No no. Not Barack Obama. The black guy who reportedly stood up and yelled "we love you John!" to John McCain right before returning from a commercial break. The stuffy, middle to upper middle class, suburban So-Cal protestant audience (otherwise known as Inga's people) were up to that point quite mellow. We hadn't done much more than clap because we'd been asked by Saddleback's staff to restrain (as if we wouldn't. Did I mention it was a group of southern California protestants? Earthquakes under a 5 on the scale barely get a reaction from these people!).

Anyhoo, the black guy who yelled "we love you John" was none other than the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND (Brotherhood of a New Destiny), and author of "Scam". Jesse Lee is best known for tirelessly standing up against Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for their exploitation of the black community at the expense of the black family. Jesse and I had been talking leading up to the event at Saddleback and we both were very concerned that McCain was going to be destroyed by the charismatic Barack Obama. In fact, that was the consensus in the room (if not the world)! But as John McCain began to speak with passion and conviction and honesty, and NAIL the issues, Jesse Lee and I started getting excited. We went from protestant to charismatic tent revival, until The Reverend Peterson just felt compelled to yell out "we love you John!". And the crowd went wild! Well, as wild as that crowd could get.

It didn't occur to me later when I heard the reports of the "black man" who broke the silence, the effect that might have had on people who didn't know who Jesse Lee is. I imagine it was impactful to see an African American man be the one who finally breaks the silence and cheers........for John McCain.