton, who was once once so certain that she would win the Democratic nomination this year, also took steps on Tuesday to keep the door open to a future bid for the presidency. She rallied supporters in her speech, and, at an earlier event with 3,000 women, described her passion about her own campaign. And her aides limited input on the speech from Obama advisers, while seeking advice from her former strategist, Mark Penn, a loathed figure in the Obama camp.

But the main task for Mrs. Clinton at the convention — reaffirming her support for Mr. Obama in soaring and unconditional language — dominated her 23-minute speech, and she betrayed none of the anger and disappointment that she still feels and that, friends say, has especially haunted her husband.

Declaring herself to be “a proud supporter of Barack Obama,” Clinton urged Democrats to unite behind 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,” Clinton said. “And you haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. “No way, no how, no McCain,” she added.

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