The following is my personal opinion.  It does not reflect the official position of any group with which I am associated.  If you were there, and disagree with any aspect of my assessment, please let me know in comments.

 
I’m starting this in the wee hours of the morning after returning quite a distance from a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Frank Turek. The debate was hosted by the United Secular Alliance at VCU (Richmond, VA.)  Under consideration was, "Does God Exist?," with a twenty minute introduction from each debater, followed by a five minute rebuttal, a chance to ask their opponent three questions, questions from the audience, and finally a five minute concluding statement.

Now, let me first say that I am a Hitchens fanboy.  I have watched every video of his debates available online, read an awful lot of his material, and have a huge amount of admiration for him.  Several members of Maryland Atheist Outreach, Beltway Atheists and DC Atheist Women can testify to the fact that I was giddy as a schoolgirl waiting for the event to begin.  I shook hands with, and talked to Hitchens for a minute or two afterwards, and I will likely not wash that hand for a week.  Bear all of this in mind when I tell you that Hitchens' performance was, at best, disappointing.
 

 
The second part of my analysis in now up.