As Carole Hughes describes it, she was ”really emotionally involved”
with John F. Kennedy.
No, this isn`t another scandal-sheet romance, but the personal devotion that the Democratic convention delegate from Moscow, Idaho, felt for the party standard-bearer in 1960. Similarly, the 48-year-old high school teacher said she was ”emotionally involved” with Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and George McGovern in 1972 and ”really liked” Walter Mondale in 1984.
But when it comes to Michael Dukakis, her freely made choice for president this year, a firm handshake will do just as well as a kiss.
”Maybe it`s because I`m growing older,” said Hughes, politely describing a political marriage of convenience rather than one of passion. ”I really like what Dukakis has to say. I think he`s frugal. I think he really does care about social programs. I`m not emotionally involved, but
intellectually I think he`s the best man.”
Many of the 4,162 delegates to the Democratic National Convention who cheered the nomination of the Massachusetts governor Wednesday night in the Omni Coliseum were cheering the choice rather than the man, approaching it as coolly and methodically as Dukakis might pick apart a budget.
Democrats, it seems, have grown tired of those passionate but quick-to-fade romances based on the antiwar ideology of McGovern or anybody-can-be-president success of Jimmy Carter or the labor-education-woman menage a trois with Mondale.
”Dukakis is the right man for the right time,” said Vinicio Vonato of New York City, a 54-year-old teacher wearing a blue vest that touted his membership in the American Federation of Teachers.
”I think I`m going to get into the swing of things with Dukakis but he doesn`t have quite the same charisma that the Kennedys have,” Vonato continued. ”But I`m looking at him in a different light-a responsible, straightforward individual who speaks his mind, seems very honest, doesn`t talk through two sides of his mouth. It is more of an intellectual, level-headed type thing.”
Party professionals recognize that the emotional connection with Dukakis is missing, except, of course, among Greek-American and Massachusetts delegates. But they aren`t fretting about it, seeing that Dukakis achieved the nomination for a more important reason. Dukakis is a person whom delegates
”perceive as a winner,” said Charles Whitehead, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party.
Bonnie Campbell, chairman of Iowa Democrats, who got the first close-up look at Dukakis outside New England, said, ”I think they like him (but)
they`re not impassioned.”
Campbell said, ”Nationally, Dukakis hasn`t had the opportunity to make the emotional connection that existed with a guy like Walter Mondale, who had been vice president.
”The general observation is that it`s a pragmatic approach to this presidential election year. People want to win at any cost.”
Larry Lewis, 36, a builder in Weston, Vt., knows what emotional commitment is all about as a delegate pledged to Jesse Jackson. ”When I say emotional, I`m speaking of something that reaches way down. I`m not speaking about some temporary emotional high,” he said.
”I do not sense it (among the Dukakis delegates). I reflect on the
(Vermont) state convention. All of the Jackson delegates were electrified. Dukakis delegates were far more reserved, laid-back kind of folk. I just don`t see that he (Dukakis) has that kind of connection with his delegates.”
But it is just that lack of emotion that may ultimately be Dukakis`
drawing card for Jackson delegates, who don`t have to give up their passion for the Chicagoan to support Dukakis, and for the swing vote that will decide the election.
”I`m not looking for him to charge me up,” said Lewis.
”His personality is one that is reassuring and not real emotional and I think that`s going to help,” said John Ryan, 28, a Jackson delegate and labor official from Cleveland.
A Dukakis delegate from Rapid City, S.D., Jody Severson, 39, was originally elected to support failed candidate Richard Gephardt but said his lack of strong emotion made the shift to Dukakis easy.
”The fact that Mike Dukakis is not a bomb thrower in his personal style makes a lot of moderate Republicans comfortable with him,” said Severson.
”He trades off a little fire and brimstone but he picks up an awful lot of people for whom sweet reason is more important.”
So, says Hughes, the Idaho teacher, ”I`m a little less emotionally involved but, by God, I`m going to work like crazy to get him elected.”
