In Denver, Barack Obama faced his toughest challenge to date. In one crucial week, Obama desperately needed to halt his slide in a spate of recent polls. Facing the serious threat of popular momentum toward his opponent, Barack Obama delivered in the clutch and produced a Democratic National Convention that did much more than merely accomplish its mission.
Obama's ringing acceptance speech thrilled the enormous throng at Invesco Field. Turning the tables on McCain, Obama reversed the polarity of the presidential campaign. Obama's spellbinding oratory came not a moment too soon, but it will certainly catapult him upward in the polls with a renewed momentum that will obliterate the faltering surge of John McCain.
Delivering a historic acceptance speech that can only be compared with FDR and JFK, Obama clearly established his vision for America's future in the heart and mind of Middle America.
Against the backdrop of a convention that started cautiously but gradually found its balance and steadily built its narrative of suspense toward the dramatic climax in Invesco Field, Obama calmly yet passionately defined himself and his prescription for America in radical juxtaposition to the record of George Bush and the agenda of John McCain.
Seventy thousand of the faithful gathered in the massive arena to experience their personal epiphany at the epicenter of the Obama phenomenon. Never before in American history have so many people witnessed such an extraordinary political convention.
On the forty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Barack Obama recaptured the moment when America pivoted from the age of Jim Crow to embrace Civil Rights. In captivating his audience, Obama painted a far broader spectrum of hope for positive change than even the redoubtable Dr. King.
Moving decisively into the process of change at the heart of his vision, Obama exploded every minute particle of the now totally shattered case for John McCain. Pointing to the multifaceted crisis confronting America -- from homelessness to massive unemployment and crushing poverty to the collapse of the mortgage industry then expanding his palette from the unjust war in Iraq to the collapse of confidence on Wall Street -- Obama demolished George Bush's America and his heir apparent, John McCain.
The climactic scene had been set by a succession of acts that left the dual mystery of Obama the man and his compelling vision unresolved. On the first night, Michelle Obama and her two charming daughters, Malia and Sascha, presented the evidence for the human dimension of the movement surging around her husband.
On the second night, Hillary Clinton delivered a statement that both encapsulated her own presence in the presidential arena and moved beyond personality to her endorsement of Barack Obama.
On the third night, Bill Clinton accomplished at least two goals: the outright repudiation of John McCain and the passage of the baton to a new generation led by Barack Obama.
On the same night, Joe Biden confirmed the Clintons and embraced Obama as the leader to take America forward at this precise juncture in American history. There were other flourishes provided by a few convention speakers. Dennis Kucinich delivered the most passionate statement made at the 2008 convention, "Wake Up America." Deval Patrick devastated everything McCain stands for and established himself as a potential player in America's future. But after all was said and done, the leading role was under complete control in the capable and steady hands of Barack Obama.
From Obama's perspective the die is cast, and the limelight now falls directly on John McCain who announces his running mate tomorrow and mounts the podium one week hence to argue against the most articulate presidential candidate of our generation. There is now no doubt, McCain will falter, because his message is outdated. McCain's vision is fading. McCain's specter is entering its final eclipse.
The tides of public momentum are massive and elemental energies. The collision between Barack Obama and John McCain is stirring primeval forces now building waves and crests and currents that ripple and crash against the shoals of time. The uncontrollable reverberations of the Obama-McCain clash are reshaping the courses of power and twisting the torque of the planets, the stars and the galaxies swirling above our tiny nation.
Following Obama's speech, the university channel I was watching broadcast an astronomical report on the conjunction of Mars, the planet of war, and Venus, the planet of love, with Mercury, the planet of intelligence, on the eleventh of September, and that is precisely the date when we shall definitely know which direction the winds of change are blowing. The portents and prospects now favor Obama with a minimum of three hundred electoral votes on the rapidly changing political map of America where several key states are Doppler-shifting from red to purple to blue.
For more Huffington Post coverage of the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.