Posted on 11/19/2013 12:35:32 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Matt Bennett can still hear the reporters laughing, all 90 of them. He can still picture Sam Donaldson doubled over, guffawing, on a riser that looked out over a dusty field in suburban Detroit. Bennett was a 23-year-old political rookie in 1988 when he was sent to a General Dynamics facility in Sterling Heights, Mich., to organize a campaign stop for Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis: a ride in a 68-ton M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. The visit, meant to bolster the candidate’s credibility as a future commander-in-chief, would go down as one of the worst campaign backfires in history.
Following the event, after the reporters’ laughter subsided and Dukakis’s entourage was preparing to leave, one of the candidate’s traveling aides approached Bennett. “Nice event, Matt” he deadpanned. “It may have cost us the election. But beside that, it was great.”
Dukakis and the tank. The image of the diminutive Massachusetts governor pretending to be something he wasn’t and, in the process, making a fool of himself on Sept. 13, 1988, has haunted me, as it has every other advance person who has been entrusted—for a few hours or even a few minutes—with a candidate’s fate.
Like Bennett, I too worked on the Dukakis campaign, and we went on to serve together in the Clinton White House. I sat in countless meetings in which some smartass warned that a stop on the president’s schedule had the makings of a “Dukakis in the tank moment.” The caution usually came when some type of costume was involved, and the tank ride is still to this day invoked anytime politicians decline to put hats on their heads—as President Obama did earlier this year when he was handed a Navy football helmet but refused to try it on. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
1) Thank you. Thank you very, very much.
2. Why couldn't you have done the same for Barry? His uncritical media wouldn't laugh at him anyway so it's probably a moot point.
“Everybody” thinks the problem was the helmet.
I respectfully disagree. The problem was his name stenciled across the front. That makes it look cheap, and stupid, and insecure.
IMO. YMMV.
The Duke actually served in the US army in Korea and was an Eagle Scout.
Everytime I see this I think of “Spaceballs”....
the Void of Space looking in his gun to see if it is loaded...
Johnny Carson had a great line about Duke in the Tank. It went something along the lines of “with those eyebrows, you look just like the enemy, comrade!”
LOL! I wish I saved that thread of John Kerry. Some had bunny ears, which were funny enough, but my favorite was some FReeper animated the air tube to make it look like JK was being “filled up” with Heinz ketchup.
Howie Carr list ping.
Howie Carr (Boston conserv talk host/columnist/true crime author) has said he has this pic in his office and he wrote under it TANKS FOR NOTHING
Where can we locate Matt Bennett?
It’s really well past time we awarded him with some kind of medal for sparing the nation from a Dukakis Administration.
At least it’s just set for semi-auto fire. Good thing they kept the ammo away.
>>the helmet.
The late Jerry Williams, talk host, used to say it made him look like Snoopy. (Curse You Red Baron!)
If only this writer had written this column in ‘88, we might have had a Dukakis presidency. /s
When she won the Oscar (tm) for Moonstruck she yelled out “Allright Michael (her cousin) let’s go!”
On the Jerry Williams show on WRKO Boston, a caller sang, to the tune of Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable”: “Unelectable...”
DUKAKIS: Taxes...
(Sound effect—woman screaming)
PEE WEE HERMAN: So when you hear the secret word...
SCREAM REAL LOUD!
Maybe so. I never did see what was so negative about this photo otherwise.
Hate to think something so trivial is the most memorable event of the campaign. That’s the press for ya’.
Wonder what would’ve happened if Dukakis won and the whole Bush clan had retreated to Maine and Texas...
"Michael Dukakis has opposed virtually every defense system we developed. He opposed new aircraft carriers. He opposed anti-satellite weapons. He opposed four missile systems...the stealth bomber and a ground emergency warning system against nuclear attack. He even opposed our rescue mission to Grenada and our strike on Libya. And now he wants to be our commander in chief. America can't afford that risk."
So people heard what the Duke was about. And saw him in what was clearly a photo op to show he'd support the military. As the man who at one time was his Lt Gov would later say, "I'm John Kerry and I'm...REPORTING FOR DUTY!" Yeah both served but here Dukakis was shown for what he was...
REPORTING FOR DUTY
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