Posted on 09/14/2004 7:57:39 PM PDT by dano1
ONE of the more interesting things John Kerry has done in 30 years in US politics is a stint as the number two to Michael Dukakis as governor of Massachusetts.
Like much of the non-military part of Kerry's CV, however, this period has been little mentioned in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Indeed, poor Dukakis has been noticeable by his complete absence from this year's contest, airbrushed out of Democratic history like an early Bolshevik in Stalin's Russia.
The 1988 Dukakis presidential campaign against George Bush Sr is now widely acknowledged to have been among the most jaw-droppingly inept in modern political history.
Alhough Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in Boston in July, Dukakis was not allowed to speak.
Yet the name Dukakis is back in Democratic conversation because some in the party see signs Kerry is going the way of his old boss.
The Kerry campaign, which set out to avoid the mistakes of the Dukakis effort, is instead starting to look like an extended homage to it.
There are some unavoidable similarities.
Both men are prominent Massachusetts politicians taking on flawed incumbent Republicans called George Bush.
Kerry, like Dukakis, is insufferably wonkish. Dukakis once admitted to having read a couple of volumes on Swedish land-use management while he was on holiday. Kerry speaks to campaign audiences as though he were lecturing them on Swedish land-use management.
Both men acknowledge European antecedents -- seen as suspicious by many Americans. Dukakis is a second-generation Greek immigrant and Kerry's family is half-French.
Both have interesting and outspoken female relatives -- Olympia Dukakis was a cousin who won an Oscar, while would-be first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry is a tomato sauce billionaire who sometimes leaves friends and critics alike dumbstruck.
More troubling for Democrats is that the current campaign dynamics suggest the similarities between the two may be even stronger.
After a brilliantly successful Democratic convention in 1988, Dukakis opened up a big poll lead over Bush Sr and seemed to have the presidential race as his to lose. He promptly lost it. This year, Kerry was deemed to have had a similarly successful convention, and now he looks to be losing the campaign.
But the most striking parallel is the way both candidates let their opponents define them in ways that are not politically helpful. For Dukakis, the accusation was that he was soft on crime. The critical moment was the famous Willie Horton campaign commercial that featured a convicted criminal who had been released from prison under a Massachusetts law signed by Dukakis as governor. After his release, he committed a hideous murder. In a misjudgment of epic proportions, Dukakis campaign officials thought that if they ignored the accusation it would go away.
Kerry's weak spot has been exposed by a similar campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth commercial last month seriously undermined his credentials as a hero of the Vietnam War. Again, Kerry campaign officials chose at first to ignore the advertisements for fear of giving them extended publicity.
Like Dukakis, as Kerry watches his poll ratings slump, he is getting embroiled in the -- usually terminal -- media discussion about in-fighting within their campaign teams.
The two candidates even have visual metaphors for their inept campaigns. For Dukakis it was the toe-curling moment when he donned an ill-fitting helmet and sat in a tank, in an effort to demonstrate his military credentials. For Kerry, it looks increasingly like the television pictures of him windsurfing off Nantucket while the Republicans were tearing him to shreds at their convention in New York. As talkshow host Jay Leno put it, it proved that even Kerry's favourite pastime depends on which way the wind blows.
Of course, the big difference is that the 2004 campaign is not over yet. Kerry's last chance at redemption may be the presidential debates.
Then again, they may be the opportunity for Kerry to fulfil the Dukakis analogy completely. It was the 1988 debates, and in particular a mind-numbingly passionless answer from the Democrat contender to a hypothetical question about the rape and murder of his wife, that finished him.
"Both men are prominent Massachusetts politicians taking on flawed incumbent Republicans called George Bush."
(I searched before I posted and for some reason the other thread didn't show up, and still doesn't for me?)
Ghost of Dukakis? When you're short, hairy, and seldom seen....wouldn't TROLL be a better description?
Don't quit reading. It is actually a great article.
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