DENVER (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton made an emphatic plea for Democrats to unite behind the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, exhorting her supporters to back her one-time rival because victory over Republican John McCain "is a fight for the future and a fight we must win together."

The former first lady skewered McCain and drew thunderous applause Tuesday night as she coined what could become the most powerful political slogan of the fall campaign.

"No way, no how, no McCain."

Clinton's speech probably will be the most closely scrutinized of the Democratic National Convention, a gathering that opened with great drama — full of speculation about how full-throated her support for Obama would be and whether the party could heal the divisions from the hard-fought primary campaign.

On Wednesday evening, the spotlight turns to her husband, as former U.S. President Bill Clinton takes to the convention stage. He is expected to launch attacks on McCain and the Bush administration.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's vice presidential pick, will get prime-time exposure as well.

In the end, Hillary Clinton held back nothing in an inspired address that also served to launch whatever lies ahead in her political career.

"We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare," said the New York senator, writing the final chapter in a quest for the White House every bit as pioneering as Obama's own.

She urged her loyal supporters to remember who was most important in this campaign.

"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?" she said. She urged them instead to remember U.S. Marines who have served their country, single mothers, families barely getting by on minimum wage and other struggling Americans.

"You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," Clinton told the delegates.

The packed convention floor became a sea of white "Hillary" signs as the New York senator — Obama's fiercest rival across 56 primaries and caucuses — strode to the podium for her prime-time speech after being introduced by her daughter, Chelsea. The signs were soon replaced by others that read simply, "Unity."

Calling McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, "my colleague and my friend," Clinton proceeded to tear into him as a voice of the past and little more than a clone of the deeply unpopular President George W. Bush.

"We don't need four more years of the last eight years, more economic stagnation .... more war and less diplomacy," said the New York senator, dressed out in a trademark pumpkin-colored pantsuit.

And she congratulated herself and her campaign for bringing to the national consciousness the myriad of issues important to all Americans, women in particular.

"To my supporters, to my champions, to my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits, from the bottom of my heart, thank you," Clinton said. "Together we made history."

Obama's wife, Michelle, watched the speech and initial television cutaways showed the woman who could be the next first lady looking a bit uneasy. But Clinton soon hit her stride not only enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama but also calling his wife a "terrific partner."

"Anyone who saw Michelle's speech last night knows she will be a great first lady for America," Clinton added.

By the end of the address, Michelle Obama was smiling broadly and applauding generously as it became clear that her husband's bitter primary adversary had climbed aboard his campaign train.

Bill Clinton beamed as his wife praised his eight years in the White House that saw a period of significant economic stability and growth.

"As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton, and — if we do our part — we'll do it again with President Obama."

"She was great," Clinton told The Associated Press as he left the convention hall. "Weren't you proud of her?"

Hillary Clinton used easy going but stinging language against McCain and Bush. At one point, she declared it was not surprising that they would be together next week at the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, known as the Twin Cities, "because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart."

During the convention, the McCain campaign has sought to exploit divisions within Democratic ranks by running television commercials that highlighted critical comments Clinton made about Obama's lack of experience during the primary campaign.

Clinton, who won 18 million votes in the primary campaign but still failed to earn her party's nomination, planned to meet with delegates who want to cast ballots for her during the formal roll call of the states Wednesday evening — a symbolic move before Obama is nominated, presumably by acclamation. Clinton has not indicated whether she would have her name placed in nomination or seek a formal roll call vote.

Clinton's aides said it remained unclear how exactly the meeting with the delegates would play out, or how her supporters will react.

"It's not Hillary's job to bring this party together," said Jennie Lou Leeder, a Clinton delegate from Llado, Texas. "It's Barack Obama's job to bring this party together."

Clinton used her convention appearance to try to discourage such talk and silence infighting over how to honor her groundbreaking campaign without distracting from Obama's upcoming contest against McCain.

"Barack Obama is my candidate, and he must be our president," she said.

Clinton had been the prohibitive favorite for the nomination when she launched her campaign last year, seeking to become the first female president. But she fell behind Obama after the leadoff Iowa caucuses in January, and he now is poised to become the first black nominee of a major U.S. party.

In the convention keynote address, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner said Obama will "appeal to us not as Republicans or Democrats, but first and foremost as Americans." He added, "We need leaders who see our common ground as sacred ground."

As the keynote speaker, Warner's task was the same one that Obama — then an Illinois state lawmaker running for the U.S. Senate — used four years ago to launch his astonishing ascent in national politics.

The 47-year-old Obama, who is slowly working his way westward along the campaign trail in a series of toss-up states, watched Clinton from the home of a family in Billings, Montana, and later called both Clintons, thanking them for their backing.

"She did a great job. I think she made the case for why we're going to be unified in November and why we're going to win this election. She was outstanding," Obama said after Clinton's speech.

Obama delivers his acceptance speech Thursday night at a football stadium in Denver. An estimated 75,000 tickets have been distributed for the event, meant to stir additional comparisons with John F. Kennedy's appearance at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960.

The Republican National Convention meets next week to nominate McCain and his still-unnamed running mate. That will set the stage for a final sprint to Election Day on Nov. 4 in a race that is remarkably close.