Three out of four Democrats (74%) say the party’s ongoing national convention has unified them as they roll out now in full force to put their nominee, Barack Obama, in the White House. Just 14% think the convention has not unified them.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters overall agree that the convention has unified Democrats, while only 30% disagree, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) also believe that Hillary Clinton’s speech Tuesday night endorsing Obama helps the candidate’s chances of being elected president. More importantly, after weeks of media reports about division in the party between the Clinton and Obama forces, 84% of Democrats say Clinton’s speech helps Obama.

Less than half (45%) of all voters, however, believe Clinton really wants Obama to become president, and 36% think she does not. Again, Democrats have a lot more confidence in the former first lady: 68% say she wants Obama to win, while only 17% say she doesn’t.

But the speech clearly impressed voters with the sincerity of her support for the first African-American nominee of a major political party since the percentage of those who believe she wants him to win has increased noticeably. In a survey taken the night before Clinton’s speech, 56% of Democrats and just 37% of voters overall believed Clinton wanted Obama to win.

Perhaps most importantly, 64% of Democratic women now believe Clinton wants Obama to be elected president, versus 19% who do not think that is the case. Prior to the speech, only 47% of Democratic women thought Clinton wanted Obama to win.

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Democrats have been worried ever since Clinton dropped out of the race for the party’s nomination in early June that many of her supporters, especially women, might vote for Republican candidate John McCain as a protest. McCain has already exploited that fear in a TV ad that began running earlier this week featuring a young female Clinton supporter who now intends to vote GOP.

Male voters in general are a bit more dubious about Clinton. Forty-four percent (44%) believe she wants Obama to win, but nearly as many (41%) don’t think so.

Nationally, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll which has been close for weeks now shows hints of a building convention bounce for Obama.

If history is any indicator, he is likely to experience even more of a bounce following his acceptance speech Thursday night, but McCain is hoping to offset that with the announcement Friday morning of his running mate. The Republicans hold their convention next week in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Nearly half of voters (48%) think Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night, which was intended to soften her image and highlight her role as wife and mother, will help her husband’s chances of being elected. Nine percent (9%) say the speech hurt Obama’s candidacy, while 38% say it had no impact.

In a survey at the beginning of the week prior to Mrs. Obama’s speech, 39% described her as Very Liberal and just over one-quarter (26%) expected her to be Very Involved in making important policy decisions if her husband is elected president.

She has consistently tallied higher negatives than Cindy McCain, the wife of the GOP presidential candidate, in Rasmussen Reports polling since early June. Most recently, on August 14, 48% of voters had at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Mrs. Obama, but 24% described their view of her as Very Unfavorable. In the same poll, 45% viewed Mrs. McCain at least somewhat favorably, but only 11% of the latter regarded her Very Unfavorably.

The Democratic convention in Denver, even prior to Obama’s highly-anticipated acceptance speech, has drawn a great deal of voter attention. Seventy-eight percent (78%) say they have followed news stories on the convention at least somewhat closely, including 41% who say they are following Very Closely. Only three percent (3%) say they are not following convention news at all.

While 85% of Democrats are following at least somewhat closely, so are 74% of Republicans and unaffiliated voters.

Given the historic nature of Obama’s candidacy, it’s not surprising to note that 91% of African-American voters say they are following new stories on the convention at least somewhat closely, including 67% who are following Very Closely.

In a survey last week, 44% of voters said they were more likely to watch the national party gatherings this year than in previous years. Far fewer (28%) said they were less likely to watch the conventions.

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