Will Kerry avoid Kennedy/Dukakis?
The connection between Kerry and Dukakis will be ultimately brought up in the GE if Kerry gets his way. I'm starting to do some research on their bizarre relationship. It's really fun to dig out more dirt from this 'front runner' Kerry. It again confirms my suspicion. Kerry is a guy who will say anything, do anything to get elected, he has no loyalty to anybody. This ultimately determines he will never beat Bush.
In this Boston Globe article, Dukakis is very keen on Kerry.
Dukakis also strongly championed Kerry's presidential campaign -- even though he called Kerry's nemesis and challenger, Howard Dean, "a good guy" and "a pretty good governor" and added that he agrees with the former Vermont governor on Iraq that "going in was a mistake." Dukakis and his wife wife attended a recent fund-raiser for Kerry that was hosted by Senator Ted Kennedy in Hyannis.
Dukakis's loyalty to Kerry, his onetime lieutenant governor, springs to mind after reading this sentence in a recent AP story following a sitdown between Kerry and AP editors: "While he would `absolutely and with pleasure' welcome Senator Ted Kennedy on the campaign trail, Kerry noted that he didn't always agree with former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee who lost to Bush's father." (The Kerry campaign was asked last Friday to elaborate on Kerry's comments and specify Kerry's differences with Dukakis. Yesterday afternoon there was still no response.)"
Obviously, Kerry is trying to distance himself from his supposedly boss, good friend-Dukakis.
Kerry's zeal to distance himself from Dukakis began last year when he was announcing his intention to announce for president. At the time, he told the Globe, "I am not Michael Dukakis, and Michael Dukakis is not me, and the first person who would tell you that is Michael Dukakis." Meanwhile, Kerry has "absolutely and with pleasure" already welcomed Kennedy to the campaign trail. Kennedy presided over the final Boston stop of the Kerry announcement tour. Last week, Kennedy sent out a letter on Kerry's behalf, asking recipients to "rush a contribution to the Kerry campaign."
Why the need to dramatize differences with Dukakis? The answer is obvious. The Dukakis presidential campaign is still a bad memory for Democrats who remain fixated on its weaknesses and forget its strengths -- most notably, a candidate who stubbornly clung to his beliefs, even when he was ridiculed for them by his opponent.
The snapshots of Kerry decision-making in this campaign show a different kind of candidate. From his Nantucket home, Kerry is often described as being surrounded by a circle of aides numbering from 12 to 21. From that cumbersome group comes one cumbersome decision after another: Attack Dean; don't attack Dean. When someone gets really creative, they ask for that old standby, a one-on-one mini-debate with Dean. If anyone ran a war like Kerry is running his presidential campaign it would look a lot like the war George W. Bush is waging in Iraq. The enemy looks fleet of foot; everyone else looks flat-footed.
Do you guys think Kerry will distance himself from Dukakis/Ted Kennedy when he gets the nomination?
My next prediction is that Kerry will sell out Ted Kennedy in the South if he gets his way.