This is clearly the blue-collar hour at the Democratic National Convention. The very extra-quiet regular guy up now whose job is being shipped to Mexico is talking about clipping coupons. Forgive me, but I’m going to rewind for a bit to write about the Human Rights Campaign-sponsored LGBT delegate reception I attended this afternoon.

There are more self-identified LGBT delegates at this convention than ever before, amounting to about 6% of the total delegation. Only four states or territories failed to send a gay, lesbian, or transgender delegate to Denver. Delegates, including Seattleites Jen Hauseman and Pam Keeley, were being served salad, rolls, chicken, and dessert while speakers including out lesbian congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and the heavily accented gay congressman Barney Frank addressed them. I wanted to chat with the Washington delegation, so I sat down at a table instead of cowering in the back with the rest of the press. (It also wasn’t clear from the invite whether we were going to get to eat or not, so I hadn’t eaten anything but some cereal and an oatmeal cookie all day. I’m afraid I’m going to lose some weight—don’t scoff, I’m abnormally skinny—at this convention. It’s absurdly hard to schedule eating in between the hour-long light rail trips and painfully expensive cab rides and searching for wi-fi and Slogging the nonstop action at the convention.) Anyway, it went swimmingly for a while.

The event was extremely delayed, so I talked to Jen Hauseman, who’s an Obama delegate, about whether the media were exaggerating the level of dissatisfaction from Hillary Clinton voters and delegates. I told her that, from the evidence at the HRC subcaucus I attended yesterday, emotions were still running extremely high. She said, “People are talking about the Supreme Court—or she could be the next Teddy Kennedy. She’s not going to go away. I think she’s going to parlay this into something real.” She didn’t mind the idea of a Clinton roll-call vote on the floor of the convention. (The other option is a roll call at the separate delegate breakfasts, which would then be officially recognized on the floor of the convention that afternoon.) “I think getting all that emotion out on the floor is helpful.”

Then, as we listened to speeches about the number of out legislators (lots! not enough!) and gay rights landmarks, we considered the food. Here are Jen and her partner Therese Littleton with the neon yellow salad dressing:

Alas, I had the misfortune to sit next to an HRC representative, who noticed me scribbling away in my notebook and started eyeing my press pass, which I stupidly neglected to take off when I sat down. In the middle of Tammy Baldwin’s speech, she confronted me. I was being denied banquet chicken.

After valiantly defending the necessity of my presence, Jen took a quick photograph of the dish I was missing out on:

And here’s what I’ve been gobbling ever since:

But it was all worth it, because Michelle Obama made a completely unexpected appearance shortly thereafter. My camera batteries chose that exact moment to die—my lucky day, huh?—so I can’t give you visuals. But she was looking great.

As in her speech last night, Michelle took pains to reach out to Hillary Clinton supporters, of whom there are lots in in the LGBT delegation. “The great, historic candidacy of Hillary Clinton demonstrated that this country is ready for a woman president,” she declared. (Big applause.) “We will demonstrate in November that race is not a barrier to being president of the United States of America.” (Equal enthusiasm.) Later, she tied Clinton’s achievement to the lives of her daughters: “Hillary Clinton’s historic candidacy banished forever the notion that a woman can’t be president. We don’t have to be that way anymore. Little girls just like mine—you’ve seen ‘em, they’re cute!—are dreaming new dreams about who they can become.”

She talked about the importance of getting LGBT elected officials into office, praising Tammy Baldwin’s work on healthcare, particularly breast and cervical cancer (again with the girl power). She noted the anniversaries of historical landmarks from the 19th amendment to Lawrence v. Texas. She bragged that Obama announced his position that DOMA should be fully repealed in the middle of his “very tight” race for Senate. (It wasn’t tight for very long, but I haven’t had a chance to figure out the timing.) She enumerated his vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment, his support for full funding of the Ryan White Care Act, his determination to “combat the HIV epidemic continuing right here in the United States.” She recounted the HIV test she and Barack took in Kenya, an effort to help eliminate “the stigma of the HIV testing—which, you know, a lot of that is due to homophobia.”

Of course, no new policy stuff emerged here, but it was gratifying to hear Michelle Obama talk about hard policy and specific accomplishments, subjects she avoided in her headlining speech last night. She sounded very smart, and very sincere about her enthusiasm for the vague notion of “equality.” She was a hit with the gays. As soon as she finished, one member of the not-at-all-objective gay press exclaimed that he wanted Michelle to be president. On the way out, I asked Jen Hauseman what she thought. “I heart her,” she grinned. There were many standing ovations.