What kind of President would Michael Dukakis have been?

[EconomicLiberal]

I just watched Boogie Man for a second time, a documentary about Lee Atwater and the 1988 Election, and I've always wondered how Michael Dukakis would have governed if he had outlasted the attacks of Atwater. Very little has been written about Dukakis since he lost his election; he has almost become America's forgotten politician.

Would he have been more to the left of Clinton? Carter? Obama? How would he have governed?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Better than fucken Bush.

Based on no solid evidence, I think he would have been to the left of Clinton and Carter. More of a Kennedyite (Teddy, not Jack).

[kansasblue]

2. I remember being very impressed by his convention speech promise.

I'm looking for it now.

on edit


"We will never bring disgrace to this, our country, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice. We will fight for the ideals of this, our country. We will revere and obey the laws. We will strive to quicken our sense of civic duty. Thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this country greater, better, stronger, prouder and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us."

[norepubsin08]

3. Way better than that corporate whore

ignorant, draft dodging rambo wanna be asshole we have in office right now!

[firedupdem]

4. Just looking at him in that documentary made me feel so sad...

he must have been a good person to stay above all the bullshit they threw at him. I think he would have been honest and would have tried to do the right thing. Those bushes are fucking crooks and liars. At the very end they said that Atwater was already trying to ruin Clinton while he was still a governor and that if Atwater hadn't been ill Clinton wouldn't have won the presidency. I am not sure about that one but jeez....at least we had some good years when Clinton was in office.

[progressivebydesign]

6. I met him and his wife, Kitty. They are the most gracious and wonderful people.

The shit they both endured at the hands of the republicans should have earned Atwater and friends jail sentences. They demonized them both, and they are wonderful and brilliant people.

[firedupdem]

8. wow...I would love to meet them. They went through hell with

those rotten bastards.

[BeyondGeography]

14. Very moving...Dukakis the human being is head-and-shoulders above those clowns

I was similarly moved by him in this documentary: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4444763

[progressivebydesign]

5. Dukakis is a brilliant guy. He would have been an excellent manager and strategist in the WH.

He has a great understanding of economics, and other things that matter. It's a shame that the presidency seems to come down to a popularity contest, instead of hiring the best one for the job. Thank God we got the right person this time... Bush should never have been in the White House, nor the other Bush. or Reagan, for that matter.

[BlooInBloo]

7. A short one.

[LeftishBrit]

9. A very good one IMO!

Also, there would have been no Bushes!

[EconomicLiberal]

10. Who knows.

Bush may have ran in 1996 or 2000 regardless.

[chiefofclarinet]

13. I don't think HW would have won, and W wouldn't have been an issue

I am no history student or expert nor was I politically aware in 1988. But I don't think GHWB would not have been able to come back and beat Dukakis' VP or whoever got the nomination. It took a schism in the Democratic party after RFK's assassination for Nixon to win in '68, and he already tried to beat a Kennedy and lost. GHWB probably wouldn't have gotten a second chance; the Republicans don't like to give second chances anymore.

If that happened, there is no way that GWB would have gotten anywhere in politics. He would have never won the TX governorship without some coattails or staff/advisers from his father.

It would be a different world, that's for sure.

[Eric J in MN]

11. He would have been good a president.

He's to the left of Bill Clinton in opposing the death penalty.

[undeterred]

12. Like all the Democratic nominees, brilliant.

Especially when compared to the alternative.

[AndrewP]

15. I was disgusted in 1988 just as much as I am now

That was a good man that people weren't smart enough to pick 20 years ago. Too bad for us.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. He would have left the budget in good shape

and been about exciting as watching paint dry.
That's the way he governed. No excitement. No surprises. Steady, deliberate, and fiscally conservative.

[TheKentuckian]

17. I've always had a soft spot for ole Duke

He's a smart and decent man that is a proper liberal and would have saved this country from absorbing a lot of damage. If we could have nipped the Reaganisim in the bud things as soon as his 2nd term was up, the country would have never got this far off kilter.

Poppy may have come back and won along the line somewhere (maybe even probably, there's not a more connected kat on the globe) but still we'd probably at least pass on the shrub and his Sith Master.