Outstanding, simply outstanding. Michael Barone calls it “electrifying,” and it was. It was one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard. Senator Miller pulled no punches in describing and condemning the Democrats’ reckless irresponsibility on matters of national defense. The harshness of his words made clear that he was speaking from the heart about issues that had long troubled him. His righteous and superbly articulate outrage reminded me of Clarence Thomas in 1991, when Thomas disregarded his Republican handlers and essentially told the Democratic Senators who were villifying him to go to hell. Miller must be the most hated man in the Democratic Party now. I have no doubt that his speech will improve Bush’s reelection odds, and we owe Senator Miller a debt of gratitude for that.
8 thoughts on “Zell Miller’s Speech”
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wow. Barone managed to squeeze both Hackett Fischer and Mead in!
Matt Welch was “frightened.”
The Reason blog was very entertaining.
Given the mess it’s created, I got to find the video. Andrew Sullivan hated it. And it must have worked in a way since Krugman’s latest column whines about ‘hatred’. (Yeah, he can dish it out for four years but he can’t handle 4 days of return fire…).
Not sure what impact these things have. So far, my impression of the Convention was probably most effective with those people who voted Bush in 2000 and were not sure this time. No idea how big a group that is, though.
Here it is, you’re welcome.
Give’m Zell!
Thanks G ewirtz (and thanks for the links).
Zell Miller’s speech seems (or is this just the middle-aged mother) to have a greater power and poignancy when followed by the tragedy in Russia. Miller was clearly coming from that parental point of view. (Thanks to Ralf Georgens for the links, though the reporting seems such a mess we don’t hawe a very clear picture – we can be pretty sure this is pretty horrible). Who chooses warfare in a children’s school for God’s sake?
And Miller’s speech has greater political power when those kids in Russia are juxtaposed with the performance by Kerry/Edwards in Ohio, with their memes: people died; our kids are dying for oil, etc.; the war costs too much. It seems to me that the “real” news tells us exactly what, tragically, they are dying for and what, even more tragically, might happen if we didn’t confront terrorism.
Of course, Chechnya is somewhat different, but these have in common with other terrorist attacks the fact that this is a terrorist’s idea of collateral damage – something to be sought not avoided. And we are left with the sense that Kerry/Edwards don’t have a clue -nor want one. (Could Kerry keep avoiding intelligence meetings if he is president?)
One of the Democratic 527s, I think MoveOn.org, ran a TV ad during the convention in which a white woman with a southern accent deplored the Republicans’ supposed inattention to today’s most important issues — health care etc. (War? What war?) Apparently these Democrats think they’ll win over conservatives by having southern actors read northern liberal lines. How stupid do they think voters are?
Zell is a rare manly man, within the generally girly man democratic populace. Manly men are always viewed with suspicion and hostility by girly men. Bush is viewed the same way by the girly men. So is Arnold.
Senator Miller spoke truth to power, in a forthright manner our degenerate media can no longer comprehend.
When did the honest rage of a good and God-fearing man become “hatred”?