washington: Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani crowed yesterday that Hillary Clinton's showstopping convention speech would help Republicans defeat the Democrats in the White House race.

"I think she gave a very good speech from her point of view and our point of view, but not necessarily for Barack Obama's point of view," he said.

"She never really answered the key question, is he prepared to be president? Which is the issue she put out there, rather dramatically, during the primaries," he said.

Clinton brought the Democratic convention at Denver to its feet with a powerful speech ordering her supporters to unite behind Obama, who defeated her in the nominating contests.

Her speech sought to end the party divisions after the bruising primary race, and Obama said afterwards he thought it was an "outstanding" address.

"Why isn't she the vice-presidential candidate. Why isn't she the presidential candidate," Giuliani added, once again picking at the Democrat's wounds with many Clinton supporters still distraught at her defeat.