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DENVER – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most loyal delegates came to the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night looking for direction. They listened, rapt, to a 20-minute speech many proclaimed the best she had ever delivered, hoping her words could somehow unwind a year of tension in the Democratic Party.
But when Clinton stepped off the stage and the standing ovation faded into silence, many of her supporters were left with a sobering realization: Even a tremendous speech couldn’t erase their frustrations.
Despite Clinton’s plea for Democrats to unite, her delegates remained divided as to how they should proceed.
There was Jerry Straughan, a professor from California, who listened from his seat in the rafters and shook his head at what he considered the speech’s predictability.
“It’s a tactic,” he said. “Who knows what she really thinks? With all the missteps that have taken place, this is the only thing she could do. So yes, I’m still bitter.”
Most delegates agreed that Clinton’s impassioned speech and composed delivery marked a step toward reconciliation. The crowd in the Pepsi Center stood to applaud almost every time she mentioned Barack Obama by name.
But Clinton’s performance fell far short of the panacea the Democratic Party had desperately hoped for, delegates said. Some worried that, after Clinton’s public withdrawal, more voters might defect for Republican Sen. John McCain or simply stay home.
“I’m not going to vote for Obama. I’m not going to vote for McCain, either,” said Blanche Darley, 65, a Texas delegate for Clinton. Darley wore a button saying “Obamination Scares the Hell Out of Me.”
Weeping, Dawn Yingling, a 44-year-old single mother from Indianapolis, said that the speech was “fabulous” but that she still isn’t going to work for the Obama campaign.
“She was fabulous, nothing less than I expected. It’s hard to sit here and think about what she would have accomplished. We’re not stupid, we’re not going to vote for John McCain,” she said. But she’ll limit her campaigning to a House candidate. “It will take a Congress as well as a president. That’s what I can do and be true to who I am.”
For Clinton’s supporters, it was difficult to accept her speech as the public finale of her campaign.
Shelby Leary, a delegate from West Virginia, stood to watch a video tribute to Clinton then chanted “Hillary” with the rest of the crowd. Anne Price, from Washington state, wore a dozen Clinton buttons and wiped away tears.
It seemed a particularly resonant moment Tuesday night, which marked both Women’s Equality Day and the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
“There’s no way this night couldn’t be emotional,” Leary said. “A lot of us loved campaigning for her, and it’s hard to watch it end. But after something like this, you have to have an emotional end for people to come to terms with things.”
But many of her supporters came here exclusively to honor her.
“A lot of people came here just because they wanted to celebrate Hillary,” said Elizabeth Fiechter, a New York City lawyer. “We get criticism because there’s this idea that the election should move on and just leave her behind. We’re not going down that quietly.”
Clinton supporters sometimes classified themselves as belonging to one of two categories: sad and angry.
“It just makes me upset because Hillary would have been the perfect woman to do this job,” said Katherine Vincent, from Colorado. “I’m a Democrat first, but it’s just difficult to get over.”
Adita Blanco, a Democrat from Edward, Okla., has never voted Republican.
“I hate Obama so much that I’m going to devote as much time to McCain as I did to Hillary.” Blanco said. “Obama has nothing. He has no experience. The Democratic Party doesn’t care about us. You couldn’t treat (Clinton) any worse.”
