Dukakis: It's Probably Obama in '08, But the Campaign Needs to Improve

[LTR]

Source: New York Observer

The Massachusetts Democratic primary, along with nearly two dozen other primaries and caucuses, was held on Feb. 5. Hillary Clinton won it by 15 points, one of her best showings anywhere this year, and Michael Dukakis voted in it—but he won’t say for whom.

“I voted for a candidate, yeah,” is about all Mr. Dukakis, the state’s former governor and a lifelong resident of Brookline, will say.

Mr. Dukakis has maintained an adamantly neutral public stance throughout the campaign, hoping instead to sell both candidates and their campaigns on the need for assembling a massive grassroots organizing effort—a captain and six block leaders in all 200,000 precincts in the country—for the fall. But he also said that Barack Obama will probably be the nominee and the race decided by early June, and possibly much sooner, with primaries in Indiana and North Carolina on tap next week.

“If Obama wins both of those states on the sixth of May, I don’t see how as a practical matter he doesn’t have it,” Mr. Dukakis, who officially clinched the Democratic nomination in June 1988, said in an interview this week.




Read more: http://www.observer.com/2008/dukakis-its-probably-obama-08-campaign-needs-improve

---

Also supports Howard Dean on the Florida/Michigan situation, says both are "off the table" and delegates should be split. He asked, "how many times do you move the goal posts?"

His wife Kitty is a hardcore Obama supporter.

It's a pretty enlightening article. A must read.

[Poll_Blind]

1. "how many times do you move the goal posts?" INDEED! n/t

PB

[N4457S]

2. Duke...

...looks good, considering he's in his mid seventies. Most guys that age look awful.

Greeks, Jews and Italians all live forever. Look at Joe Paterno. He's still coaching!

[LiberalFighter]

7. When there isn't a knockout punch the goals get moved.

Just like in any sport. If it's close the game is not over.

Neither has put together a knockout punch but they are both strong candidates.

On the other hand McCain... well he didn't have a knockout punch but still will be winning the nomination. And he's not a strong candidate.

[Catch22Dem]

9. You understand sports, right?

"Just like in any sport. If it's close the game is not over."

I don't care if the score is 21-20, when the clock runs out, the game is over in football, basketball, hockey, whatever. In golf, when you've played the 18th hole, the game is over. I don't care how close it is. Even in boxing, you don't need a "knockout punch." When the last round is fought, a decision is made. It doesn't matter how close it was, the match is over. Hillary's clock ran out before PA. She's played the 18th hole. There was no knockout punch on either side, but Obama is clearly the victor by decision.

[LiberalFighter]

12. In this case the game is not over until the one of them receives the necessary delegates.

And it is not who has the most in this case either. This could be decided in a brokered convention if neither of them has the necessary delegates to win.

And in this case if neither has the knockout punch there will be disputes and doubt about whether one candidate or the other should be the nominee.

Clearly the victor? In your dreams. You obviously do not understand the political process. Both should play the game until it is decided one way or another. No one should tell either of them to drop out. And it is not for you or me to decide that one of them should drop out. It is their campaign. Not mine and not yours.

[Catch22Dem]

13. Actually it IS for us to decide who drops out

That's the whole point!

[LiberalFighter]

15. Only to a point. You don't have total decision making nor do I.

And that decision making by us is reduced by those who aid others by contributing or volunteering.

It sure didn't stop the likes of Ralph Nader from running for President despite the fact he didn't have the numbers behind him.

[aquart]

3. They're asking Dukakis?????

Drawing comparisons much? LOL!

[depakid]

4. reprise

How sad is that...

[peoli]

5. you're right. why should he have an opinion?

[madinmaryland]

6. SERIESLY!!1!!

:wtf:

[NJSecularist]

8. Am I the only one who loves Dukakis still?

A good and faithful liberal who didn't sell his soul to win the presidency.

He has some good advice too.

[Trajan]

10. Love is not enough .....

Which, BTW, is also a great NIN song ...

Dukakis was a weak candidate ... A great Liberal, yes, but not representative of an attractive candidate ...

[LeftishBrit]

14. No, you're not the only one

I was practically a one-woman Dukakis Fan Club of Great Britain, and still wish he'd been elected, in his own right and not JUST because it might have stopped the Bush family in its tracks.

But the people I like the best are rarely electorally successful. I still prefer Michael Foot - for whose Labour Party I cast my first vote in 1983 - to any recent party leader; and think my country might have been very different now if he'd been elected. Clearly, not nearly enough of my fellow-Brits agreed.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. My response...

:eyes:

If you're getting campaign strategy from Mike Dukakis, you're probably passed up some, er, more qualified advisors.