Nancy from Newton, Mass. was hustling to catch up with a parade of hardcore Hillary-ites on Denver’s 16th Street Mall on Monday carrying balloons, wearing Hillary face masks and chanting “18 million.”

I abandoned my Caesar salad and hoofed it after Nancy because I’d been looking for a last gasp Hillary protester. After one day in Denver I’d run into plenty of Hillary admirers but they were former believers who’d gone over the Hill to Obama-land.

And they really wish their resister sisters would too. ASAP.

That same day I talked to delegate Rachel Binah from Mendocino about the hold-outs and she said it is now up to Hillary to convince them they have to join the Obama-Biden bandwagon.

“She can and she will,” said Binah, sympathetic that “naturally they feel hurt,” first to have their once slam-dunk candidate drop out of the race and then be passed over for VP.

“People understand how they feel. But they must understand that all those things they hold dear are in jeopardy with another Bush-like administration. And it’s not just the issue of choice, but the economy, the environment and what happens to the Supreme Court.”

I think Nancy from Newton and the others are looking for just a couple days more of understanding. And a little more honor and respect for their candidate. The one whose votes represent 18 million new cracks in the glass ceiling. The one who many still insist would be stronger, tougher than Obama. They want to vote for her one more time.

And if they can’t does this mean they’ll vote for the other guy come November, or not vote at all? Nancy said “I don’t think people should interpret it this way,” and then she pointedly added that she’d been a loyal Democrat for 36 years. And I took that to mean she wasn’t going to change in November.

I asked Marie Wilson who directs the non-partisan White House Project, which would like to see a woman in the top office as well as running for a lot more seats at all levels, about this last call for Hillary.

She thinks that the resistance is more general than specific. “It’s as much about history as it is about Hillary,” said Wilson who knows about women frustrated in their attempts to win public office.

“I don’t go any place where I don’t hear from some woman how she was advised to pull out of the race, to not run, to let the man be the candidate, for the sake of the party,” said Wilson, who’s also famous for creating Take Your Daughters (and then Sons) to Work Day.

I want to hope the Hillary women in the street will be satisfied with just a little more limelight for the woman whom they thought would take them all to the top. And then it will be up to their icon to tell the convention and the world and her sisters thank you very much, but she’s not over and they’re not
either.

Besides, most of us think Hillary’s got another better-than-VP job awaiting in Obama-land. Like Supreme Court justice. Or Czarina of universal health care. Then imagine how loud our united whoops and hollers.

Listen for Susan’s daily reports from out on the streets at the Denver Democratic Convention during NPR coverage at 5:30pm and 6:30pm on KRCB-FM, 91.1 FM