Tammy Baldwin

During the convention, I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Langewis of Front Page Q. Here is some of his coverage:

After speaking in front of a crowd on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama, wife of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, appeared in front of an audience of over 600 at an LGBT caucus meeting, including delegates and members of the media alongside Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), at a delegate luncheon Tuesday.

"I am honored and thrilled," Obama opened to applause. "I could stay here all afternoon."

"I'm particularly glad to be here on a week that commemorates some of the great strides our nation has made towards equality and justice," she said. "It's been five years since Lawrence v. Texas and 39 years since Stonewall, but still, we've got work to do before we achieve equality in the LGBT community. And although we know that we've got a lot of work to do, this week we're going to celebrate how far we've come, and how deep our shared capacity is to break through any barriers that stand in our way to the progress of this nation."

To see the entire speech, click here.

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Here is the future First Lady's speech (Blend coverage of yesterday's event is here; it was hat tipped by the Obama blog). Michelle Obama spoke yesterday in a surprise visit to the lunch for LGBT delegates hosted by Rep. Barney Frank, with Rep.

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Another fun day at the Convention.  I dropped Pam off at the Big Tent and grabbed one of the free bikes to ride uptown to pick up our Tuesday Hall Pass (Terrance is right; without credentials you are nobody and you belong nowhere.)  We got all the other passes for all four days, but the Hall pass (2nd only to Floor pass) must be picked up daily.

The free bike thing is pretty cool.  They're set up all over the downtown area.  Once you're registered in their system with your ID and credit card, they just scan you in and hand you a bike.

On my way back to the Big Tent, I decided to ride backdown the 16th Street Mall (walk, actually, since they won't let you ride through the mall).  This mall is just a pedestrian-only shopping zone that runs the length of 16th, with hybrid-electric free buses that give rides from end to end.

As I get just two blocks into the stroll, I see a crowd of people gathered around the front of a restaurant.  "What's going on?" I ask.  "Some celebrities in there, I think," was the answer.

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8:50PM MT:  Right now, people are gathered around the nearby monitors to watch Hillary Clinton's speech. I hope everyone enjoyed the CoverItLive Blend chat tonight (it's actually still going on now, and is archived to read once it's over). I've been in and out of the room as I've been blogging.

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So I'm typing away here on Radio Row, sitting on a folding chair with the laptop on another chair. I look up and who is walking by? Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who earlier in the day introduced Michelle Obama at the HRC/Victory Fund LGBT delegate luncheon.

She actually recognized me and came over and gave me a hug and introduced her partner Lauren Azar (who you might recall, ended up in the news over the military's attempt to deny the ability of Azar to fly with Baldwin on a fact-finding trip; Speaker Pelosi intervened). Mike Signorile snapped up his audio equipment to do a short interview, and I videotaped it. I got in a question at the end. I'll have the full video up once I have time, but below the fold is the snippet with my question and her answer.

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