DENVER — Governor Paterson offered up a forceful defense of the supporters of Senator Clinton here this morning in his most extensive comments on the search for party unity that has become the central storyline of this convention. Speaking to the New York convention delegates at a breakfast, the governor dismissed the notion that this week had focused too much on the Clintons and their most loyal backers.

“Nothing went wrong in this process,” he said. “It doesn’t need any further discussion, just perhaps a little amplification.”

“What we have learned this year more than ever is that social justice is always the priority to political justice,” he added.

Mr. Paterson, adopting part of the message that Mrs. Clinton has often used, recalled the discrimination long suffered by women in America and noted that some of her supporters at the convention were born before women had the right to vote.

“So would it not be an anxiety that a woman would feel after seeing someone come so close to wonder when the next time will come? Will it be in 2020? 2040? 2060?” he asked rhetorically. “Can we understand the feelings of individuals who worked hard enough, who tried hard enough and who always seemed to come up with less than their talent and character would take them? Do we really and truly and sincerely recognize what it does to a nation that too often has systematically dismantled opportunity for half of the human race?”

“If we truly understand that,” he concluded. “Then we’d understand why a lot of supporters wouldn’t say, ‘We’ll get ’em tomorrow’ or ‘Wait till next year.’ Because it’s been next year and next year and next year.”

In a separate interview on the radio show of the New York Post’s Frederic Dicker, he acknowledged the “supreme disappointment” among some Clinton supporters and suggested that the Obama campaign could have reached out more to the Clinton camp by sending the candidate or one of his top surrogates to address the New York delegation. “I’m not saying that this is his fault,” Mr. Paterson said, according to news reports. “But I’m just saying how much more foresighted would it have been for him to have made a surprise appearance at the New York delegation, or one of his top people, or he could have even sent Senator Biden.”

He added: “These are the kinds of political strategies that can diffuse a situation like that.”

During and after his speech, Mr. Paterson also reflected on Mr. Obama’s historic achievement as the first African American candidate of a major party, and he and other speakers noted repeatedly that his acceptance speech tonight comes on the 45th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington. “I don’t know if I ever thought I’d really see it,” he told reporters.

He recalled the experience of his father, Basil Paterson, during his run for lieutenant governor of New York in 1970. “They told him he was an asset on that ticket,” he said. “When they got to the general election, they never even mentioned his name in the paid television campaign ads. What do you think that did to the people that supported him?”

Mr. Paterson concluded by asserting that Mr. Obama’s achievement would be good for all historically disadvantaged minority groups, and not just African Americans. “Each time one of us has been able to rise above what the standard has been,” he said, “the result has been that it has pulled all of us along, whether we be Latino, whether we be gay or lesbian, whether we be African American, or women.”

The governor was greeted enthusiastically by the delegates, who held up signs that read, “We Luv the Gov.” The placards prompted a bit of trademark humor from Mr. Paterson, who is legally blind. “I’m sorry to disappoint you,” he said, “but I can’t read the signs.”