Hillary Clinton Advisers Leaving Denver Before Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech

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The Washington Post's The Trail reports that some top Clinton advisers and supporters will be in attendance at the convention for Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic convention on Tuesday, then will join her Wednesday afternoon where she is expected to thank them for their support and finally they will attend Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday.

They will then be leaving Denver and skipping Barack Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night, which will be held at the Invesco Field with an expected audience of over 70,000 people.

Those named include Clinton's former campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, longtime Clinton backers and supporters Steve Rattner and Maureen White, with one of Clinton's top New York fundraisers, Alan Patricof, not attending the convention at all.

The Trail does name a Clinton supporter that will be staying in Denver for the last day.

Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton supporter who is trying now to navigate between the two camps, will be staying for Obama's speech. But he said in an interview that it would be unrealistic to expect there would not still be some tension between the two camps -- he noted that the same was true with supporters of Gary Hart and, to a lesser extent, Howard Dean.

Zimmerman makes the point of saying the Democratic convention offers an opportunity for Barack Obama to "bond with the constituencies that supported Hillary Clinton," and concludes by saying, "It's not about Barack or Hillary. It's about bringing in the people here who voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Senator Obama and Senator Biden are, without question, qualified to do that."