His campaign manager has long acknowledged it was a big mistake and became a joke.
It revealed him as a not serious person in a serious position. A serious person could have pulled it off.
Oddly enough, Dukakis actually served 2 years in the US Army, in the mid 1950s. He was honorably discharged with the rank of “Specialist”. That’s two years of actual military service more than Donald Trump has to his credit. Somehow, it didn’t help him ...