An afternoon with Michael Dukakis--who offers his apologies for Bush and a cool take on Obama

[DFW]

Dukakis said that he apologized for not defeating Bush, Sr., because if
there had never been a Bush I presidency, you KNOW there never would have
been a Bush Lite presidency.

Second: he noted that McCain just has all the old right wing hacks from before,
and remembers getting thrown out of McCain's office in the Senate when he and
Republican Tommy Thompson tried to jointly get more support for upgrading rail
service in America, and

Third (we GOTTA use this): when the Republicans whine that Obama has no foreign
policy experience, consider this: Obama put the idea of a 16 month Iraq withdrawal
timetable. The Bushies scoffed. Then Maliki warmed to the idea, and said he was
also for a 16 month timetable. Suddenly Bush Lite is also willing to talk about
a 16 month timetable. Now even McCain is supposed to have been willing to reduce
his 100 years to a possible 16 months. With one well-placed suggestion, Obama has
been able to get the President of Iraq, Bush Lite, and even McCain to warm to the
16 month timetable. How's THAT for ability to handle foreign policy?

Dukakis also said that he won the nomination due to on the ground, door to door
people to people work. He also said lack of it is what lost him the election. He
noted that Obama was supposed to have 2 million individual donors. He said that if
each of them would knock on doors in their own community, we'd be a LONG way toward
acquiring a comfortable margin in this election.

The occasion was mostly to concentrate on increasing the affordable housing in
Massachusetts, and Cape Cod specifically, and it was telling that, at age 56, my
wife and I were just about the youngest people there. Cape Codders can't afford
to live on Cape Cod, apparently (sad thing). At age 74, Mike Dukakis thinks quicker
on his feet, is ten times more aware, has twenty times the energy, and has a hundred
times the heart of John McCain. This election is NOT an age thing.

[book_worm]

1. Duke's a good guy and it's a pity he didn't win.

[DFW]

3. He didn't dwell on that, but it was clear he thought so , too!

So did everyone else present.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Exactly right

It's about bodies in the streets, not fingers on the keyboards. People have got to get out there and connect with other people, one-to-one, and tell them about Obama. Tell them about McCain, too.

There has GOT to be personal contact. Dukakis is absolutely right. And, sadly, he's also right that Fuckface never would have been President if he'd defeated Father Of Fuckface.