Hillary's speech late Tuesday night marks the point when this convention shifted gears. The case against John McCain was made only occasionally, and fleetingly, on Monday and early Tuesday. By mid-Tuesday evening, the convention struck me as listless, if not soporific. Hillary's dramatic speech late Tuesday in which she both endorsed Obama and opened the case against John McCain put some spark into this convention.

I don't know how much the floor reaction comes across on television, but, inside the Pepsi Center, tonight's reception of President Bill Clinton was rapturous. Three or four times, the reception seemed to just start to flag and then it would fire up again. As he began motioning people to settle down, the crowd roared back--again, three or four times. Clearly delighted, he admitted, "I love this, and I thank you."

He didn't wait any on the endorsement of Obama. He put that out there right off the bat, and returned to it throughout the speech, each time full-throated and without equivocation.

Thank God somebody finally did it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the words "Democratic Party" have been missing from this Democratic Convention. We don't ever seem to want to make a case for ourselves because we're afraid of something or other. Maybe some independent somewhere will take umbrage at something, or maybe the Republicans will fire back, and--o-o-o-h--that would be awful.

She rises to every occasion. From the moment she walked onto the stage, she projected assurance and confidence, then uncorked a speech that not only again made clear her support for Barack Obama, but also made the first effective critique of John McCain at this convention, and, oh by the way, inspired her own supporters, inspired the supporters of her opponent, awed the media, and electrified the convention hall. This is all the more remarkable because of the limited parameters within which she had to work. She did it, and then some.

Normally, it would take about 10 minutes to get from the Grand Hyatt to the Pepsi Center. Tonight, it was at least half an hour.

MSNBC is set up right on the convention floor, which is a sign of how much this is a media-driven event. The DNC and the Obama campaign felt it was more important to give the media precious floor space than it was to have that space for delegates.

The convention hall looks a little cheesy to me. The dais is so lit-up it looks like a videogame. Some of the visuals are well done, but the podium itself looks like a graduate student's C+ attempt at a faux-moderne style.

The Kennedy presentation will be about 7:00 MT. I imagine Sen. Kennedy will make an appearance at about that time. His appearance would be the emotional highlight of the evening.

The Kennedys have been a major presence at every Democratic Convention since 1956. In that year, Adlai Stevenson--in a typically Stevensonian move--left the vice presidential choice up the convention. It was thought that John Kennedy might win, and, for awhile, he was in the lead, but was eventually eclipsed by Estes Kefauver. JFK's father, Joe, thought it was for the best because then Jack wouldn't get saddled with any of the blame for Stevenson's upcoming defeat.

The convention experience opened with a champagne brunch at the Governor's Mansion for the Colorado delegation. It started at 11:30--while I was still in church--but we managed to make it by 12:30. The Governor has a nice pad!

Then, we went downtown to check into our delegation hotel--the Grand Hyatt. The Georgia delegation must be staying here also since I saw Cong. John Lewis (D-GA), a hero of the civil rights movement, in the lobby. I chatted with him on the sidewalk in front of the Wyndham Hotel in Boston four years ago, which, surprisingly, judging by the look of recognition that crossed his face, he appeared to remember.

The protesters apparently started their protest at the Capitol Building then moved to downtown. We happened to be standing at the corner of 16th and Stout when somebody said that the Police were getting ready to tear-gas a group of demonstrators. We looked around the corner and there were Police everywhere. They had blockaded the whole street, and shut down the light rail.

It turned out there were about 200 protesters who were demonstrating in the streets. Supposedly, the goal of the protesters was to block streets and traffic. The protesters were demonstrating primarily against the Iraq War and more generally against corporate power, which, in their minds, inflicts both political parties.

In appearing at the recent faith forum at Saddleback Baptist Church, Sen. Obama was trying to do two things. It was a way of countering the persistent rumor that he's a Muslim, and he was continuing in his bid for the evangelical vote. John Kerry got 22% of the evangelical vote in 2004. Bill Clinton had gotten up to a third of it in the 90's, and Obama figures he ought to be able to do as well as Clinton.

I didn't watch the event, but the reviews are in. Obama took the format to be one of conversation with Rick Warren, the pastor of the church, while McCain took it as a campaign event and made his appeal directly to the audience. McCain gave canned, stump speech style answers to almost everything, but probably came out on top because the audience seemed more in sync with him, and because Warren seemed to tilt to McCain.

Greta Vosper is pastor of West Hill United Church in Toronto, Canada. She has just written a book titled With or Without God. The National Post featured her in this article from May, 2008 in which she expresses doubt about, if not outright rejection of, the virgin birth, the resurrection, miracles, and sacraments, and says, "The story about Jesus as the symbol of everything that Christianity is will fade away."

That is exactly the wrong way to go. Let's tell the truth instead. Fact is: When Constantine made Christianity legal, the church went from being an alternative culture to being the center of culture. We went from being somewhat anti-establishment to being the establishment itself. It took courage to be a Christian in AD 280. It took courage not to be a Christian in AD 380.