Hillary Clinton calls for unity

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 25, 2008 at 11:35 a.m.

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More Denver Democratic National Convention 2008

By Ed Sealover

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton implored the Democratic Hispanic Caucus in some of her strongest terms yet to work for Barack Obama with the same ferocity that its members supported her.

The crowd of several hundred people in the Colorado Convention Center went wild as the New York senator reminded them of her fights for farm workers and for immigration reform. She then said that Obama, the Illinois senator and presumptive presidential nominee, would fight for those issues in the same way.

"Let us remember what we were fighting for. We were not just fighting to elect a particular person president. We were fighting to take our country back," Clinton said. "We may have started on different paths - those who supported me and those who supported Barack - but we are on the same journey now."

Clinton was wildly popular among the Hispanic community during her primary battle with Obama, and there have been some concerns that Hispanics will not support Obama with the same fervor. The crowd Monday chanted "Hillary!" and "Unity!" but showed no signs of bitterness or anti-Obama sentiment.

Instead, Clinton and several Democratic senators - including Colorado's Ken Salazar - painted the struggle for the White House as one pitting the needs of working-class Hispanics against Republican policies of the past eight years that have worked against them. GOP tactics this year are intended to divide the Hispanic community and divert people from the real issues, they said.

Several Colorado delegates lauded Clinton for her attempts to reunify what some have seen as a divided community. Blanca O'Leary, an attorney from Aspen, said that if Clinton repeats the same speech Tuesday night in front of a national audience, any remaining rift would disappear.

"She did this as much from her heart as she could do it in very, very concise language," said O'Leary, who supported Obama in the primary. "I think she did a football field's worth of progress in uniting this party."

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