Sorry I wasn't able to do my signature live-blogging today -- there was no wi-fi at the Edgewater, or rather, they had wi-fi you had to pay for, and I'm cheap. Plus we left mid-day to go see Clinton's address, and there wasn't wi-fi at Benaroya Hall either. When oh when will Seattle get municipal broadband wi-fi?

At this afternoon's luncheon, Al Gore spoke to the mayors conference via satellite.

(He claimed he couldn't be here in person because his wife Tipper had her first photography exhibition today in Nashville. Irresponsible speculation ensued among, um, me and others that he didn't want to run into Bill Clinton, with whom he has a notoriously fraught relationship.)

For the most part, Gore's remarks were … Gore's remarks. Climate change is a moral issue, etc. You've probably heard it before. He did call out the fact that the Lieberman-Warner bill passed out of subcommittee. He mentioned it as a sign of progress -- a "good first step" -- but made a point of saying that several good amendments had been rejected and that the bill badly needs to be strengthened. It doesn't currently "do the job." I'm curious to see if he tries to play an active role in beefing the bill up.

The Q&A session was where the action happened. I'll probably break it into a few separate posts.

The first question, from Minneapolis' R.T. Rybak: Will you help us lobby for federal action?

Gore: "Does Howdy Doody float?" That got a laugh.

Rybak: "If they don't like global warming in Minneapolis, they won't like it anywhere." Another laugh.