Bill Clinton, comparing his own upstart campaign to Barack Obama's, declared before a packed Denver convention center Wednesday evening that the newly minted Democratic presidential nominee "is the man for this job."

In a powerful and humbling speech that aimed to set aside bad blood between them during the Democratic presidential primaries, the former president essentially took a step back to make way for the Illinois senator, who just hours earlier had become the first black presidential nominee of a major party.

"I am here first to support Barack Obama," he said. "Like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November."

During the primary campaign, in which the former president was his wife's biggest advocate, Clinton cast Obama as an inexperienced flavor of the week -- the kind of charge now leveled at Obama by Republicans.

But on Wednesday Clinton said "Barack Obama is ready to lead America ... ready to be president of the United States," and compared the current charges against Obama with those against himself in 1992.

"The Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief," Clinton recalled. "Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992 because we were on the right side of history, and it will not work in 2008 because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

Clinton seemed at ease, saying he was proud of his wife and jokingly acknowledging the tension of the primaries.

"That campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming," he said.

And while his fierce defense of his wife during the primaries, during which he made several remarks interpreted as racially charged, damaged his reputation among some Democrats, his reputation showed no frays Wednesday in Denver.

He walked on stage as delegates waved thousands of miniature American flags. The roar of the crowd was so sustained and deafening it was several minutes before he could start his speech.

"I love this," Clinton said, before kicking off the speech.

The night before, Hillary Clinton gave a full-throated endorsement to Obama in her high-stakes speech, urging supporters skeptical of her former rival to close ranks behind him and help defeat John McCain.

After releasing her delegates Wednesday, Clinton cut short a roll call vote, in which her name was put in for nomination, in favor of electing Obama as the Democratic nominee.

Bill Clinton heaped praise on the fresh nominee Wednesday, saying "he has a remarkable ability to inspire."

He described Obama as a leader who can restore America's image abroad and lead the country away "from the division and fear of the last eight years."

He stressed the attention Obama would pay to domestic issues and said, "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

To McCain's aspirations of being president he added: "In this case the third time is not the charm."

Despite the endorsement, the Obama-Clinton tensions seemed to be simmering even in the days leading up to his Denver speech. The Clintons batted back a report over the weekend that he was butting heads with the Obama campaign over the speech itself because he didn't want to focus on national security.

FOX News also confirmed Wednesday that Clinton will not attend Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver Thursday night.

A senior Obama aide said the candidate is "not worried about it. There's places besides Denver where we need and will get [Clinton's] help winning this election."

John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, spoke shortly after Clinton and urged voters to this time defeat the Republican candidate.

"Today the call for change is more powerful than ever," he said. "We stand on the brink of the greatest opportunity of our generation to move this country forward."