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Text Of Zell Miller's RNC Speech (Full Text)
CBS ^ | 9/01/04 | Sen. Zell Miller

Posted on 09/01/2004 7:34:41 PM PDT by kattracks

(AP) Below is the text of Sen. Zell Miller's keynote speech as prepared for delivery at the Republican National Convention:

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 8-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Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."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 bipartisanship 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 percent 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 20 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 protester, 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.



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: godbless; gwb2004; rncconvention; speech; transcript; zellmiller
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To: George Smiley
"Those right-wingers will rush out and buy his book now !"

Done and done. God, I love Amazon :)
81 posted on 09/01/2004 10:12:14 PM PDT by Windcatcher (Terrorists beware: most of the top US pistol shooters live in my area -- and my old man's one of 'em)
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To: Wolfhound777

"The B1 and B2 are good because they dropped bombs.."

Well yes idiots, it's what they were designed to do.

Too Funny! These people are seriously mentally challenged. Nothing seems to get through to their nilhilstic brains.


82 posted on 09/01/2004 10:15:10 PM PDT by blasater1960 ( Ishmaelites...Still a wild-ass of a people....)
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To: mnehrling
LOL! Most definitely, the GOOD KARMA, is on our side!
83 posted on 09/01/2004 10:24:59 PM PDT by singfreedom ("Victory at all costs,...for without victory there is no survival. -Churchill)
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To: George Smiley
I've never seen any DU stuff directly, so I read them all. Interesting. These folks talk just the same way that bratty little kids talk. Their comments are drenched in profanity, illiterate, mindless and loud. There is not an insight or a reasoned argument in the whole lot.

What miserable fare for the mind.

84 posted on 09/01/2004 10:42:58 PM PDT by T'wit (If you liked Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose, you'll love Hanoi John Kerry)
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To: George Smiley
"Somebody needs to tell this dipstick that we ARE occupiers"

Thank you for proving his point, RAT.

85 posted on 09/01/2004 11:14:14 PM PDT by montag813
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To: NormsRevenge; MeekOneGOP; devolve; PhilDragoo; potlatch; Smartass
A "Top O' The Mornin'" Zell Miller ping - full text of the historic speech.

(It was so good, the liberal media instantly labeled it "all lies.")

86 posted on 09/01/2004 11:26:06 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home - Georgia Democrat Zell Miller)
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To: George Smiley

I think you nailed it (on the Dem reactions to Zell's speech).


87 posted on 09/01/2004 11:27:51 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home - Georgia Democrat Zell Miller)
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To: Happy2BMe
At this point in time, who cares what the media thinks.
They just haven't realized how dead they've been.
Shhhh, don't wake them up, until after the election.
88 posted on 09/01/2004 11:41:09 PM PDT by Smartass (BUSH & CHENEY 2004 Si vis pacem, para bellum - Por el dedo de Dios se escribió)
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To: montag813

"I'm Sure France Will Be Real Pleased By That line...FOOOOOL."

Another point proven. Those folks actually DO worry about what France thinks!?


89 posted on 09/02/2004 12:50:41 AM PDT by geopyg (Peace..................through decisive and ultimate VICTORY. (Democracy, whiskey, sexy))
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To: Wolfhound777

Lol, it reminds me when we bombed that mosque complex,

Reporter:"Why did you bomb the mosque?"

Colonel:"Well, we wanted to kill the people inside."


90 posted on 09/02/2004 1:28:47 AM PDT by Constantine XIII
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To: TBarnett34; changingtimes
He's dead, Jim. :(

Wow, he sure it. That was pretty fast, too. :^O

He's dead, Jim.
(Click here or on the pic).



91 posted on 09/02/2004 3:10:40 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: Old Sarge
Good shot !! :^D

92 posted on 09/02/2004 3:11:23 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: kattracks

Wow!!

What a great speech! Thanks for posting,
Kats


93 posted on 09/02/2004 3:12:12 AM PDT by Cuttnhorse (John Kerry, Unfit to be Commander in Chief)
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To: M007

It certainly is the most memorable. I even yelled, "Yes" twice during the speech. My husband was also in awe and after it was over, my dear grandson called to say, "Wow".


94 posted on 09/02/2004 3:13:03 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: M007

It certainly is the most memorable. I even yelled, "Yes" twice during the speech. My husband was also in awe and after it was over, my dear grandson called to say, "Wow".


95 posted on 09/02/2004 3:13:04 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Cuttnhorse
My pleasure. You can see the video here.
96 posted on 09/02/2004 3:16:36 AM PDT by kattracks (http://www.swiftvets.com/)
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To: kattracks

Hmmm, recon' W could find a place for Zell in his second term? (I hope so, and I hope Zell would accept). *~*


97 posted on 09/02/2004 3:16:41 AM PDT by Dawgreg (Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.)
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To: ridesthemiles
hehe! That was the now deceased Troll's comment. I'm voting straight ticket
GOP from top to bottom of the ballot. You can take that to the bank! :^D



Hear the Donkey Bray
(RealPlayer)



[Expletive deleted] !!!


98 posted on 09/02/2004 3:22:12 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: Waryone
The kooks in the Consitution Party cannot possibly do anything positive for this country. If they were serious about it, they would be running in Republican primaries. Some of them would be actually be holding elective office if they did that.

Have they EVER won an election?

I was actually stupid enough to send them money ONCE.

99 posted on 09/02/2004 3:26:33 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Slings and Arrows
hahaha! Thanks! That's a good one! Noted.

100 posted on 09/02/2004 3:47:29 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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