The former first lady ceded the nomination that was almost hers in a prime-time speech to Democratic delegates, closing another chapter in a long, improbable political career that took her from supportive spouse to political powerhouse.

She was warmly embraced by delegates split between herself and Barack Obama in the primary. Any who were still angry over her loss were drowned out in applause when she opened her speech by declaring herself “a proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

She exhorted her backers – “my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” she called them – to remember who was most important in this campaign.

“I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?” she said. She urged them instead to remember Marines who have served their country, single mothers, families barely getting by on minimum wage and other struggling Americans.

“You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership,” Clinton told the delegates. “No way. No how. No McCain.”

The line drew applause from Obama, who was watching on television from Billings, Mont., with supporters and reporters.

Clinton spoke on the eve of the delegate roll call in which both she and Obama will be nominated for president. But under a deal between the two camps, only some delegates will get the opportunity to cast a historic vote for either a woman or a black man before the split decision will be cut off in favor of unanimous consent for Obama.

Advisers to Clinton and Obama sent a joint letter Tuesday night instructing state delegation chairs to distribute vote tally sheets to delegates Wednesday and return them by 4 p.m. local time, just as the vote is scheduled to get under way.

The letter said Clinton would have one nominating speech and two seconding speeches, followed by Obama’s nominating speech and three seconding speeches – totaling no more than 15 minutes for each candidate. Then the roll call will begin, said the letter signed by Obama senior adviser Jeff Berman, Clinton senior adviser Craig Smith and convention secretary Alice Germond.

Still, many details were unclear – which states would get a chance to vote, whether Clinton herself would cut it off in acclamation for Obama and if floor demonstrations would be tolerated.

The dealmaking and lack of direction left Clinton supporters frustrated. Clinton fueled confusion by refusing to publicly instruct her delegates how to vote, though she said she’ll back Obama when the time comes. She planned to meet with her delegates Wednesday.

All the Clintons, a longtime royal family of Democratic politics, were on hand to pass the torch to Obama. Clinton was introduced by her daughter Chelsea, while her husband watched from a box seat above the Arkansas delegation. Not everyone with a ticket could get in to hear Clinton after fire marshals declared the hall filled to capacity.

The convention hall was brimming with delegates wearing Clinton gear. There were Hillary T-shirts, buttons and stickers. Some delegates brought signs promoting Clinton for president. Many wore white shirts to mark the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

“My mother was born before women could vote,” Clinton reminded them. “But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for president.”

The Obama campaign gave Clinton her due. Before she took the stage Tuesday night, Obama’s campaign distributed “Hillary” signs throughout the Pepsi Center. But only sentences into Clinton’s speech, those signs were quickly swapped out for others proclaiming either “Obama” or “Hillary” on one side, and “Unity” on the other.

Some Clinton delegates weren’t ready for so quick a pivot.

“We love you Hillary!” some shouted.

Jennie Lou Leeder, a Clinton delegate from Llado, Texas, said Clinton “was so good tonight, I was crying.”

Did her speech help to unify the party?

“It’s not Hillary’s job to bring this party together,” Leeder said. “It’s Barack Obama’s job to bring this party together.”

Daniel Kagan, a Clinton delegate from Englewood, Colo., said he felt pride and sadness watching Clinton speak. He was proud of her accomplishments, but saddened by the realization that her campaign was truly over.

Nevertheless, Kagan said, the speech will help to unify the party.

“I know that it’s changed attitudes,” Kagan said. “I saw some of my colleagues standing up and applauding for Obama for the first time.”

It was the culmination of an emotional day for Clinton loyalists, still wondering how the final act would play out in Wednesday’s roll call vote and whether they would have a chance to give their candidate one last show of support.

Party leaders said they feared a nationally televised floor demonstration Wednesday that would underscore party divisions.

“It seems to be a little more of a problem than I anticipated,” former Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler told the AP. “All you need is 200 people in that crowd to boo and stuff like that and it will be replayed 900 times. And that’s not what you want out of this.”

Rebecca Prozan is a delegate from California and an assistant district attorney in Nancy Pelosi’s district of San Francisco. Her blog is RebeccaProzan.com.

Jennifer Vanasco: How did you become a delegate?

Rebecca Prozan: I ran for it – there were 55 candidates, about 700 votes, and I was number one.

JV: Is this your first convention?

RP: It is my first convention, but not my first campaign. I was nine when Ted Kennedy ran against Jimmy Carter for president. All of my family was for Kennedy – I was the only one who supported Carter. So to see him walk across the stage tonight blew me away.

JV: Why do you support Obama?

RP: This election is so important for our community.

It will make such a difference. Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, so that our men and women can serve with pride in the military; passing a transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination bill, which Barack is very ready to do- he already supported a similar bill in Illinois; and with gay marriage, we want someone with us 100 percent. He’s come out strongly against every initiative across the country that would ban gay marriage. I delivered his letter – his actual, physical letter – that congratulated the couples in California who got married.

In this election, like no other, we must do everything we can to get every single LGBT to vote for Obama.

JV: What has been your favorite convention moment so far?

RP: Ted Kennedy. It’s the first time I heard gay from the stage today. He’s no stranger to civil rights – he knows how important this election is. He knows what divides us. He knows gay rights are civil rights.

My other favorite moment was in the LGBT caucus today, when the chair called out each state, and there were delegates from almost every state. And the guy next to me said, Rebecca, four years ago there were 30 people in this room. That was amazing.

Bo Shuff is a member of the Ohio delegation, a national field director for campaigns, and an out gay man. His blog is bearsleft.com. I found him sitting on the front row of the Ohio seating area, his lanyard studded with gay pins – including an “Out for Hillary” button.

Jennifer Vanasco: How do you feel about the words “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” not being in the platform?

Bo Shuff: It’s the most inclusive platform we’ve ever had. It’s a policy document. Some people are upset that four words were excluded, but gender identity and sexual orientation were included, and that’s what matters.

JV: You’ve been to a couple conventions – how does this rate on the gay-friendliness scale?

BS: At the LGBT caucus today, they said there was a 41 percent increase in GLBT delegates. That’s gay friendly. There’s an event on the calendar every single night, and several every single day.

Four years ago, Senator Obama sent a shout out to “gays in Red States.” That meant a lot to a lot of people. Senator McCain, though, isn’t even a compassionate conservative, let alone a maverick, and I think people are starting to realize that.

JV: I notice you’re still wearing a pro-Hillary button. Who are you voting for as a delegate?

BS: On Thursday night when we have a winner, I’ll work my tail off for our nominee, whoever wins. Until then, I’m supporting my candidate.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is one of two openly LGBT representatives in Congress and is presently Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Frank, who has been a U.S. representative since 1981, has been called eloquent, witty and caustic. He spoke with Mark Segal about the convention, how the Democratic Party has changed and what the LGBT community should expect from a new president.

MS: What should the LGBT community expect from this convention?
BF: An affirmation of the biggest difference between the two parties. If Obama wins and we have a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate, we will see legislation that will remove some of the inequalities we face. That is one of the biggest differences between the parties. McCain is committed to perpetuating all of the legal inequalities.

MS: Does it bother you that the words “gay” and “lesbian” don’t appear in the DNC platform?

BF: No. We have a very serious opportunity to win big the accomplishment that we’ve been looking for for a long time. That just baffles me that anybody cares about that. What’s important is the public policy alternatives are stated as explicitly as they could be.

MS: The DNC platform covers civil unions, hate crimes and gays in the military. Is there anything you feel that was missed?
BF: No. There is not yet in the country a majority in favor of same-sex marriage. That, I believe, we are working toward.

But the platform does the right thing in leaving it up to each state and opposing efforts to take it away from the states because I think that is the way we will get there as people experience this state by state. They will understand that these fears and concerns, the non-bigoted ones, the majority will understand that. It addresses every topic that needed to be addressed. It falls short in part on the marriage issue.

But that’s what you get in a democracy and it does affirm the right of legal recognition of our relationships and most importantly opposes efforts to undo them at the state level. That’s how we’re going to win this thing

MS: What are your thoughts on the latest Harris Poll which shows that 68 percent of gays and lesbians support Obama and 10 percent support McCain?
BF: What I don’t understand is why if you were a rational human being at this point you would be undecided. I don’t know what they are waiting for. The later people decide, the less I’m impressed with the quality of their decisions.

The distinctions are very clear. The 10 percent, I think, essentially reflects people who are gay mostly, very few lesbians: I think this is one where you are mostly talking about men whose own lives are such that they personally don’t experience much gay discrimination. And many of them also tend to be upper income.

Obviously not all gay people are rich but, as with any group, we have an element who are wealthy and I think they are voting their pocketbook to a great extent because they are not themselves facing discrimination. In cases where there are partners, they both have healthcare.

Some of the material aspects of discrimination, many of these people are immune from them.

MS: You mentioned earlier in the interview that we have an opportunity to have a big win with Obama. If we do have that big win, how large do you think we will increase the Democratic presence in the House and what should be the first priority of the LGBT community?
BF: It’s most important that we increase it in the Senate and I believe we will by at least five, maybe seven or eight and that’s going to be very important because that is where we’ve have blockages.

Secondly, the House will pick up 10-15 seats. Getting rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” [the military ban on openly gay servicemembers] is important, but I think that the first thing that the new president will have to do is set us on the course to get out of Iraq. There are only so many things we want to test the military with.

The hate-crimes bill is an easy one. Both houses have passed it. We can get a hate-crimes bill signed. Then we will get to ENDA.

The question now is whether enough lobbying has been done to include people who are transgender. In my own home state of Massachusetts, I sent testimony in favor. There was a proposal to add transgender discrimination to the legislation and it failed. There’s still a political problem there that some of the leadership doesn’t want to confront. We need more lobbying on that. We had a very good hearing on that issue and it helped. Previously, we were running into problems getting it out of committee, and I think the hearing we had a major impact on that. It also depends on if we get more Democrats.

The more Democrats we have, and obviously not every Democrat votes with us, the better we’ll do. If we can pick up 15 Democratic seats, then I think we are in a good position to pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA.

MS: The last time the LGBT community had a friend in the White House was obviously Bill Clinton. When he got into the White House, the first priority the gay community lobbied for was gays in the military. Some people now believe that it was a mistake because it was too strong of an issue and the right wing got a chance to attack the gay and lesbian community and the new president who was inexperienced in those issues. Do you think we’re more politically astute today?
BF: We are politically astute but think it’s an unfair criticism that it was our choice. It wasn’t our choice. People forget the history. Bill Clinton had committed in the campaign to doing that but no one was asking for that to be the first thing.

What happened was, in December before he was president, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the policy was an unconstitutional discrimination. That was good ruling but it came at a bad time because when Bill Clinton took office, the clock was now running on whether not he would appeal. He did not have the legal ability to defer that issue because the judge’s decision in San Francisco came before he took office. Colin Powell, who was terrible on that issue, he and Sam Nunn and Bob Dole was the threesome that killed us on that.

Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and people said, “Why didn’t Clinton order him to do something?” Because Clinton wasn’t his boss. Clinton didn’t become his boss for more than a month after that. The problem was not that we chose, but a federal judge did.

We now have better control over this. With regard to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I would hope people would understand that the first thing to do is to get Iraq squared away and then do it. Instead, work on hate crime first and ENDA. And then also try to get some recognition of relationships.

MS: Two years ago, you wrote an article for the gay-history project where you looked back into 1962 when John F. Kennedy asked Congress and the United States to toughen that part of the American Immigration Law that aimed at excluding gays and lesbians from coming into the United States even as tourists. What do you think of the change since that time?
BF: It’s been enormously encouraging. Even this year, George Bush signed the bill that repealed the last vestige of that which is the exclusion of people who are HIV-positive. We’re making all this progress.

What happened was Stonewall. First, you had a series of movements in America post-World War II to democratize. I think it goes back to the revulsion people felt about Hitler and it’s showing of how terrible prejudice can be. It discredited all prejudices, anti-Semitism, ultimately, race, etc.

Then, by the late 1960s, we were joining that parade of groups saying we’re going to be equal to everybody else.

In our case, the most important thing that happened was millions of us decided to be honest about who we are and said we’re gay, we’re lesbian, we’re bisexual. It turned out that the American public, once they got to know us said it OK. That doesn’t mean there are no bigots or prejudice, but it has been diminishing. In the country as a whole, prejudice has diminished.

Now, the parties are diverged on this. The Democrats have gotten better at rate greater than the country as a whole, while the Republicans have lagged the country as a whole. So as a result, you have the country being better. Democrats are being much better and the Republicans no so much.

But the change from 1962 to today, I don’t think there is an aspect of American social life where attitude have change as much in a positive way.

MS: Can you give a clue of what you will say when you get up on the podium?
BF: I haven’t been invited to speak so I don’t think I’ll be saying anything. One thing I will say out there at the event. Here’s my way to decide for people who are undecided on the tough political issues. Christians have as their motto, “What would Jesus do?” In many cases, it turns out Jesus would have done, according to them, what they would have done in the first place. But I have a version of that. If you are in doubt about a political decision, say to yourself, “What would Cheney do?” and do the opposite.

For months now, she’s lifted her husband up by downsizing him gently, while grappling with her own critics. Sure, he’s the orator who electrifies the faithful by the tens of thousands. But he snores, and smells not so good in the morning.

Sure, he’s got what it takes to be president, she offers. But he’s “just a man.”

A tall woman with an outsized personality of her own, Michelle Obama has toured the community centers, church basements and ballrooms of the land, pulling in a crowd of 50 here, 2,500 there, and mixing it up with cozy TV chats and glossy magazine features.

Monday night in Denver, the stage is hers at the Democratic National Convention for a prime-time speech introducing the potential first lady to her largest TV audience.

If part of her function has been to reveal the husband and dad side of the man addressing the masses, she also needs to show she’s just a woman, just an American, just a patriot.

She’ll be joined by her daughters, Malia and Sasha, her mother Marian Robinson, and her brother Craig Robinson, who will introduce her.

In the primaries, she was dubbed “the Closer” for her ability to persuade the undecided voters walking in to come on board before walking out. Now she’s the opener, the first-night star called upon to testify about her husband’s vision and values, and perhaps settle some doubts about herself.

The critics have come out early, to a point where Barack Obama told people to “lay off my wife.” The Obama campaign created a Web site solely to counter innuendo about both of them, and first lady Laura Bush came unexpectedly to her defense.

A summer AP-Yahoo News poll found the public hasn’t taken to her yet. Respondents were more apt to dislike her than Republican candidate John McCain’s wife, Cindy. But mainly, Americans don’t know either woman well.

Michelle Obama’s playful fist bump with hubby when he sealed the Democratic nomination was taken in some quarters as a nefarious gesture.

Republicans in Tennessee and Washington state circulated video making hay with her statement that the campaign made her proud of America for the first time in her adult life. She said she meant pride in the political process.

Barack Obama called such attacks “low rent.” But that video won’t be going away.

“People aren’t used to strong women,” Michelle Obama remarked on ABC’s “The View.” That proposition is arguable, given the country’s history with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her activist years as first lady and her hard-charging, last-voter-standing primary campaign.

But, like Clinton, Obama can incite strong feelings for and against.

Her lack of pretense comes with a certain resistance to political packaging and she’s expressed the surprise of the newly famous that a comment here or a gesture there can create such a fuss.

The even-keeled Laura Bush told her through the media that “everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued.” The first lady also said Michelle Obama must have meant she was “more proud” of her country than before, not proud for the first time.

“That’s what I like about Laura Bush,” Michelle Obama said in response. “There’s a reason why people like her. It’s because she doesn’t, sort of, you know, fuel the fire.”

She wrote a thank you note to “Dear madam first lady” and made clear she’d learned a thing or two from Laura Bush. “I’m taking some cues.”

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a family of modest means.

Fraser Robinson was a Democratic precinct captain who worked swing shifts at the water plant. His wife Marian raised the kids in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of her aunt’s house, where Michelle and Craig slept in the living room, converted into two tiny bedrooms and a study area.

She fought her way into Princeton, and later to Harvard Law School, and began dating Obama while working at a Chicago corporate law firm. They’ve been married for 15 years.

She left corporate law for community service positions and later became an administrator of the University of Chicago hospitals. Daughters Malia and Sasha are 10 and 7. The couple reported making $4.2 million last year, their days of financial struggles well behind them.

Even so, she’s proved an adept solo campaigner with blue-collar audiences and with women, able to make a connection with voters whose lives are an economic struggle. She laughs easily, hugs a lot, hangs tight after the speech and watches her sarcastic streak.

“I wake up every morning, wondering how on the Earth I’m going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day,” she told a Chicago crowd.

She talks about work, workouts, parent-teacher conferences, hair appointments, the burdens of campaign travel, the plugged toilet that her husband left her to deal with one day.

“With the exception of the campaign trail and life in the public eye, I have to say that my life now is really not that much different from many of yours,” she said.

Those are, of course, huge exceptions. But for the opener, the closer and everything in between, expect to see much more of Michelle the American everywoman. The one who, it turns out, has a daughter born on the Fourth of July.

Kennedy, who is being treated for a malignant brain tumor, traveled to Denver late Sunday and was expected to attend the evening festivities, according to officials speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. A video tribute had been planned because the senator hadn’t been expected to be able to travel to the convention.

Keeping up its offensive against McCain, Barack Obama’s campaign released an ad featuring images of McCain hugging Bush and the two smiling in spite of tidings of economic woe and McCain admitting he doesn’t know much about the economy. “We cant afford more of the same,” the spot warns.

McCain’s campaign also released an ad to play on what it sees as a weakness for Obama: his lack of support among some backers of primary opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton. Its new TV ad features a Clinton supporter who now backs McCain assuring like-minded voters: “A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It’s OK, really!”

Opening night at the Pepsi Center, the main venue for the four-day convention, aimed to tell the Illinois senator’s personal story to the millions of voters nationwide who will begin tuning in to the presidential campaign. Obama’s wife, Michelle, was the evening’s keynote speaker.

My favorite vendor at the Democratic National Convention so far is The ChangeRing. Note the cutie above. But they’re more than cute. They’re innovative. They’re selling a keychain (see photo below) that is all about change. When you hook it to your pocket, it looks like a triangle – the physics symbol for change (or for gay people. And hmmm, the company is based in Chelsea…).

Why are they selling it at the DNC? You know, Obama, change…..

The men I saw wearing it around Denver tend to have it hooked on their pockets – the women wear it like a necklace, below. I myself think it may also make a dandy bottle opener – which I may use to open a Colorado-based Coors, now that the company is courting gay and lesbian customers.

The greatest thing about it, though, is that it has a key locator – you register it, and if someone finds your keys, they call a number on an accompanying tag, and the company’s servers route the call directly (and anonymously) to your cell phone, so that you and the guy who found your keys can connect. And maybe it will be like a movie, and you’ll fall in love, and get married….

Catholic League spokesman Bill Donohue is a funny fellow. He is prissy  because of two bloggers who have been credentialed by the DNC to cover next week’s Democratic Convention (sidebar: I’m sure you PUMA’s out there are going to do your best to make Denver a media zoo). Donohue is put out by Bitch Ph.D and Towleroad and demands that these two blogs “should be cut immediately from the list of credentialed sites. Neither functions as a responsible media outlet and both offend Catholics, as well as others.”

Like a lot of things that come out of Donohue’s mouth, this moral outrage at the blogs is a bit lame. First off Bitch Ph.D describes herself as a “crappy Catholic”; I’m willing to bet my Billie Holiday albums  she is not offended by her own words.

Donohue’s proof against Towleroad is even more flimsy. He does the “that site is gay, gay, gay, gay” trick and then decides to go after Towleroad  because some of his commentators “described the pope in a vile and profane way.” As for Andy’s words, what the man actually writes, Donohue has little to say.

Let’s put our cards on the table. We all know what Donohue is doing. He’s setting the groundwork to use the Democratic Party is “anti-Catholic because  they did not keep two  bloggers who I defined as filled with Catholic hate from covering the convention” memo. Sure it’s  a long titled directive but when you are in the pocket of the GOP you follow the orders given to you.