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Praise for Zell

Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman, who served as President Bush's campaign manager last year, says that Democrats and the press completely misread the power of the blistering keynote speech given by Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, at the Republican convention.

"Zell Miller got a better reception than George W. Bush did" when they campaigned together, Mr. Mehlman said at a forum with John Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, moderated by former President George Bush at his library in Texas.

"You saw, when [Mr. Miller] spoke, someone who was unbelievably sincere. You might not agree with him, but you saw someone who believed what he was saying," Mr. Mehlman said.

That prompted the elder Mr. Bush to recall that the Georgia Democrat also spoke at the 1992 Democratic convention, the New York Times reports.

"Could I editorialize here about Zell Miller, who I like, but who gave the Democratic keynote speech knocking the socks off of me?" Mr. Bush said. "He was not, by definition, my favorite guy. But he is now."

Abortion anchor

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has given a speech on abortion that is befuddling the political class. Did she, in her speech Monday to abortion-rights supporters, say what she's always said on abortion, or something new?" Terry Eastland writes at the Weekly Standard Web site (www.weeklystandard.com).

"Clinton affirmed her long-standing support for abortion rights, as declared in Roe v. Wade. But 'then she quickly shifted gears,' the New York Times declared in a front-page story, 'offering warm words to opponents of legalized abortion and praising the influence of "religious and moral values" on delaying teenage girls from becoming sexually active.'