August 18, 2008 12:23 AM
Lessons of 1988
Today we present chapter six of the Rocky Mountain News' "Unconventional Wisdom" series, featuring some notable characters of past Democratic National Conventions offering their advice for Sen. Barack Obama, convention organizers, the city of Denver and average voters watching at home.
To follow the entire series, bookmark this link HERE. And keep checking back.
Part 6 of 10
Michael Dukakis, Atlanta 1988
The story by M.E. Sprengelmeyer is HERE.
The video by Judy DeHaas is HERE.
The transcript of the Dukakis interview is HERE.
Portraits are by Chris Schneider.
Below is a bit of the back story on the making of the 1988 chapter.
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Imagine the scene: Michael Dukakis, circa 2008, impersonating comedian Jon Lovitz impersonating Michael Dukakis, circa 1988.
"'How could I be losing to this guy?'"
Funny stuff (even if the line Lovitz delivered on Saturday Night Live was slightly different: "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy...").
That was supposed to be Democrats' year.
The Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan, was leaving office in 1988. Republicans nominated the slightly less exciting George H.W. Bush, a milquetoast wonk once dismissed by conservative columnist George Will as a "lap dog."
And then Bush tapped the lightly-regarded Dan Quayle -- "no Jack Kennedy" -- as his running mate.
So finally, Democrats were supposed to have a chance. But no.
As Dukakis sat down to chat at his daughter's home near the Cherry Creek area of Denver, he made it clear that he had only himself to blame for yet another drubbing - one of seven the Democrats suffered in the ten elections between 1968 and 2004.
The convention in Atlanta had gone great, Dukakis said. But he seemed to forget the most important part of a convention: the morning after, and the hand-to-hand combat that begins immediately afterwards.
Dukakis said that after the convention, he tried to stay the course on the upbeat strategy that had won him the nomination. He was slow, very slow, to respond to a constant barrage of Republican attacks. And by the time he got feisty, it was too late.
He learned his lesson. And it's one that Sen. Barack Obama already seems to have taken to heart - for example, this week releasing dozens of pages of pointed rebuttals to the allegations contained in the latest "swift book" attack, "The Obama Nation."
Interviewing Michael Dukakis is a package deal. You get Kitty Dukakis, too, and it's fascinating to watch the inseparable former first couple of Massachusetts sit side by side, finish each other's sentences, interrupt one another at will, and lean close to one another when the questions get tough.
There was no more emotional moment during the discussion of 1988 than when the topic turned to the Obamas, Barack and Michelle. Ask Kitty Dukakis about Michelle Obama and she gushes with praise and then her voice wavers with emotion.
It is, her husband explains, a sort of flashback to those tough days in 1988 when Republicans went after his would-be first lady. A sitting Republican senator publicly claimed that Kitty Dukakis had once burned an American flag at a protest - a rumor that spread far and wide, even without the Internet and even without a shred of evidence offered.
Michael and Kitty Dukakis are rooting against the attack machine this year. They sound as excited about the 2008 convention as they were about the one in 1988. They're about to fly to California, pick up the grandkids and then take a train back to Denver for a triumphant, old-school arrival at the Democratic National Convention - as if we're back in 1908.
Obama has filled them with hope - hope that this time, unlike 1988, the attacks won't go unanswered.
"And you can see already, not a day goes by when any attack from the McCain campaign is not answered, either by the candidate or somebody else," Dukakis told us. "In point of fact, Obama has been a very feisty post-primary candidate, if I can use that term. And he has got to be. Whether or not people get tired of this stuff, on both sides, by the time this is over is a good question. But nobody will make that mistake again. And unfortunately, I made it."
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