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ADVICE
Bearding the comeback challenge

BY SETH GITELL

With former vice-president Al Gore hinting at a comeback — a prospect that Democratic stalwarts seem less than thrilled about — he can count on support from at least one party booster: the last unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis.

Dukakis, who bested then–Tennessee senator Gore in the 1988 nomination fight, says the former vice-president has one compelling fact in his favor: " The guy won the election. " Plus, Dukakis says, Gore won most of the important swing states. (This includes Florida, he notes.) And he did it with Ralph Nader siphoning off votes.

" If he wants to run again, he ought to, " says Dukakis, holding off from any official endorsement. " I thought he was a tremendous vice-president. He’s grown a great deal. "

Dukakis knows something about comebacks. Most of the country thinks of the former Massachusetts governor as the man who lost to President George H.W. Bush. Locally, however, Bay Staters remember that Dukakis, then the incumbent, lost to Ed King in the 1978 governor’s race, but came back to win again in 1982. After his 1978 loss, Dukakis engaged in some self-examination before returning to politics. " You think a lot about what you did wrong and what you did right, " says Dukakis. " You don’t kid yourself about the weaknesses. One of the things I concluded is that I wasn’t a good listener. I wasn’t a good coalition-builder. I did it a hell of lot better the second time around. "

Well, if Gore needs to be more introspective, at least he’s looking the part — with his trim new beard, he could fit right in with the psychotherapy crowd that packs Coolidge Corner, not far from Dukakis’s Brookline home.

And Dukakis approves: " Hell, I even like him in a beard, don’t you? "

Issue Date: August 30 - September 6, 2001






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