Hillary Clinton

DENVER - As the New Jersey delegation burst through the double doors into the parking of the Pepsi Center, looking over the shoulders and around the bulky accouterments of any number of security personnel for a clear path to a party at Invesco Field, a small group of those formerly known as the "The Group" huddled on the pavement.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had just spoken and so the emotion was still palpable, and Caren Turner, who has flirted with the idea of backing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) rather than support the Democratic Primary conqueror of her candidate, remained unconvinced that she should back Barack.

"I’ve got to think about it," said Turner. "I’d like to see what his platform is going to be to get more women into positions of government."

With Turner stood Zenon Christodoulou, vice chair of the Somerset County Democratic Party and another Group member.

DENVER -- The reaction of the New Jersey delegation to Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight seemed almost uniformly positive. Most said she hit the right notes. All found her message a unifying one.

And perhaps the message that resonated most with the delegation was Clinton’s emphasis that her supporters weren’t just pulling for her, but a message that she said Barack Obama shares.

“I think Hillary Clinton really hit all the right notes. She did a magnificent job reminding everyone – she asked her supporters the right question: did you work so hard just for me or was it for all the causes that we believe in,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, who was Barack Obama’s most prominent early backer in New Jersey. “If it was ‘not just for me,’ if it was for the causes we all believe in, then you must support Barack Obama as President.”

Barrett and Kerry synchronize their BlackBerrys.: Politicker photo  

DENVER - Essex County operative Tom Barrett didn’t really have a horse in the race at this point. But Essex County Freeholder Linda Lordi Cavanaugh and her friends did.

This would be Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) "Don’t Cry for me Argentina" moment, and consummate party insider Barrett wanted to make sure the diehard Clinton supporters got there for the coming Clinton catharsis.

He settled up with the waiter at the Palms and high-stepped it for Lawrence Avenue where Cavanaugh and company were already hobbling double-time on high heels on their way out to hail a cab.

As the Clintonistas piled in, Barrett caught sight of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) emerging from one, and soft-shoeing after a high-class-looking brunette.

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden): Politicker photo 

DENVER - Foreign policy: advantage Republicans. Domestic policy: advantage Democrats.

It’s the old dichotomy Democrats have accepted ever since the assassination of Cold Warrior John Fitzgerald and the party’s implosion in the jungles of South East Asia.

For Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), that old, dependable FDR battle cry of economic justice for all is what will bind the Dems in common cause coming out of this Democratic National Convention.

South Ward Councilman Oscar James II (center) confers with Booker staffers Terrance Bankston and Bari Mattes.: Politicker photo 

DENVER - A core member of the Booker Team, South Ward Councilman Oscar James II exulted in the speech delivered last night by Michelle Obama, even as he noted the persistent gloom of some Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supporters in the New Jersey delegation.

"It makes me a little nervous because we have to be united," said James.

Widely hailed as a homerun by the New Jersey delegation, the speech by the wife of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee did not go too heavy on family values to the detriment of hard, urban issues, in James’s view.

State Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, and Obama Campaign senior advisor Mark Alexander: Politicker photo 

DENVER - There persists a quiet agony among Hillary Clinton supporters who sit at the DNC events but pick at their food and squirm with a perpetual sense of loss, as thoughts of a Clinton coronation still dance vainly in their heads.

Don’t count Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) among that crowd, insists the 30-something Latina, who represents the City of Newark.

Schooled as a precinct captain in the North Ward before launching her own career as an elected official in 2007, Ruiz supported Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in the Democratic Primary.

But Ruiz is very clear about her long-term pride in the candidacy of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

The Rev. Reginald Jackson: Politicker file photo 

DENVER -The Rev. Reginald Jackson of Orange doesn’t want to hear about psychodramas and intra-party traumas. He wants the Bush third term attack unleashed now on Sen. Jon McCain (R-AZ).

"We’ve got to define McCain and you’ve got to deal with Bush and the Bush record of nonperformance," said Jackson, who was a core member of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) New Jersey fundraising team and is here in Denver in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il) presidential campaign.

Jackson wants to feel a little more fighting pluck among his fellow Democrats, and some in- your-face chutzpah in anticipation of the GOP attack machine.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen): Politicker photo

DENVER - Hours before Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) delivers her runner-up address to the Democratic National Convention, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) praised the former first lady, whose politics Weinberg questioned on the campaign trail last year.

A hardcore Obama backer, Weinberg’s chief complaint about Clinton on the presidential primary campaign trail was regarding her record. Clinton essentially stayed under the radar during the Bush years, in Weinberg’s judgment.

DENVER -- No matter how Democrats handle the roll call vote question, Hillary Clinton’s former New Jersey campaign director says she knows who she’s voting for.

“I’m voting for Senator Obama on the first ballot,” said Karen Kominsky, who headed up Clinton’s successful New Jersey primary campaign.

Kominsky has actually been volunteering for Obama for the last several months. She even ran a door-to-door Obama operation from her house in Lambertville.

Frank Lautenberg made the White House Enemies List when he backed George McGovern for President in 1972
DENVER - A glance at the 1972 Democratic National Convention might put things in perspective for those Democrats who think the party is irreconcilably divided between Camp Hillary and Obamaland.

After liberal Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota won his party’s nomination for president that year, primary loser Alabama Gov. George Wallace refused to support him, taking southern segregationists on an embittered exodus out of the party.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) remembers that convention, and he recalls firmly backing McGovern.

"My support for McGovern earned me a spot on Richard Nixon’s enemies list," Lautenberg told PolitickerNJ.com.