First, no I didn’t see the Zell Miller/Chris Matthews death match. But I have seen the transcript. My own take is that Mathews is a well known leftist cheerleading idiot, and Miller went in expecting the standard fare from Matthews…. and misheard him because of the noise surrounding the remote. Matthews is, generally speaking, deserving of the bile from the right, and Miller came set to deliver at need. He apparently, based on mishearing Matthews, thought the time was right.
Captain Ed this morning [1], comments that:
“Matthews, without a doubt, will be seen as the one mainstream news media figure to have suffered the most damage to his reputation from this electoral cycle. He has acted in such a transparently partisan manner while hypocritically maintaining a non-partisan facade that Zell Miller easily penetrated that he can’t possibly recover his credibility with anyone except the zealous (Zell-less?) left. The rest of his audience, much like MS-NBC’s in general, will have left for other commentators less in love with themselves.”
Well, let’s be honest enough to say their entire coverage of this entire cycle.. not just Matthews, but the whole PMSNBC team has been lopsided. A look at their running commentary about last night is just an example. They’re seeking a ratings niche, and the leftists love it.
Now, if I manage to see a better copy of the transcript… and not the one PMSNBC has been posting [2]… I may come away differently. But that’s my take for now.
Miller’s speech itself was indeed, one of the highpoints of the night. His rightious indignation atwhat has happened to his party shows. I have asked repeatedly over the years, where are the good Democrats.. the ones willing to put country over party… and I must say, it took a lot of prodding, but now we have one. Only 8 million left to go.
He was so agitated… annoyed about the whole thing, he apparently neglected to allow for audience feedback… a critical matter in political events. Miller is not an inexperienced speaker. I’ve heard him speak before, and he’s very good; I can only assume that what I saw last night was genuine anger. Perhaps he simply didn’t expect the applause he got, I dunno.
The media reaction to Miller this morning is predictable. “Miller is being mean spirited”, the press is wailing this morning. But he wasn’t being mean, he was angry. Miller’s annoyance with the Jimmy Carter/Ted Kennedy/John Kerry wing of his own party has been long known for years. Miller apparently figured Clinton was different which would explain the 1992 campaign. I’m willing to bet he felt betrayed by Clinton, and I’m certain he felt betrayed by Carter, Kennedy and Kerry. I guess my question is… Zell, what kept ya? What in the world would keep someone in a party so long after they had moved so far away from the foundational beliefs that attracted Miller to them in the first place?
VP Dick Cheney performed as expected, and perhaps a little better. His speech delivery has never been exceptionally strong… the Captain calls his style ‘stoic’ and I guess that’s as good a description as any…. but he more than makes up for that, with his content.The passion is in his words.. not his voice. Even his humor has a dry feel to it… but it’s then when he’s at his most biting.
For all that, even his delivery was actually a bit stronger and more fluid than usual. Looks like those appearences on the road have reminded him how to handle a crowd… and he did. Still his staid and steady speaking style belies the passion in the words he uses… one has to listen almost on a second level to hear them. His points on tort reform were well timed, and should silence the leftwho has been complaining about a lack of domestic agenda… not that they’ll like this change much.
Line of the night… and one I predict will be heard often as we move to November… “John Kerry sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual. America sees two John Kerrys.”.
Nice to see Sara Evans and Brooks and Dunn on stage last night, too. I see Brooks and Dunn are doing the York County Fair on the 10th. We went there last year to see Trace Adkins… it’s a nice fair, and we may go there this year, too.
More comments as I think of them.
Update:
Update: [3] Check out Q&O [3], who has some interesting comments about last night, as well.
Update2: Dalythoughts.com [4]has won the link race on this one, with a fairly complete round-up of comments from around the ‘sphere… except of course BitsBlog.
Bad cop… no doughnut.