Zell Miller blew it. His hard-on of hate boiled over into "Hardball," where he came off like a raging moron and, I think, challenged Chris Matthews to a duel. Everything from the oh-so-subtle cross on the rostrum to the oh-so-subtle disinvitation of Mary Cheney in the family portrait standup to Romney's "look at OUR young leader" speech came off as the politics of fear and hate.

As politics, it worked. Miller showed that the gloves are off and his Apocalyptic delivery made Dick Cheney look light. The sky is falling doom dynamic of everyone not named Schwarzengger (his speech had a Hollywood sheen to the free-range lies) might serve to make King George II look optimistic in comparison.

My dark moment of the soul is over, fired by Miller's speech. I didn't see a call to action in his speech; I saw the face of someone so filled by hate that he might as well be the modern Bull Connor; a man I'm sure thought he was well-intentioned, but ended up the personification of evil for many. I won't stand quietly.

Edited from earlier version, removing one metaphor for hate and replacing it with another.