Posted on 09/02/2004 9:08:13 PM PDT by Isara
The Keynote: For several years now, Republicans have been too polite or inarticulate, or both, to say what they really think of the Democratic Party. How clever, then, to find a Democrat to say it for them.
Ronald Reagan got in his digs. But you hardly noticed, so affable were his stories and so disarming was that twinkle in his eye. Even the opposition didn't seem to take offense.
Ever since Reagan, GOP standard-bearers have seemed either reluctant to mix it up or ill-suited to the task.
George H.W. Bush didn't seem to have a politically combative bone in his body. Even if he did, he couldn't find the words to complete a sentence, let alone a zinger. And if Dan Quayle and "attack dog" ever appeared in the same sentence, we never saw it.
Bob Dole had the zingers, but delivered them so sardonically that he came across as the meanie that Republicans always fear of being labeled. Jack Kemp was too upbeat to ever be downright mean.
George W. Bush, it seems to us, has lived up to his pledge four years ago of keeping partisanship to a minimum. Even his tougher stump speeches have a certain gentlemanliness about them. Dick Cheney, for all his barbs, can hardly be called a firebrand.
Maybe that's why Zell Miller's keynote speech Wednesday night at the GOP convention took so many aback. In contrast to all those who too often hold their fire, Miller was a veritable Gatling gun.
But that's not why we've reprinted his remarks in full on this page. It's because of the remarks themselves — which border on historic — and, just as important, because of the man who made them.
Miller isn't some hired gun. He's a lifelong Democrat who has served his party honorably for 45 of his 72 years — as mayor, Georgia legislator, lieutenant governor, governor and U.S. senator.
He grew up under FDR and Truman and served in the Marines under President Eisenhower. And he remembers how different John F. Kennedy was from the Democrats of today.
He even gave the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in 1992, when he hoped a fellow governor from Arkansas could lead the party back to the center.
Somewhat like Reagan, Miller is someone who didn't leave (and, in fact, still hasn't left) his party, but who has seen his party leave him. And as was palpably clear to all who saw or heard him Wednesday, he's none too happy about it.
Was Miller's speech effective? You gotta be kidding. Seeing all the pro-Democrat TV news celebrities rendered speechless, with eyebrows singed and hair blown back, was proof enough.
Was Miller's speech effective? You gotta be kidding. Seeing all the pro-Democrat TV news celebrities rendered speechless, with eyebrows singed and hair blown back, was proof enough.
BTTT
Zell was awesome. I will now order and read his book. He's got balls and speaks out. He doesn't mince words. I like that.
Great read!
But nah..............The DNC is run by a houdini investment banker who never ran for dogcatcher, their campaign consultants are labor union attorneys, and their #1 man is Tom Daschle. Sheesh! Zell Millers words were wasted.
I read Zell's book a couple of months ago. He makes a terrific case for everything he said in his firebrand speech last night. Man, did he peel the paint off the walls or what?
Senator Zell Miller
Since I last stood in this spot, a whole new generation of the Miller Family has been born: Four great grandchildren.
Along with all the other members of our close-knit family -- they are my and Shirley's most precious possessions.
And I know that's how you feel about your family also.
Like you, I think of their future, the promises and the perils they will face.
Like you, I believe that the next four years will determine what kind of world they will grow up in.
And like you, I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?
The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.
There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is
George Bush.
In the summer of 1940, I was an eight-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley.
Our country was not yet at war but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could.
President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."
In 1940 Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee.
And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man.
He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.
And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.
Shortly before Wilkie died he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom", he would prefer the latter.
Where are such statesmen today?
Where is the bi-partisanship in this country when we need it most?
Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander-in-Chief.
What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?
I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny.
It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.
Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.
Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.
And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.
Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.
For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.
No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.
But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.
They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.
It is not their patriotism - it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking. They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace.
They were wrong.
They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war.
They were wrong.
And, no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.
Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40% of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.
The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.
The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.
I could go on and on and on: Against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel, Against the Aegis air-defense cruiser, Against the Strategic Defense Initiative, Against the Trident missile, against, against, against.
This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?
U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?
Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric.
Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.
Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations.
Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide.
John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security.
That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.
Free for how long?
For more than twenty years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure. As a war protestor, Kerry blamed our military.
As a Senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective armor for our troops in harms way, far-away.
George Bush understands that we need new strategies to meet new threats.
John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. George Bush believes we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges. George Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to root out terrorists.
No matter what spider hole they may hide in or what rock they crawl under.
George Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip.
From John Kerry, they get a "yes-no-maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.
I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together. I admire this man.
I am moved by the respect he shows the First Lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.
I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.
He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter and, where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.
I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel.
The man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.
This election will change forever the course of history, and that's not any history. It's our family's history.
The only question is how. The answer lies with each of us. And, like many generations before us, we've got some hard choosing to do.
Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Fainthearted, self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world.
In this hour of danger our President has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.
Thank you.
God Bless this great country and God Bless George W. Bush.
He was fabulous! He was better than fabulous ... he was the best thing that happened that night! Home run!
I thought Bush did a good job tonight. Bush will win.
Thanks.....it is a great read about a truly great historic speech.
Give'em Hell....Zell!
Truth hurts but the Dems don't get it.
Zell was awesome. I will now order and read his book. He's got balls and speaks out. He doesn't mince words. I like that.
Yes he was.
Wish to God we had Republican Leaders with as much intestinal Fortitude.
To me, this is one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard. Delivered with such force and conviction, it made my the hairs on my neck stand on end.
I think Zell's speech will go down in history as great one.
I emphatically agree :)
I wrote an opus earlier where I redid Kerry's 1971 speech with Zell as Kerry. Apparently the party that thinks Kerry's backstabbing of our troops was peachy keen suddenly learned how to pronounce 'traitor' when dealing with Zell.
It's just an example of the hypocricy of the Dems.
Great article, thanks for posting.
Zell spoke for America.
Interesting how the LM berated Bush for not condemning the 'Swifties' and not criticizing Kerry's record after Vietnam. But let Zell do that, and suddenly it's not okay to criticize Kerry's record, specifically, on bill after bill after bill. No, now he's a nut. Of course, they think that anyway, since he doesn't see the brilliance of being some Dem loser, like themselves. But he goes after Kerry's record, in the Senate, point by point, and the reaction of those who berated Bush is that such is the behavior of a vicious, angry, mean, e-villle, utterly eeee-ville, putrid, horrible, vicious (did I mention that), ultra-ultra-conservative-right-conservative-wing-ultra-extremist-ultra, something.
Somebody's angry. Zell's said why he's bothered with those Dem. So what are the Dem so angry about - loosing, year after year?
BUMP for new tagline...
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