'Obama is my candidate,' Hillary Clinton tells Democratic delegates

Hillary Clinton took the stage at the Democratic national convention Tuesday night to make an impassioned plea to her supporters to rally behind her rival Barack Obama and propel him to the White House.

"My friends, it is time to take back the country we love, and whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose," Clinton said.

"No way, no how, no McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president," she said to loud cheers from the delegates packing Denver's Pepsi Center.

The unsuccessful presidential candidate sprinkled her speech with anecdotes about people she had met during her campaign and their stories.

"I want you to ask yourselves were you in this campaign just for me?" she said, a remark clearly aimed at her disappointed supporters, some of whom have said publicly they won't support Obama.

"We are on the same team, and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines," Clinton said.

"I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care … and fighting for women's rights to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise of a country that really fulfills the hopes of our people."

Clinton described presumptive Republican candidate John McCain as "my colleague and my friend" but added that a victory by him would mean "four more years of the last eight years" of economic stagnation and other ills brought about by President George W. Bush.

She also went out of her way to praise Obama's wife, Michelle, and his newly chosen running mate, Senator Joe Biden. She described Biden as "a strong leader, a good man, who understands both the economic stresses here at home and the strategic challenges abroad."

"He's pragmatic; he's tough; and he's wise," she said.

During her speech, her husband, former president Bill Clinton, sat beaming and teary-eyed in the crowd.

Their daughter, Chelsea, introduced her mother to thunderous and long applause.

Before she spoke, delegates watched a video segment depicting Clinton as a gutsy woman who had the courage to become the first woman in American history to make a run for the presidency.

Obama's formal nomination as the Democratic party's candidate is set for Wednesday night.