Standing on the stage she wanted, and delivering the speech she did not want, former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton will try to achieve an unfinished mission on Tuesday night that is vital to Democrats' return to the White House.
At the second night of the party's National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Clinton is expected to raise her voice to call for the party's unity and support for Barack Obama, who defeated her in a long-lasting and neck-and-neck primary, to be the next president.
On Feb. 7, Clinton finally gave up her hopeless bid for the White House and managed a smile to toast Obama. From then on, she started to navigate her supporters to the former rival's camp.
In the following months, she posed herself as an aid and agent for the Illinois Senator, showing up in his fundraising parties and campaign rallies, and reaching out to the working class and women voters, however, not for herself this time.
But the loyalty to the New York Senator made her supporters react in opposite ways.
A CNN poll conducted on Aug. 23 and 24 showed that among Clinton's supporters, 66 percent said they would follow her to join Obama's camp, down from 75 percent in June, while those who said they preferred to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November rose to 27 percent from 16 percent two months ago.
The poll was conducted after Delaware Senator Joe Biden was named the vice presidential candidate -- not Clinton as most of her supporters called for.
A total of 18 million popular votes Clinton has won in the six-month primary can underscore the significance of the change of the percentages to Obama.
"I still believe Clinton is a stronger candidate, and she did not get credit for her policies," Katie Johnson, a young Clinton supporter from California, told Xinhua. "Obama just took her ideas and messages and made them himself."
Despite such complaints, she said that she would still vote for Obama, or to be more accurate, for Democrats.
"After eight years of Republican administration, I just can not stand more," she said. "I will vote for Democratic policies."
Meanwhile, another female, who was still wearing a T-shirt with "Clinton" on it outside the Denver Convention Center, chose to vote for a person she can trust in, not a party.
"Between a Democrat who has no experience and a Republican who has, I prefer the latter," she said, without giving her name because she thought it was not appropriate to say that during the "Obama's convention."
Considering many Clinton's diehard followers or anti-Obama forces are still skeptical about the 47-year-old Illinois Senator in his first term even after they arrived in Denver, Republicans held a happy-hour party on Monday in Denver to pull them over to the Elephant.
Compared to her wife, former President Bill Clinton was considered to be able to do less to help Obama even though he was also a self-claimed supporter.
"To preserve her presidential hopes, she has to be an enthusiastic backer of Obama's candidacy," said an insider on anonymity to the National Journal. "I don't think Bill wants anybody but him to be a democratic president."
With only a little more than two months to go before the Election Day, Obama will find that what Clinton has left unfinished has to be achieved by himself.
Source:Xinhua
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