4 MORE YEARS!!! YAY!!!

aparently i was not the only one who was shocked and apalled by the repugnikans choice of a keynote speaker. even the lovable center-right commentator andrew sullivan found it a bit, well, crude. observe:

Zell Miller's address will, I think, go down as a critical moment in this campaign, and maybe in the history of the Republican party. I kept thinking of the contrast with the Democrats' keynote speaker, Barack Obama, a post-racial, smiling, expansive young American, speaking about national unity and uplift. Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man's speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude.

and then, there was uncle dick's acceptance speech. and the whole frenzied chanting of "4 MORE YEARS" and "FLIP-FLOP" whenever john kerry's name was mentioned. i felt like i was reading fear and loathing on the campaign trail '72 again, only it was real and being broadcast directly to my living room. the whole experience begs to be contrasted to the dnc, which i was able to watch from the comfort of my mother's living room on the very day i returned from japan. i would have to agree with sully's characterization of barack obama's speech, which can be viewed here. it was a down-right positive, potentially unifying speech - assuming anyone other than the democratic faithful were paying attention. then there was v.p. nominee john edwards with his message of hope and a better tomorrow. few and far between were the attacks on their opponent. zell miller has clearly lost his mind and has no business on the national stage, so we will ignore him. but the v.p.'s speech, filled with fear, terror, fear, terror, nuclear obliteration, terror, john kerry can't protect you, flip-flop, poopy poopy doo doo pants, provides one of the clearest reasons why we should NOT re-elect these stooges. they can't run on their record so they attack their opponents and try to create confusion and fear while avoiding the issues. they hope that the only choice the electorate will feel it is faced with in the end is one between "4 more years" or certain death.