As commentators discuss the propriety of Zell Miller’s searing attacks on John Kerry and the Democratic leadership in his speech Wednesday night, I thought it would be informative to reprint here his 1992 convention speech, in which he gave the keynote address at another convention in New York, this one nominating Bill Clinton. The text is from here:

Zell Miller’s Keynote Address: Democratic National Convention
NEW YORK, July 13, 1992

Listen to this voice.

It’s a voice flavored by the Blue Ridge; a voice straight out of a remote valley hidden among the peaks and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains - a voice that’s been described as more barbed wire than honeysuckle.

That this kind of voice could travel here from a forgotten corner of Appalachia is a testament to the grace of God and the greatness of the Democratic Party.

This week we are gathered here to nominate a man from a remote, rural corner of Arkansas to be president of the United States of America.

That is powerful proof that the American dream still lives - at least in the Democratic Party.

Bill Clinton is the only candidate for president who feels our pain, shares our hopes and will work his heart out to fulfill our dreams.

You see, I understand why Bill Clinton is so eager to see the American dream kept alive for a new generation.

Because I, too, was a product of that dream.

I was born during the worst of the Depression on a cold winter’s day in the drafty bedroom of a rented house, and I was my parent’s hope for the future.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected that year, and would soon replace generations of neglect with a whirlwind of activity, bringing to our little valley a very welcome supply of God’s most precious commodity - hope.

My father, a teacher, died when I was two weeks old, leaving a young widow with two small children.

But with my mother’s faith in God - and Mr. Roosevelt’s voice on the radio - we kept going.

After my father’s death, my mother with her own hands cleared a small piece of rugged land.

Every day she waded into a neighbor’s cold mountain creek, carrying out thousands of smooth stones to build a house.

I grew up watching my mother complete that house from the rocks she’d lifted from the creek and cement she mixed in a wheelbarrow - cement that today still bears her hand prints.

Her son bears her hand prints, too.

She pressed her pride and her hopes and her dreams deep into my soul.

So, you see, I know what Dan Quayle means when he says it’s best for children to have two parents.

You bet it is!

And it would be nice for them to have trust funds, too.

But we can’t all be born rich and handsome and lucky. That’s why we have a Democratic Party.

My family would still be isolated and destitute if we had not had FDR’s Democratic brand of government. I made it because Franklin Delano Roosevelt energized this nation. I made it because Harry Truman fought for working families like mine. I made it because John Kennedy’s rising tide lifted even our tiny boat.

I made it because Lyndon Johnson showed America that people who were born poor didn’t have to die poor. And I made it because a man with whom I served in the Georgia Senate - a man named Jimmy Carter - brought honesty and decency and integrity to public service.

But what of the kids of today? Who fights for the child of a single mother today? Because without a government that is on their side, those children have no hope. And when a child has no hope, a nation has no future.

I am a Democrat because we are the party of hope. For twelve dark years the Republicans have dealt in cynicism and skepticism. They’ve mastered the art of division and diversion, and they have robbed us of our hope.

Too many mothers today cannot tell their children what my mother told me - that working hard and playing by the rules can make your dreams come true. For millions, the American dream has become what the poet called “a dream deferred.” And if you recall the words of that poet-prophet, he warned us that a dream deferred can explode.

Robbed of hope, the voices of anger rise up, rise up from working Americans, who are tired of paying more in taxes and getting less in services. And George Bush doesn’t get it?

Americans cannot understand why some can buy the best health care in the world, but all the rest of us get is rising costs and cuts in coverage - or no health insurance at all. And George Bush doesn’t get it?

Americans cannot walk our streets in safety, because our ”tough-on-crime” President has waged a phony war on drugs, posing for pictures while cutting police, prosecutors and prisons. And George Bush doesn’t get it?

Americans have seen plants closed down, jobs shipped overseas and our hopes fade away as our economic position collapses right before our very eyes. And George Bush does not get it!

Four years ago, Mr. Bush told us he was a quiet man, who hears the voices of quiet people. Today, we know the truth: George Bush is a timid man who hears only the voices of caution and the status quo.

Let’s face facts: George Bush just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t see it; he doesn’t feel it, and he’s done nothing about it.

That’s why we cannot afford four more years.

If the “education president” gets another term, even our kids won’t be able to spell potato.

If the “law and order president” gets another term, the criminals will run wild, because our commander-in-chief talks like Dirty Harry, but acts like Barney Fife.

If the “environmental president” gets another term, the fish he catches off Kennebunkport will have three eyes.

And folks, after January, George Bush is going to have plenty of time to go fishing.

So much for the millionaire. But we’ve still got ourselves a billionaire. A billionaire!

He says he’s an outsider who will shake up the system in Washington. But as far back as 1974 he was lobbying Congress for tax breaks. He tried to turn $55,000 in contributions into a special $15 million tax loophole that was tailor-made for him. Sounds to me like instead of shaking the system up, Mr. Perot’s been shaking it down.

Ross says he’ll clean out the barn, but he’s been knee deep in it for years.

If Ross Perot’s an outsider, folks, I’m from Brooklyn. Mr. Perot’s giving us salesmanship, not leadership. And we’re not buying it.

And so the choice in this election is clear - we’ve got us a race between an aristocrat, an autocrat and a Democrat.

I know who I’m for. I’m for Bill Clinton because he is a Democrat who does not have to read a book or be briefed about the struggles of single-parent families, or what it means to work hard for everything he’s ever received in life.

There was no silver spoon in sight when he was born, three months after his father died. No one ever gave Bill Clinton a free ride as he worked his way through college and law school. And the people at Yale couldn’t believe it when he turned down a good job in Washington to return to Arkansas and teach.

Bill Clinton is a Democrat who has the courage to tell some of those liberals who think welfare should continue forever, and some of those conservatives who think there should be no welfare at all, that they’re both wrong. He’s a Democrat who will move people off the welfare rolls and onto the job rolls.

Bill Clinton is a Democrat who has the courage to lead a real war on crime here at home. And around the world he will be the kind of commander-in-chief this old Marine sergeant would be proud to follow.

That either one of us was able, one growing up in an Appalachian valley and the other in rural Arkansas, to eventually become governors of our states is a tribute to the American dream and yes, the Democratic Party that makes it a reality.

When I was growing up back in the mountains, whenever I felt like one of life’s losers, my mother used to point to the one and only paved road in our valley - a narrow little strip that disappeared winding its way through a distant gap – and she’d say, “You know what’s so great about this place? You can get anywhere in the world from here.”

Thanks to her and to God, the United States Marine Corps and the Democratic Party, I did go somewhere. But I’ve never really left that mountain valley. Shirley and I, our children and their children still live in the Appalachian town of Young Harris, Georgia, and tonight, one of my sons is sitting in front of the television set in the living room of that same rock house my mother and her neighbors built so many years ago.

Tonight, let our message be heard in every living room in every home in America. Wherever families and friends are gathered, let them know this:

We have a leader and a party and a platform that says to the everyday working people of this country: We will fight your fight; we will ease your burden; we will carry your cause.

We will hear all the voices of America - from the silky harmonies of the Gospel choirs to the rough-edged rhythms of a hot country band; from the razor’s edge rap of the inner city to the soaring beauty of the finest soprano.

We hear your voice, America.

We hear your voice. We will answer your call. We will keep the faith. And we will restore your hope.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.