Ten Fascinating & True Life Things I Have Learned About Michael Dukakis:
1. His sense of humor is limited. ”It exists, but it is not digressive,” an aide said. ”He doesn`t like humor that is off the subject at hand.”
Nor does he even notice it. Two reporters interviewed him at his home in Brookline, Mass. In the course of the conversation, one reporter made a joke, and the other began laughing.
After about five or six seconds of listening to the laughter, Dukakis turned to the first reporter. ”Did you say something funny?” he asked.
2. He knows he is no great orator. In February, 1987, Mario Cuomo was asked to deliver a speech in Manchester, N.H., for the state`s Democratic Party.
Cuomo, who knew that whoever spoke would be considered an instant candidate for president, declined. So Dukakis was invited, and scores of reporters flew up to hear him.
Knowing how important the speech was going to be, Joe Grandmaison, the head of the state party, wrote Dukakis recommending a speech coach. Dukakis wrote back saying he already had one. To which Grandmaison replied that in that case maybe he needed a new one.
The speech, which I thought was neither great nor terrible, was notable for one thing, however: Dukakis` son, John, never liked how his father waved his arms around while speaking. It looked too much like he was conducting an orchestra.
So John went into the hall on the night of the speech and put double-sticky tape all around the lectern. That way, each time Dukakis touched it, he was reminded to hold on to it.
3. He is a genuine penny-pincher. Examples have become legendary. The bargain-basement suits. The cheap shoes. The store brands of canned goods. (He still does the family shopping, pushing the cart with the Secret Service fore and aft.)
He invited two labor leaders to his house and offered them a drink. They asked for beer. Dukakis brought one can and two glasses.
(In a probably apocryphal story, he once offered hard liquor to guests by saying: ”Do you want the brown stuff or the clear stuff?”)
After he won his first term as governor, he invited his campaign staff of Young Turks into the governor`s office for a victory lunch. They were very excited at finally reaching the Big Time.
But when they assembled, Dukakis turned to his secretary and asked her to get cheese sandwiches for everyone.
4. No matter what a reporter writes about him, no matter how bad or how good, how fair or unfair, he reacts neither with anger nor gratitude the next time he sees that reporter.
5. He is a no-holds-barred debater. In his third race for the governorship (he won the first and lost the second) Dukakis faced a three-way debate among himself, incumbent Gov. Ed King and Tommy O`Neill, who had been lieutenant governor under both of them and was (Speaker of the House) Tip O`Neill`s son.
Before the debate, each was asked to do a microphone check. King said something like: ”Testing, testing, testing.”
O`Neill said something like: ”One-two-three-four.”
Dukakis said: ”Under the King administration, violent crime in Massachusetts has risen 30 percent!”
King lost his composure and never regained it during the debate.
Dukakis also devastated O`Neill with a very clever attack. During the debate, he turned to him and said, ”Tommy, tell me the truth: Would you rather be remembered as my lieutenant governor or Ed King`s?”
There was no good answer, and O`Neill was fixed in the voters` minds as a lieutenant governor. Shortly after the debate, O`Neill dropped out of the race. Dukakis went on to win.
The Dukakis campaign thinks the first presidential debate, scheduled in September at Annapolis, will be pivotal.
They say Dukakis can`t wait to get George Bush up close and personal.
6. He is often insensitive to the creature comforts of others. At their now famous dinner over the 4th of July weekend, Dukakis served Jesse Jackson clam chowder and poached salmon, neither of which Jackson eats.
It is not unusual for staffs to learn the culinary tastes or dietary restrictions of guests in advance of such dinners (or even for private people to do so), but Dukakis would never think of that.
After dinner, when the Dukakises and the Jacksons went to a Boston Pops concert, Jackson immediately sent someone to the concession stand to get him some food.
He knows how to send a message, too.
7. Dukakis is completely comfortable with his height. With his 5 foot 8 to Bush`s 6 foot 2, this campaign will feature the largest height difference in modern American history.
But Dukakis had no problem standing next to 6-foot-5 former basketball star and U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D., N.J.) when Bradley endorsed him. Dukakis knew it would produce silly pictures, but he did not care.
Nor does he care that his own running mate towers over him by half a foot. ”There has never been a guy more sure of himself,” a Dukakis insider said. ”You could call it arrogance. Or you could just say he is very comfortable inside his own skin.”
Or you could just say he couldn`t find anyone shorter to run with.
8. On the day of his nomination, Dukakis went to the Conyers and Gwinnett County Boys Club outside Atlanta, where the kids gave him a T-shirt.
It was an extra-large, however, and Dukakis is not an extra-large kind of guy. ”You got a large maybe or even a medium?” he asked the stunned kids.
Once again, it sounds like the famed Dukakis insensitivity. But think about it: If Dukakis intended to throw the thing away like most politicians do, he would have taken any size.
But he really intended to wear it. And so he wanted one that would fit.
The kids are sending him a large and a medium.
9. He hates Secret Service protection. I mean he really hates it. He fought it up until about two months ago, when he was pressured into it. But his staff calls the day the Secret Service arrived ”one of his two worst days on the campaign” (the other was when he fired John Sasso, his campaign manager) and says that Dukakis was ”snappish and petulant” all day.
Others would say, however, that his worst day came during the New York primary, when Dukakis addressed the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Dukakis was halting, unsure of himself and received devastating reviews (including my own).
That performance had followed one of Dukakis` rare days off, Greek Easter, a day on which Dukakis finally saw the movie ”Moonstruck.”
From the very beginning of his campaign, Dukakis used one laugh line in all his speeches. ”How many of you have seen `Moonstruck`?” he would ask. Then he would say how his cousin, Olympia, was going to win an Academy Award for her role in the movie (she did) and how this was going to be the ”Year of the Dukaki.”
Everybody always laughed at the word ”Dukaki.”
But Academy Award time was drawing very near, and Dukakis had never seen the film. So his staff persuaded him to take the time off and go to a movie theater in Cleveland Circle, near his home.
Which he did. And the next day, he went to New York and had a terrible day.
Lesson learned: Never take another day off.
10. This is my favorite Dukakis anecdote. I told it once already, and I might tell it three or four more times before this campaign is over:
It was the end of a brutal campaign day. Dukakis and Kitty had begun with an event in Washington, D.C., and then flown to South Dakota for an event and then to Minnesota for two events and then home to Boston.
Their small plane landed at the Butler Aviation terminal at Logan Airport, and they got off and waited while an aide went to find a car.
But when the aide returned, he could not find them.
Until he looked down a hallway and found them in each other`s arms, dancing to their own music.
It`s important to remember that these men are not just politicians, they are also human beings.
No matter what they do to convince us otherwise.
