[ad_1]
The former Massachusetts governor, a Democrat, featured in one of the most-mocked campaign photo ops in U.S. politics while running for president in 1988 against his GOP rival, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Dukakis had enjoyed a lead over the summer, but the Bush campaign was taking aim at his national security chops.
When Dukakis gave a speech at a tank manufacturing plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., in September 1988, “somebody had the not great idea of putting my dad in a tank,” John Dukakis, the candidate’s son, said in a 2016 PBS documentary. “With a helmet, of course, because you can’t ride a tank without a helmet.”
Footage of the smiling politician, with his name on the helmet, drew laughter from reporters, and the Bush team seized on it in a campaign ad. Despite the hit to his public image, Dukakis refused to “get in the sandbox,” as he put it, and fight back — a move he later said he regretted, The Washington Post reported. His campaign went into free fall before he lost to Bush.
[ad_2]
Source link
