Campaign '08

DENVER (CBS) ― There will be drama at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night when Sen. Hillary Clinton takes center stage. The former presidential candidate checked out the podium earlier in the day with daughter Chelsea.

So will she throw her whole-hearted support behind the Democrats' chosen candidate? Indeed, Clinton will officially fall on her sword and tell delegates to put divisions aside to elect a Democrat in November.

Yet Hillary Clinton supporters are loud and angry, and on the move. If the party message is unity, they're having none of it.

"We're not going to be intimidated into voting for someone we don't think is qualified," said Georgia delegate Linda Vessell.

"I just needed to let it out – I'm angry about what happened to Hillary. So many women my age thought it was our time," added Colorado delegate Melanie Goldstein.

For the second day in a row, Clinton has a prominent role at the DNC.

On Monday, she pushed party unity and on Tuesday, she prepared for the main event in her long-awaited speech to delegates. Her words will be studied carefully and could set the tone of the campaign.

Clinton says she intends to tell her delegates she's voting for Sen. Barack Obama, but they are free to vote as they like.

"She's saying that she's going to vote for Obama. I had thought she wished everyone would vote for Obama," said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem/Bronx).

Even so, party leaders expect her to get behind Obama with all her heart.

"Hillary, to her credit, is really stepping up to the plate. I have my heartache, I have all the qualms about maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have said that, but it's so important to win that we all have to do our part," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Of course, a big question is whether Team Obama demanded to vet her speech before she gives it. Clinton is in a unique position in the 2008 election cycle, as the Democrats want to use her to unite, while the Republican want to use her to divide.

That leaves the other big question: who will she deliver for?

"I think we'll all come out incredible united because we are fortunate enough to have another great leader, Sen. Hillary Clinton," Caroline Kennedy, who led the way in helping Obama choose his running mate in Sen. Joe Biden, told supporters.

That's maybe the wishful thinking of one of Obama's all-star supporters who hope Clinton can deliver her 18 million supporters to Obama.

"We had our battle in the primary. No one was more committed to Sen. Clinton than me," said N.J. Gov. Jon Corzine. "It's time to move on and everyone is."

Added director Spike Lee: "People who support Hillary Clinton will get on board and be united to defeat [Sen. John] McCain and the Republican party in November."

But McCain's team thinks they can use Clinton as a weapon of mass destruction, using her words and her disaffected supporters to join them.

One already has in Debra Bartoshevich, a Clinton delegate from Wisconsin who appeared in an ad for McCain saying she switched to him because Clinton lost.

"There are people saying I'm a Republican mole," Bartoshevich said.

Actually, she says she became an independent after the primaries. Her ad is just one of three issued by Team McCain in the past two days, recycling Clinton's primary attacks against Obama.

New York delegates who spoke with CBS 2's Marcia Kramer hope the McCain strategy falls flat on its face.

"I'm upset. I don't like it and I don't approve of it and the Republicans are going to lose in November," said Harlem delegate Inez Dinkins.

"As an old political hand I can tell you it never works. Then the candidate, the person used in the ads comes out and says they're full of it and the real truth is, 'Boom!' and Hillary will do that," said Schumer.

So with the pressure on, Clinton has to give the speech of her life, not only to convince her supporters to work passionately for Obama, but to convince Republicans they should forget about using her as their poster girl.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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