Clinton Dispatch from TIME's Jay Newton-Small

From Baruch College Tuesday in Manhattan:

She entered to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and exited to Tina Turner's "Simply the Best."

She was introduced by Terry McAuliffe and entered the stage with Bill and Chelsea, who stood to her right during the speech looking proud and Bill looking very red. Hard to tell from my distance if he was crying by he cupped his face several times.

Perhaps appropriately, Hillary's speech was held in a school gymnasium that resembled a bunker - so far underground no one got cell service. The setting was sparse for Clinton - no television screens showing returns and a cash bar for supporters. The room was coated in blue - blue tarp to protect the wooden floor, blue "Hillary for president" signs and the omnipresent Secret Service blue curtains to shade the comings and goings of VIPs. While waiting the crowd chanted "I believe in Hillary," and, ironically, took a page from Obama's book, "Yes, We Can."

Also, while waiting for Hillary they listened to the musical stylings of AC/DC, John Cougar Mellencamp, and Bush's 2004 Brooks & Dunn theme "Only in America" both before and after. (Bush seemed a theme of the night with Hillary invoking "stay the course" to describe her candidacy.)

The audience of 2,000 (with an additional 800 in an overflow room) was filled with old friends and employees. "We wanted to bring our daughters to see Hillary," said Peter Kauffmann, a former spokesman from Clinton's 2000 Senate run, bouncing eight-month old Sophie in his arms. "It's almost generational, all these people with Hillary Clinton, they have been with her for a long time since the Senate or before, since the White House. It's a lot of old friends."

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Al Wilson, an activist from Queens, has been volunteering for Clinton at her 42nd street Grand Central offices for nearly a year. He said much of his office was in the audience tonight. "I liked the fact that she would've been the first woman," Wilson said. "But I'll vote for Obama if he's the nominee."

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Todd Schechter, 27, a social entrepreneur from New York wasn't so sure. "Regardless of who ends of winning this election, I'm not going to be devastated and really, this is the first election I've felt that way," said Schechter, who said he likes both Obama and McCain, though "I'll probably vote for the Democratic nominee."

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Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a Clinton fundraiser, said she would likely not vote for Obama unless he picks Clinton as his vice president. "He has an enormous amount of work to do with women," said de Rothschild, the wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild - the couple honeymooned at the White House after their 2000 wedding. "He needs to go to her hat in hand and give her the choice, let it be her call. I believe if she's on the ticket it repairs a lot of the damage. I believe if she's not on the ticket, Democrats will lose in November."

"He'll lose women, he'll lose Hispanics, he'll lose seniors and he'll lose that working community and Hillary understands that and she's known that her entire life and they relate to her and if she's not there, I don't think they're going to relate to Barack Obama," de Rothschild said.

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"Something isn't working or hasn't been working" with Obama and Latino voters, said Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez. "So I think she would be able to help him in that regard."

When asked about the chances of an Obama/Clinton ticket, though, Velasquez demurred. "Oh, I don't know, we have to move forward looking at November," she said. "It's a decision, an evaluation that he needs to make. But, look she's a very smart lady with a lot of appeal to great sections of the population and she would be willing to work in order to help us win the White House.

Obama has a problem with Latinos. "The problem that we have is McCain being the Republican presidential candidate. He has a lot of appeal with the Latino community and we cannot underestimate that."

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"Everybody in this room is going to be fighting for a Democratic president in 2008," said Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. "We're not going to talk about who will be heard and who won't be heard. We're going to talk about rolling up our sleeves and building a unity camp in whatever capacity Hillary Clinton will be in or Senator Obama will be in, they have, I think, laid the ground work for working together."

"Senator Obama is someone is someone who has a good handle of the needs of winning in November," she added. "We're looking forward to a victory in November. What does that mean? Every element of the Democratic Party has to be in the tent. And therefore, there will be no doubt that we will be working and battling to get all of these voters who may have been in some sense disenchanted in that tent to win in November 2008."

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"She's coming home to here base of support to her colleagues and friends who love and supporter her. We're very proud of the race she race," said New York Congresswoman Caroline Maloney. "She told us in a conference call today that she would not be making any decisions tonight, that she wanted to reflect on really the best way to move her agenda forward."

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Jennie Walker, 45, a singer/songwriter from New York was so inspired by Clinton that she wrote her a ballad that she also made into a video on her latest album. "It's hard to say who I'll vote for in November, it will depend on who they both pick as running mates," Walker said. "I hope Obama picks her. Then I'll definitely vote for him."

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Martine Garcia boasted nine Hillary buttons across her chest and a Hillary sticker on her forehead. "Obama, he needs more experience, I'd be happier to vote for him in 2016," said Garcia, 49, an actress from New York. "But, I will vote for whomever the Democratic nominee is," she said with a sigh.

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Clinton would "absolutely" make a good vice presidential nominee, "he should got for it. She won the swing states we need to win in November. She won 18 million votes. I think every woman in America is standing a little bit taller because of her and the fine campaign that she ran."