Bloggers and the news media delivered reports of festering ill will all day, despite denials from the Clinton and Obama camps.

Sen. John McCain’s campaign did its part to fuel the media frenzy, releasing an ad featuring a Clinton delegate who said she plans to support the Arizona Republican over Obama this fall.

“If anyone doubted that John McCain would target disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters, his new ad should convince the holdouts,” blogger Ed Morrissey wrote at Hot Air early Monday morning.

Discussion also focused on a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that found 21 percent of those who voted for Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) during the primary plan to support McCain. “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams noted that a number of Clinton supporters felt snubbed by the vice presidential selection process.

There’s a “whole lot of talk about not a lot of respect paid,” Williams said while interviewing Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign who is also Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) sister.

Lewis, who said Clinton is behind Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), was one of many Clinton surrogates who made appearances on cable news programs to dispel the rumor that hard feelings have lingered since the primary.

Terry McAuliffe, in an interview on MSNBC, bristled at a question from Andrea Mitchell suggesting that Clinton wants Obama to lose so she can run again in four years.

“People don’t have enough to do with their lives,” McAuliffe said.

But McCain’s campaign welcomed the dissension. “We are fighting hard for Hillary’s former supporters,” Nicolle Wallace, a McCain spokeswoman, said on Fox News.

Karl Rove, former adviser to President Bush and now a contributor at Fox News, said on that network that McCain would be the one to reap the benefits of the rift. “In states like Ohio, people are saying, ‘Don’t count on me as a Democrat,’ ” Rove said.

But people should separate Hillary Clinton from Bill Clinton, cautioned Hilary Rosen, political editor for The Huffington Post.

While Bill Clinton was reported to be in less-than-smooth negotiations with Obama’s campaign over the contents of his speech Wednesday night, Rosen said the former first lady was probably disappointed that she stole some attention from Michelle Obama, who was set to address the convention Monday night.

“[Hillary Clinton] doesn’t really want this drama,” Rosen said on CNN. “It’s not in her interest. She wants it to be over.”

Even if Hillary Clinton gives a strong pitch for Obama on Tuesday, she is no longer the most important person to convince her delegates to vote Democrat in this year’s presidential contest, Rosen pointed out. “That’s Barack Obama’s job on Thursday night,” she said.

Biden’s finances could affect McCain’s veep choice

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) choice of Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) as his running mate is certain to reverberate in the camp of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), predicted Chuck Todd, NBC News political director, who pointed out that the Delaware senator is one of the few members of the Senate who is not a millionaire.

The Biden pick could make it tougher for McCain, who is now facing questions about his own wealth, to pick former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire, particularly when the economy is the top issue, Todd said.

“You don’t want to put two millionaires on the ticket when you have Joe Biden on the [Democratic] ticket,” Todd said on MSNBC.

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor and former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, made that same argument in a New York Times op-ed while suggesting McCain give Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) serious consideration despite the former Democratic senator’s support for abortion rights.

“It’s clear that the Obama-Biden campaign is moving aggressively to embrace a traditional Democratic populist economic message,” Kristol wrote. “Such a message will have appeal this year — especially, one supposes, against a doubly multimansioned GOP ticket of McCain and Romney.”

As for the evangelicals who cringe at the thought of a pro-choice candidate on the Republican ticket, Kristol wrote, “you certainly don’t want Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running the country. If a McCain-Lieberman ticket is the best way to thwart that prospect, you could probably learn to live with it — and perhaps to like it.”

Kennedy’s farewell?

As word spread that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who is battling brain cancer, made the trip to Denver and was expected to speak, NBC News political director Chuck Todd raised the idea that this might be the last time the Liberal Lion addresses a national convention.

Todd said that it could end up being like the final speech Ronald Reagan gave to the Republican National Convention in 1992.

“I don’t want to say that,” Todd said seconds later. “If you are a fan of politics, it doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican — this is one of those things everyone will be keeping an eye on.”