For the record, I don’t think there will be a
more compelling speech given this fall on Bush’s behalf than the one Zell
Miller delivered last night. He would surely resent the comparison, but Zell
blitzkrieged Kerry like Sherman did Atlanta. I kept thinking last night:
this is like listening to my dad in 1979, when the rage and contempt we
Southerners felt toward Jimmy Carter for his weakness, which brought on
national humiliation, drove so many Democrats to the Reagan camp. If you ask
me, I think Zell just dug up the stinking corpse of the effete Carter
presidency, and rubbed it all over John Kerry. On the national security
issue, and to a lesser extent the God thing, Zell reminded Reagan Democrats
why they became GOP voters in the first place. If the Republicans are smart,
they’d turn Zell loose this fall in Ohio, Pennsylvania and other
battleground states where there were a lot of Reagan Democrats a generation
ago.