RNC Day 3

My wife has taken over the remote, so I get the RNC filtered through MSNBC. They showed the Reagan video tribute, which was very nice, and then some delegate passing along word from Nancy back home. She thanked them all for the outpouring of support. Oddly missing? Any sort of endorsement for W. At all.

Zell Miller: Democrats thought it was duty to fight for freedom. So does John Kerry in his speech today. He also talks about how bipartisanship is out of control, which prompts me to ask "Ask your new hero where the bipartisanship he promised four years ago is."

Miller puts forth the myth of the no weapons votes.

One of the few reporters to take a serious look at the RNC's list-- on which 10 of the 13 items refer to the single 1991 vote-- was Slate's Fred Kaplan (2/25/04). Kaplan noted that 16 senators, including five Republicans, voted against the bill. Kaplan concluded that the claim against Kerry "reeks of rank dishonesty."

Kaplan also pointed out that at the time of the 1991 vote, deeper cuts in military spending were being advocated by some prominent Republicans-- including then-President George H.W Bush and Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the time. As Kaplan noted, Cheney appealed for more cuts from Congress: "You've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements."

Cheney went to name the M-1 tank and the F-14 and F-16 fighters-- all of which appear on the RNC's list-- as "great systems" that "we have enough of."

More on the defense votes here.

Miller seems like a crazed old man to me. He really does. When he delivers these lines, the seem like clear lies and rhetoric to me, but I'm not the target audience, of course.

Now he says Bush will grab terrorist by the throat, and Kerry will be wishy-washy, which will weaken the war on terror. Can I point out the "we can't win the war/can win the war" speeches from Bush in the last few days. Straight shooter, indeed.

Blogger ate my post, so I'll have to try and recap.

Maybe Miller was so crazy to make Cheney look sweeter and more sane.

Cheney:The biggest threat we face today is having nuclear weapons fall into the hands of terrorists. Like, I don't know, North Korea and Iran? Those two Axis of Evil members?

Then he peddles out that whole anti-defense weapons bill crap, including the ones that Cheney was against. What gall and hypocrisy.

Mostly is was a recap of things already disputed in the nights before. And don't forget that Bush said he would veto that 87 billion dollar bill if it wasn't exactly what it was that he wanted.

I think overall it was a very weak night for the RNC. Which probably means the pundits will love it.

Wow. Chris Matthews just rips into Zell Miller for his speech. After two days of softball, Miller is ready to throw down the microphone and storm off the stage. Actually, it seems Miller is ready to throw down with Chris.

Sound like, according to comments on Daily Kos, that Miller got ripped on CNN and PBS as well. Hopefully people are watching.

The Luntz focus group seemed to love Miller's speech. Sigh. These are the so called swingers in Ohio. Those that identify more as Dem-Ind seem to think less of it overall, though. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the weeks to come.

Wes Clark now on Fox News calling out Cheney's hypocracy on the defense spending and the drumbeat to go to war on Iraq. I think that drumbeat (the defense spending one) will show most Americans that Zell was a wild eyed liar at the convention. After day one I was worried. After day three, I think the Republicans missed a chance. Its all up to Bush tomorrow, when he ascends into the promised land to deliver his speech. Hang in there, John. Hang in their liberals.

*UPDATE* Another take on the Miller speech here. It is not pretty.