DENVER – It was an emotional and bittersweet moment for Sen. Hillary Clinton as she prepared to watch Sen. Barack Obama claim the prize that she and her supporters had fought so hard for.

But there was at least the consolation that her disappointed supporters still believe she will win the Democratic nomination and be elected president in the future.

“But as my mother used to say, there are always better things down the road. She’ll be president someday and we’ll be there to help her.”

Lundergran, a former state legislator who resigned as state Democratic chairman to run the campaign that gave Clinton (D-N.Y.) 295,000 votes and 90 percent of the state’s 61 delegates., spoke to The Hill after Clinton met with the delegation at the Brown Palace Hotel Thursday afternoon.

“Well, you’ve survived,” Clinton told the Kentuckians as they crowded around for a group photograph. “I’m so glad to see all of you and to thank you for all you did for me,” she said, prompting a collective response, “No, thank YOU!”

Clinton urged her supporters to work hard for the Obama-Biden ticket and for Democratic congressional and state and local candidates. “This could be a bellwether year for Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill to the statehouse,” she said. “We’ve got to win this. We can’t take four more years of what we’ve had.”

Carol Johnson Smith, a volunteer who works for the United Auto Workers at a Ford plant in Louisville  said afterwards “Our disappointment will never be over.” Another woman in the group said simply, “I’m crushed.”