DENVER -- Former President Bill Clinton, setting aside his own criticism and ambivalence, offered a full-throated endorsement Wednesday of Sen. Barack Obama as a leader ready to confront any challenge.

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Clinton told the convention Wednesday night that Obama "has a remarkable ability to inspire people." Read a transcript of Clinton's speech here.

He also offered praise for his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lost the nomination to Obama.

"In the end, my candidate didn't win. But I'm very proud of the campaign she ran," Bill Clinton said. "She never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for."

The former president's speech had been eagerly awaited by Democrats in view of his own past criticism of Obama and his ambivalence about the Illinois senator.

"I am honored to be here tonight," Clinton said. "Barack Obama will lead us away from division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope."

Clinton was trying to roll back a line of attack made by him and his wife in their primary battle, and taken up now by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. McCain unloaded a new TV ad that contended Obama is "dangerously unprepared" for the White House.

"Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job," Clinton said to cheers.

The wide-ranging, roughly eight-minute speech also focused on Democrats' policy achievements, including Clinton's own.

And it emphasized the need to elect a Democrat to the White House "to restore America's standing to what it was eight years ago."

Obama "will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries," Clinton said. "He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which help to share the costs of the world's problems and to leverage our power and influence. He will put us back in the forefront of the world's fight to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to stop global warming."

During the primary race, the former president tried to raise doubts about whether the first-term Illinois senator had the experience to lead the country. He said Obama's opposition to the Iraq war was a "fairy tale."

Last fall, he dismissed Obama as totally unqualified.

"I mean, when is the last time we elected a president based on one year of service in the Senate before he started running?" Clinton said on "The Charlie Rose Show.” "In theory, we could find someone who is a gifted television commentator and let them run."

Last winter, Clinton said that after "all the mean things" the Obama campaign had said about him, "I should be the last person to defend him. (But) if he wins this nomination, I'm going to do what I can to help him win."

Yet since Obama clinched the nomination in June, Clinton has seemed less than passionate about an Obama presidency, giving only lukewarm endorsements.

But on Wednesday, Clinton praised Obama over and over.

"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world," Clinron said. Obama is "ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States."

Read a transcript of Clinton's speech here.