SAN FRANCISCO - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared before a crowd of several thousand adoring members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Thursday at the Moscone West Convention Center.

The New York Democrat did not disappoint the packed union crowd that gave the senator a standing ovation on her way in and out as Sister Sledge's "We are Family" blared from the stage loudspeakers.

Not to be outdone by his former campaign foe and now ally, Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, was beamed in live via satellite to the convention members about an hour after Clinton's speech ended.

But make no mistake, Clinton had the boisterous crowd at hello. She struck several chords during her 22-minute speech that resonated deeply with the audience.

Mostly though she touted the benefits of what a future Democratic president would do for American working people.

"You've been fighting for the last eight years. You've seen first hand what this Administration and their allies in the Congress have done to our country and our government. You've seen how they have outsourced critical government functions to private companies which our often more expensive and certainly less accountable and less competent," Clinton said. "The Administration's motto seems to have been, ‘If isn't broke, we haven't tried hard enough.'"

Clinton urged the crowd to help her continue the fight against privatization of essential government services.

"That's why we have fought to defend Social Security against privatization. That's why we have fought against the President and his Republican allies who have tried to undermine Medicare by taking money away from doctors so they can give it to insurance companies..." she said. "That's why we have been fighting day by day against policies that seem to shift the burdens of Medicaid, home heating oil assistance and child healthcare and economic development and so much else onto the backs of state and local governments."

Clinton did not spare her well known distain for the current occupants of the White House.

"(The Bush Administration) represents a narrow, radical ideology and it's up to all of us to speak out against it and to vote against those that would support it. That's why I am going to work as hard as I can with all of you to ensure that we have a Democratic victory in November," Clinton said. "For this reason (we) have to elect more Democrats to the Senate, more Democrats to the House and Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America."

For his part, Obama delivered a slightly less energetic talk the union throngs - virtually all of whom were sporting bright green T-shirts with the AFSCME logo.

Obama started his talk by praising Clinton and thanking her for her service and commitment to Democratic ideals.

"For 16 months she and I shared a stage as rivals but I couldn't be happier that we now share it as allies in the effort to bring America's working families and new and better day. I am so honored to have her support. I am a better candidate because of her outstanding work and the great campaign she ran," Obama said.

Obama also reminded the crowd that Bush Administration has been consistently anti-labor since taking office.

"It's not that they haven't been fighting for you, they've actually have been trying to stop you for fighting for yourself. They don't believe in unions and they don't believe in organizing. They have packed the Labor Relations Board with their cronies and (other) corporate types. Well, we have news for them. It's not the ‘Department of Management' it is the Department of Labor," he said.

Like Hillary, Obama also hit the high notes that a labor union crowd in particular would want to hear.

"(We have a) president who denigrates public service by privatizing public jobs every chance he gets," Obama said. "(If elected president) I will make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land."

(The currently stalled Employee Free Choice Act (House Resolution 800, Senate Bill 1041) would establish stronger penalties against employers who violate employee rights, provide mediation and arbitration at first contract disputes and allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation, among other things.),

Mostly, though, Obama used Thursday's speech to rally the union faithful and to remind them that the Nov. 4 election is less than 100 days away and that their help on the ground will prove pivotal to his chances of winning against presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

 "I am running for president because I believe that if we can just put an end to the politics of division and distraction. If we can just reclaim the idea (that) we all have to stick with each other and that we all have mutual obligations to one another," Obama said.  "If we can just unite this country around a common purpose then there is no obstacle that we cannot overcome.  This is the opportunity we have in this election."