No Way, No How, No MczAIN

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.

“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.

Indeed, Clinton provided some of the night’s sharpest lines of attack on McCain. “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, “because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.”

Introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who called her “my hero,” Clinton was met with a long, loud standing ovation. She sprinkled her opening remarks with personal touches, delighting the crowd by thanking “my supporters, my champions — my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” a reference to her signature sartorial style. “You never gave in, you never gave up, and together we made history,” she said.

Former President Bill Clinton became teary at several points during his wife’s speech, and even Clinton — who has been so steady this week — seemed to grow misty a couple of times as she profusely thanked her supporters and recalled some of the Americans she met along the trail.

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