Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dukakis and the Tank. . .The inside story of the worst campaign photo op ever.
Politico ^ | November 17, 2013 | By Josh King

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 ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: dukakis; dukakis1988; jumpedtheshark; massachusettsmiracle; smokeandmirrors
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last
To: a fool in paradise
You lost because your a weak New England liberal who blew smoke about a “Massachusetts Miracle”.

Methinks Willie Horton's Big Adventure while on a Dukakis furlough had a little bit to do with it, as well.

41 posted on 11/19/2013 1:17:22 PM PST by Scoutmaster (I'd rather be at Philmont)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: FReepaholic
Adorable.

Thanks. :)

42 posted on 11/19/2013 1:20:06 PM PST by boop (I had no IDEA I'd be paying for Obamacare. I thought it would be a rich guy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Forgotten Amendments

The press tried to play off the Howie Dean Scream as “the thing” that killed his campaign. It was his far left political rhetoric.

Obama kept it in the bag and just used vague words like “hope”, “change”, and “historic”.


43 posted on 11/19/2013 1:20:59 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Forgotten Amendments

Up to the moment of Dean’s scream he was called “the leading candidate” based mostly on ballot stuffed online “polls”.


44 posted on 11/19/2013 1:21:37 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Scoutmaster

Thank Al Gore Junior for bringing that up in the 1988 Democrat primary.


45 posted on 11/19/2013 1:22:47 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Paine in the Neck

I remember the film. I thought “He looks like a possum eating s### with his head sticking out of the tank and a big grin on his face.


46 posted on 11/19/2013 1:27:02 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: All


Help FR Continue the Conservative Fight!
Your Monthly and Quarterly Donations
Help Keep FR In the Battle!

Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!


47 posted on 11/19/2013 1:29:38 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
Thanks. Ted Kennedy had previously brought it up in an election as well.

Although the Willie Horton ad was deemed 'racist,' Willie Horton was never shown in the ad, his race was never mentioned, and all of the 'prisoners' shown going through the revolving turnstile were white.

48 posted on 11/19/2013 1:32:20 PM PST by Scoutmaster (I'd rather be at Philmont)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

Shrug ...

Try photoshopping out the name tape on the helmet.

I think you’ll find the image less ridiculous that way.

For me, the problem with the image was the hypocrisy ... if you lived through the 1980s, and were paying attention, you know that the democrats spent the whole time deriding and lampooning the Abrams as a waste of money. For Dukakis, the democrats’ democrat, to be campaigning in one was an outrage; the name tape made it into a CHEAP photo-op.

And what’s with the tape, anyway? We know you’re Mike Dukakis. You don’t need to tell us. Besides, real uniform name tapes have a last name only.


49 posted on 11/19/2013 1:33:31 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

Dukakis lost because of Willy Horton. No more, no less.


50 posted on 11/19/2013 1:35:27 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

Agreed about the name tag etc!
This Politico piece (video) comes with sad, ominous music. In my mind here’s a more appropriate tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcq_xLi2NGo


51 posted on 11/19/2013 1:39:29 PM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
Dukakis' campaign manager ...
52 posted on 11/19/2013 1:47:46 PM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

LOL ... not sure Benny Hill appreciates being associated with Dukaka, though ...

For me, the final footnote to the whole thing was the Gulf War in 1991. The M1 Abrams didn’t just wreck a whole lot of Soviet armour, it also wrecked the democrats’ credibility regarding all things military. That worthless waste of money that would break down on first contact with a dust particle kicked ass.


53 posted on 11/19/2013 1:52:30 PM PST by NorthMountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: All

"See kids, it's fun to have a late-term suction abortion."

54 posted on 11/19/2013 2:41:01 PM PST by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee

55 posted on 11/19/2013 2:44:47 PM PST by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei

Willie Horton, Bernie Shaw, the tank, the entire smug Brookline liberal shtick.


56 posted on 11/19/2013 2:46:59 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: All

Even funnier-—SNL skit (rerun many times since then).

Duke was short-—so when he stood at the dais to debate
he was lifted up to the mike by an elevator....wearing that same smirky grin.


57 posted on 11/19/2013 2:49:37 PM PST by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
...pretending to be something he wasn’t...

We've had a LOT of this lately - on BOTH sides of the aisle!

58 posted on 11/19/2013 2:52:43 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

Dang; we’ve ALIVE!!

So lucky them shots missed us!


59 posted on 11/19/2013 2:54:38 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: outofsalt

CAn we get someone to BULLY him in the White House?

Maybe he’ll walk away...


60 posted on 11/19/2013 2:56:42 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson