Democrats officially nominated Obama as their presidential candidate Wednesday afternoon in a roll-call vote between him and Clinton - a vote that Clinton herself cut off halfway through. Later in the evening, former President Bill Clinton followed up with a full-throated endorsement of Obama as president.

"Last night, Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she was going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us," Clinton said.

The roll call ended a full summer of speculation about how far Hillary Clinton and her supporters would take their campaign. Obama bested Clinton in a drawn-out primary season that came down to a fight for handfuls of delegates.

It has been obvious for months that Obama would come to Denver with the most delegates. But the campaigns had been negotiating behind closed doors this week to plan a vote that showed both respect for Clinton and party unity.

Wednesday afternoon, Clinton released her delegates to vote however they wanted. Hours later, convention officials began a roll-call vote of the states in alphabetical order.

Many delegates switched to Obama. Colorado's 70 votes went 55-15 for Obama, even though the delegation began the convention with 47 delegates for Obama and 23 for Clinton. New Hampshire and New Jersey voted unanimously for Obama.

The dance began when New Mexico's turn came. New Mexico yielded to Obama's home state of Illinois, which earlier had passed. Illinois then made a conciliatory gesture by yielding to Clinton's home state, New York.

Clinton herself took the floor to cast New York's vote. After the cheers died down, she said, "Let's declare together, with one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate."

Nancy Pelosi, presiding over the convention, asked for a voice vote on Clinton's motion. After a very loud "aye," she asked for no votes, but banged the gavel so quickly that any potential dissenting votes were drowned out.

The public reconciliation between Obama and the Clintons was completed later in the night when former President Clinton took the stage.

The crowd waved American flags and sang along with his old campaign tune, Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)." Clinton talked for 20 minutes and took on attacks by Republicans who say Obama is not ready for the job.

"I say to you, Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore America's leadership in the world," Clinton said.

Clinton recalled the experience of his own campaign.

"Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history," he said.

John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bounds, responded via e-mail Wednesday night.

"President Clinton was a forceful advocate for Democratic partisanship, but what he fails to recognize is that the problem in Washington is not the Republicans or Democrats in Congress, the problem is that people aren't following John McCain's lead to work together to solve America's problems," Bounds said.

Colorado delegates registered their votes with state officials Wednesday morning at breakfast - before Clinton formally released her delegates. State party chairwoman Pat Waak didn't think it was a problem for Clinton delegates.

"I think most of them wanted to cast a symbolic vote for Clinton. Nobody came back and asked that their vote be changed," Waak said.

Outside the Pepsi Center, though, unity did not always prevail. John Stamos - "no relation to the actor" - traveled from New York City to protest the vote. He thinks Obama won caucuses on rigged votes. Hillary Clinton's Tuesday night endorsement of Obama did nothing to change his mind.

"She's such a pure woman that she's still supporting the Democratic Party, even though Obama's trying to tear it apart," Stamos said.

Obama is scheduled to accept the nomination tonight at Invesco Field at Mile High.

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