With her husband looking on tenderly and her supporters watching with tears in their eyes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton deferred her own dreams on Tuesday night and delivered an emphatic plea at the Democratic National Convention to unite behind her rival, Barack Obama, no matter what ill will lingered.

Mrs Clinton, who was once certain that she would win the Democratic nomination this year, also took steps on Tuesday — deliberate steps, aides said — to keep the door open to a future bid for the presidency.

Declaring herself to be “a proud supporter of Barack Obama,” Mrs Clinton urged Democrats to put aside their loyalty to her and unite behind Mr Obama — or risk continuing Bush administration policies under the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

Mr Obama praised Mrs Clinton’s speech as he watched on Tuesday night from Montana.

“That was excellent, that was a strong speech,” Mr Obama said from Billings.

 “She made the case for why we’re going to be unified in November and why we’re going to win this election. I thought she was outstanding.”

With the television cameras trained tightly on Mrs Clinton on stage and former President Bill Clinton in a VIP box, Mrs Clinton smiled broadly at times and punched the air with ferocity during the tough talk against Republicans, while Mr Clinton lovingly looked on tight-lipped.

‘My hero’
Introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who called her “my hero,” Mrs Clinton was met with a lengthy, 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,” Mrs Clinton said.

With delegates waving banners that read “Hillary” or “Obama” on one side and “Unity” on the other, Mrs Clinton encouraged supporters to rally behind Mr Obama for the sake of struggling Americans.

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

Some parts of the speech devoted to Mr Obama and Mr McCain, in turn, had a bit of a workmanlike quality, but on the whole her speech echoed with the emotional lyricism that she showed in June when she dropped out of the race and told supporters, “It would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours.”

Mrs Clinton also had a brief, backstage chat with Michelle Obama earlier.

“Wasn’t Michelle Obama terrific last night?” Mrs Clinton said to applause. “I know a little bit about how the White House works, and if the president is not exactly on our side, call the first lady — and Michelle Obama will answer that phone.”

“It’s not just about politics,” she said, referring to the distinctive struggles women face as candidates. Her tone broke from its determined cadence and became, for a second, slower and almost hushed. “It’s really personal,” she said.