Just as Hillary's video hit the big screen at the RiseHillaryRise rally in Denver's Cheesman Park, big raindrops started to fall.

It was a fitting metaphor.

About 200 supporters were gathered in a picturesque outdoor space, watching the convention projected between fountains and framed by large portraits of Hillary. Sitting around a reflecting pool and on blankets among the flowers, the Hillary people, like their heroine, were undaunted by a little rain. Umbrellas and plastic sheeting came out. One woman kicked off her shoes and danced ecstatically in the fountain.

A group of middle aged women who met through the campaign and came together from across the country were sitting together on the grass. "We totally believe that Barack Obama is not qualified to be the President," said Shirley Thomas, a fifth-grade teacher from Marietta, Georgia. "He doesn't have the resume and Hillary was the most experienced," she said. "And, frankly, the election was stolen from her, starting with Michigan. He wasn't even on the ballot and they took four of her delegates and gave them to him. That was when all the corruption started."

Her friend Carolyn Darity, a product manager in technology in Washington state, agreed. "I can't vote for a candidate who is not ready to lead our country. Our country is in turmoil. He doesn't have the resume."

Jobs are the big issue for Darity, who moved to Washington from the Midwest. "I think the country is in serious trouble in every aspect. We've mortgaged our grandchildren and our great grandchildren. I don't know if we can come out of it."

Still, she says, "under no circumstances," would she vote for Obama. "I might vote for McCain."

"It's not that I'm against him or I'm a racist," Darity added. "I believe Hillary is the most qualified and she was mistreated by the media and her own party." The thing that bugged her the most: the NPR commentator from Politico who compared HIllary to the Glenn Close character in "Fatal Attraction."

Thomas, for whom health care and education are big issues, won't vote for McCain, but might write in Hillary's name.

Both women, and the friends seated around them, had a strong sense of affinity for the candidate they see as brilliant, tough, and resilient. Don't get them started on Obama.

As Allison, a sixty-one-year-old from Baltimore, who attended the event with her twenty-one-year-old daughter put it, voting for Obama would be "hard." "It's like you're sitting and sitting in traffic and the guy drives up the shoulder and zips past everyone." Her daughter, Jess, was more forgiving. "Hillary was the best candidate," she said. But she is very concerned about the environment and will vote for Obama.

The aggrieved middle-aged women who love Hillary have become a media archetype. But, as I wrote in a previous column, they have always appeared to be a bit of a polling concoction. How many people do you know who are 1. big feminists 2. see national security as their major issue (so-called Security Moms) and 3. respond to an economic populist message but 4. now want to vote for McCain? Oh, and maybe have a little trouble with race, whether they fully admit it or not?

Well, I think I've met them now.

There is no accounting for cultural tastes. Just as Hillary seems like fingernails on the blackboard to many Republicans, Obama seems like the epitome of the young man in a hurry who has, as Darity put it, "nothing there. Nothing at all." These women relate to Hillary--her struggle, the blows she's been dealt, and her supreme competence and poise. They have a bit of a conservative streak--the feeling Hillary appeals to when she talks about getting up when you're knocked down, and the American can-do spirit. They are, they told me, "lifelong Democrats" some of whom also see some appeal in John McCain's story. But they care about economic populist issues. The shorthand dismissal of Obama "not ready" ad nauseum, and the knowing shake of the head convey something else--a disgust with this golden-boy in a hurry. They would roundly reject any suggestion that race is a factor. But there is no question that there is an ineffable cultural reason for the Obama-itis that the soundbites about readiness just don't cover.

The group I sat with--who very graciously talked with me for a long time, and offered me a beer--said they were dreading the inevitable call for unity.

When Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana, gave his warm-up speech, asking "Who do we need?" the convention hall responded "Obama!" But the voices in the park called out "Hillary!"

But when Schweitzer talked about the 4 billion in tax breaks for big oil McCain proposes, it prompted Shirely to comment, "I can't vote for McCain. I just can't."

Other members of the largely female crowd were drinking wine and kicking back in lawn chairs. A few trailed bare feet in the pool. When Schweitzer said "As strong a team as Barack Obama and Joe Biden are . . ." there were hoots of laughter.

I wandered over to a group of guys sitting on a low wall. "I really like Hillary, but I think the way they ran the campaign was wrong," said a real estate agent named Tom who lives nearby. "She shouldn't have hired Mark Penn." There were a handful of other neighbors who had dropped by, not so much to support Hillary but just to watch the speeches. They either supported Obama in the primaries or didn't mind switching to him now.

All in all, about half the crowd cheered when the speakers called for unity and support for the Obama ticket, while half stayed quiet.

When HIllary said "The time is now to unite," the guys next to me cheered. But there were shouts of "No!" from the lawn.

Then Hillary came to the key point: "Were you in this campaign for me?" (shouts of "Yes!" from the lawn) "Or were you in it for that young Marine . . . " etc.

Many of the listeners sat quietly.

It was a much tougher crowd in the park than the convention center. But I wondered what the effect was of Hillary's strong urging to pull together and vote for the Democratic nominee.

"She was very compelling," said Thomas, thoughtfully, still basking in the glow. "But that doesn't make him ready. I kind of think she had to say it."

"It doesn't mean he could do it," added Darity.

"It was an amazing speech," said Thomas.

We'll see whether it has the desired effect.

As Thomas pointed out. "The interesting thing is that she hasn't released her delegates.

So we are still hoping . . ."