It was an extraordinary night at the Republican Convention, Day Three, at the Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
Extraordinary for what was said; extraordinary for how those words struck echoes from the past.
Though the featured speaker was Vice-President Dick Cheney, it was the Democratic apostate, Georgia Senator Zell Miller, the crowd had come to see. And Miller - known as Zell the Zinger for his fiery oratory - did not disappoint.
Announcing himself a Democrat straight off, Miller said that in the last twelve years, his family had added four grandchildren to its ranks. And that it was these children - and his extended family - he was concerned about. "My family is more important to me than my party," Miller told the Republican delegates, as explanation for his change of heart.
The '12 years' he referred to relate to his previous appearance at the Garden as a keynote speaker - in 1992, when he delivered the keynote at the Democratic convention that endorsed Bill Clinton as the party's candidate to challenge the 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush.
Then, he had said, "Americans cannot understanding 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!"
"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."
That was then.
On Wednesday, Miller stood on the same podium and demanded that the 43rd president of the United States, George W Bush, be given four more years.
In a stinging attack on John Kerry, Miller said the Democratic candidate was driven by a 'manic obsession to bring down the commander-in-chief'.
Against the backdrop of delegates waving signs that read 'Let Freedom Reign', Miller said Kerry believed that the United Nation and France should dictate how and when America should defend itself.
Kerry had, Miller charged, systematically voted against every bill designed to upgrade American weapons systems; that he voted consistently to weaken the military, not strengthen it. "This is the man who wants to be the commander-in-chief of our US Armed Forces? US forces armed with what? Spitballs?"
It was a line that brought down the house. It was also a line that flew in the face of what Miller had said three years ago.
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"Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so. John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment."
It was that kind of night.
For Miller, it culminated in a trip to the VIP box, for applause and pats from former president George H W Bush, the man he had demolished from the same platform four years ago.
Vice-President Cheney, the evening's marquee act, then took over.
Photograph: Getty Images
