For Wendy Carle, a mother from Louisville, Colorado, it was the moment when Hillary Clinton asked her supporters for a “gut check” – a test of their nerves – that made all the difference.

As she stood on the stage before a sea of white “Hillary” signs with thousands cheering her on, the junior senator from New York, who narrowly missed becoming the first woman to clinch the Democratic party’s nomination, challenged her most ardent supporters – especially those who have resisted her call to support Barack Obama – to consider what it had all really meant.