To: LindyBill who wrote (66475 ) 9/2/2004 1:46:15 PM From: LindyBill Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 793974 More McAuliffe... Kerryspot I don't think I've ever seen such a hateful speech in my life. He scared people. It was like one of those Jason movies. I think a lot of parents needed to move their children out of the room so that they wouldn't hear it. if I were not the objective and balanced reporter that I am, I could have reached over and slapped him. This is one of the most inane responses I've ever heard in politics, and one that just insults the intelligence of anyone in earshot. One, I would be shocked if there were a lot of young children watching the Republican convention at 10 pm on a Wednesday night. (Did school get canceled when I wasn't looking?) Second, when did this country become such a bunch of wimps that we don't even make a counterargument against someone because they sounded too angry? And show me one thing in Zell's speech which was hateful. Angry? Sure. Hell, maybe even furious. But there is a difference between anger and hate. Terrible Terry could have, and should have, argued that Kerry's votes on defense were the right call because of... some sort of reasoned argument that the bills that these defense systems were in were full of pork or $300 toilet seats or something like that. He should have laid out the benefits of the defense policies in a Kerry administration. He could even have argued that Zell exaggerated, that Kerry believes (today) that preemption is necessary at times, etc. Instead, Terry whined that mean old Zell scared him. Hey, the Bill Clinton "I feel your pain" huggy-fuzzy-wuzzy (or is it "wussy"?) stuff was great for the 1990s, when we thought the world was at peace. But we weren't at peace, and now we know we live in an era where a bunch of maniacs have decided they would rather die than live in a world where we live unmolested. We (okay, I) want a mean old SOB running things, some tough-as-nails cranky ex-Marine with a mean streak a mile wide whose idea of dealing with threats includes a crowbar, duct tape and a hill of fire ants. It is a mean, nasty world out there, and speaking in gentle tones about cooperation isn't going to keep us safe. Despire some NRO folks fears, I think this speech will go over better than expected, because a good chunk of the population, more than just Republicans, is mad as Zell and not going to take it anymore.