I hate to get all Webster’s on you, but this is worth remembering about last night’s speech by Zell Miller :

Main Entry: key?note
Pronunciation: ‘kE-”nOt
Function: noun
1 : the first and harmonically fundamental tone of a scale
2 : the fundamental or central fact, idea, or mood

Main Entry: keynote address
Function: noun
: an address designed to present the issues of primary interest to an assembly (as a political convention) and often to arouse unity and enthusiasm — called also keynote speech

With that in mind, let me point out the differences between the senate and Republican keynote speakers :

“Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today. Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today’s senate leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.”
. . .
“No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn’t believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home. But don’t waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution. They don’t believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.”

“Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there?s not a liberal America and a conservative America?there?s the United States of America. There?s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there?s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I?ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don?t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

The keynote address is the one time every four years when the major parties get to explain their vision of America and the Republicans threw theirs away. They should be ashamed of themselves to waste their keynote address on a hate-filled rant. If the two addresses are any indication, the difference between the two parties is the difference between divisive rage and optimistic unity.