DENVER — Senator Clinton is planning to use a speech to moderate Democrats this morning to showcase a set of domestic policy proposals that could form the backbone of her presidential campaign platform in 2008.

Mrs. Clinton will outline plans for education, retirement security, and health care as part of an “American Dream Initiative,” designed to address Americans’ concerns about their place in the fast-changing world economy.

The program is the first major product of Mrs. Clinton’s association with a centrist group that helped her husband win the presidency in 1992, the Democratic Leadership Council.

“We think the American Dream is a better theory than supply-side economics,” the president of the DLC, Bruce Reed, told reporters yesterday.

The education components of the plan, which were unveiled in Washington last week, set a goal of adding an extra 1 million college graduates by 2015. Mrs.Clinton called for combining three different tax breaks for education into a single $3,000 refundable credit. She also urged spending $150 billion over 10 years on block grants to states that improve graduation rates.

“If all we do is add money to the system, all we’re paying for is tuition increases,” Mr. Reed said.

Other potential candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2008 also are scheduled to speak today, including Governor Richardson of New Mexico, Senator Bayh of Indiana, and Governor Vilsack of Iowa, who currently serves as the council’s chair.

Mrs. Clinton’s portfolio at the DLC seems designed to keep her out of the thorniest issues dividing the party, such as the war in Iraq, and to allow her to sidestep issues such as foreign trade, where the council’s permissive stance is out of sync with most Democratic lawmakers.

Mr. Reed insisted that Mrs. Clinton’s initiative “doesn’t pull any punches” and is in keeping with the group’s tradition of goring sacred cows when necessary. “It draws clear policy lines that some interest groups might not like and some Democrats won’t agree with,” he said.

Others at the event are planning to address the war in Iraq and the broader fight against terrorism.A discussion today on how Democrats can articulate a tough foreign-policy vision will feature one of the DLC’s founders, Will Marshall III. He recently published a book on the subject, “With All Our Might.”

Most of the several hundred in attendance are elected officials at the state or local level who came to discuss the arcana of governing. However, some are still struggling with the defeat of the party’s presidential nominee in 2004, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts. Many here are fretting that Democrats still have not learned to address the moral and ethical concerns that led many voters to support President Bush in 2000 and 2004.

Rep. Artur Davis, a Democrat of Alabama, said religious people often write off Democrats altogether because of a perception that they are hostile to religion. “It’s never made sense for me for the party of tolerance to be intolerant towards people of faith,” he said. “You can use the language of religion and you can use the rhythm of religion to move votes in a progressive direction.”

Mr. Davis said Democrats can retool their messages to win a hearing from religious people, but he warned against trying to change deep-seated beliefs. “You’re not going to change people’s minds in Alabama about gay rights,” he said.

While many seemed to favor a measured, carefully targeted appeal to moderate voters, others said blunt talk would be more effective. “We have allowed these fascists in the Republican Party to hijack America,” a Maryland state representative, Clarence Davis, said. He faulted Mr. Kerry for failing to label Mr. Bush’s statements about Iraq as lies. “John tiptoed and danced around every one of the damn issues. Then when he loses the damn election, all of a sudden he gets a little courage to speak the truth,” Mr. Davis said.

A film and theater producer from Manhattan, Michael Alden, drew howls of laughter during one discussion when he summed up the cultural fault lines between the Democratic and Republican parties.

“We have Barbra Streisand. And they have God,” Mr. Alden said.

The DLC’s reputation for centrism has made it an object of scorn for liberal party activists, particularly those who post on the busiest Democratic blogs.

A town supervisor from upstate New York, Sandy Frankel, said not all of her friends were pleased about her decision to attend the DLC conference. “Liberal Democrats would hold their noses and say, ‘You’re going to a centrist, moderate, more conservative type of meeting?’ And they moved away,” she said.

The council also got a hostile reception from about two dozen protesters who marched and hoisted signs on the sidewalk outside the hotel where the conference was taking place.

“DLC, where you been? You’re acting like Republicans!” the demonstrators chanted.

Most protesters expressed opposition to the war in Iraq. Some criticized Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. “DLC \ Genocide, DLC Hates Most Semites,” one sign said.

Mrs. Clinton was singled out for particular disdain for her support of Israel in the current fighting.

One protester carried a sign that said, “Hey Hillary, It Takes a Village to Resist Imperialism.”

“I believe she is acting like Israel’s bitch,” a public relations consultant from Boulder, Colo., Linda Mamoun, 36, said.”She’s not at all thinking about what’s right but about how she can get the most votes.”