Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

Become a
Paid Mullings Subscriber!

(To join the FREE mailing list or to unsubscribe Click Here)

Pitching Strikes

Rich Galen

Friday September 3, 2004

Click here for an Easy Print Version

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

The Fall Subscription drive begins today. If you were due to renew last February, but couldn't because of my six-month hitch with the Department of Defense - the required extension has expired and you are free to re-subscribe!

Remember, your subscription will not automatically renew. You must go to the web page to accomplish your Mullings subscription renewal.

Former Senator Fred Thompson introduced President George W. Bush last night by describing the ceremonial first pitch that the President threw at Yankee Stadium at the opening game of the 2001 World Series.

It was shortly after 9-11. The country was still reeling. America was confused and disoriented.

The President walked out to the pitcher's mound and threw a strike.

All acceptance speeches are punctuated with cheering, with sign-waving, with chanting, and - on television - with planned close-ups of delegates, alternates, and guests who will punctuate pre-released words of the nominee.

Four years ago, George W. Bush gave his acceptance speech in Philadelphia, building a double-digit lead over Vice President Al Gore. Later that night a national reporter asked me if I thought there was any way for Gore to get back into the race.

I said that, although I would like to believe otherwise, Gore hadn't yet had his turn at bat.

Sure enough, in Los Angeles, Al Gore gave a great speech which breathed life into his campaign and closed the gap between him and Governor Bush to just about zero - a gap which maintained all the way into mid-December in Florida.

In Boston, last month, Senator John Kerry used his biographical speech to return the nation's attention to Vietnam as part of his effort to introduce himself to the nation.

It was not a bad speech. Not bad at all. But, unlike Vice President Gore's speech four years earlier, it didn't move the dial.

In the final day of the Republican National Convention, Democrats - and their allies in the popular press - were apoplectic about the speech Wednesday night by Georgia Senator Zell Miller.

I made the point, during my appearance on Fox Thursday morning, that the Democrats had as their cross-over speaker Ron Reagan - a failed dancer and now nothing more set decoration on a late-night cable chat show.

The Republicans had a man who is the former Governor of and the current Senator from a major southern state - Georgia.

When Vermont Senator James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican party to support Tom Daschle for Majority leader thus changing control of the U.S. Senate, he was hailed as a principled man. A modern political hero.

When Senator Zell Miller (who, by the way had been the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Governor Bill Clinton) described in detail - in excruciating detail for Democrats - why he was supporting George W. Bush for a second term, the words "principled" and "hero" were not exactly flying out of reporters' word processors here in New York City.

The President spoke in measured tones. He spoke with passion. He spoke with clarity. He spoke with determination. He spoke with conviction.

Last night, President George W. Bush, pitched another strike.

On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: One Mullfoto. One Catchy Caption of the Day. Worth, I think, your time.

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?