Reply #56: Jesse Jackson, Joe Biden, Al Gore, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Paul Simon

[jobycom]

Those are the people Dukakis campaigned better than to win the nomination. And Lloyd Bentsen was his running mate, and got in the greatest zinger in debate history against Dan Quayle. Dukakis looked every bit as strong as Obama does at this point. Afterward, it's easy to say he looked weak, but that's hindsight.

Do you remember that election? George Bush was a laughing stock worse than McCain. Nancy Reagan called him a wimp and insulted him at the convention. Ronald Reagan was hesitant to endorse him. He had no message until the convention, sounding liberal at times, conservative at others. He squirmed over his opinions on abortion, Reaganomics, arms, taxes, and everything. He even squirmed over what state he was from, claiming Texas and New England as home. At the convention he found his message and never looked back.

It's not a completely fair comparison. Reagan was more popular that W, and the economy was stagnant, but not collapsing. And HW had Lee Atwater, and McCain doesn't. But, no, I won't say Obama is a far better campaigner than Dukakis. He has glaring weaknesses. Hopefully they won't come into play and this will be easy, but I won't believe that until it's over.