Hillary Clinton brought the crowd to its feet Tuesday night with her address on party unity, but the first test of her effectiveness comes Wednesday when her name is symbolically put in for nomination.

Both Barack Obama and Clinton will technically be nominated, and their campaigns have been straining to work out a deal under which the delegates will be given the chance to vote for either candidate before somebody cuts off the vote in favor of unanimously choosing Obama.

Clinton has been under pressure to soothe the hurt feelings of the primaries - and help avoid an embarrassing floor demonstration on her behalf.

She used her Tuesday night speech to urge supporters to follow her lead in backing Obama.

"It is time to take back the country we love," Clinton said, declaring herself a "proud supporter of Barack Obama" within minutes of walking on stage.

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

"We are on the same team, and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines," she said. "No way, no how. No McCain."

For the Clinton campaign, her Tuesday night speech was a dramatic moment of closure. The crowd, waving signs emblazoned with "Unity" and both Democratic candidates' names, rose to its feet at the end of the address.

Clinton also praised Joe Biden, whom Obama has tapped as his running mate, as a "strong leader and a good man."

Obama's selection of the Delaware senator was perceived as a slap by some Clinton supporters who still felt he should choose the runner-up, but her words Tuesday might serve as her stamp of approval.

Biden is the headline speaker Wednesday, but Bill Clinton is also addressing the convention.

The former president, who was his wife's biggest advocate during the primaries, has kept a low profile so far in Denver, as Democratic leaders try to quiet the storyline that the party is divided.

Clinton, explaining her endorsement of Obama, asked her backers Tuesday night to ask themselves why they supported her in the first place.

"Were you in it just for me?" she queried. Or "were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?"

The New York senator, once the unrivaled front-runner for the Democratic nomination, saw her candidacy steadily unravel after Obama pulled a first-place finish in the lead-off Iowa caucuses in January. Clinton finished third in the Hawkeye State.

Clinton's remaining campaign was marked by a series of comebacks, but they were not enough to overtake Obama in the delegate count.

The closeness of the race, coupled with infighting over how to count the primaries in Michigan and Florida -- which voted for Clinton but were initially discounted for violating party rules -- led to residual division in the party after Obama clinched the nomination June 3.

She's had a couple chances to soothe hurt feelings since then -- first when she conceded the race, then when she appeared with Obama in Unity, N.H. But while Clinton enthusiastically threw her support behind the Illinois senator, some of her supporters were reluctant to follow her lead.

Polls show a significant number of Clinton backers are still unsure whom they will support in the November election, and John McCain has been courting those voters actively.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.