I doubt Dukakis preferred to lose. But I won't quibble on why he lost. The neoliberalism of Dukakis blunted his understanding of democracy...or at least American electoral politics. Too much policy tweaking, administrative engineering, good feel for facts and figures, but making a mass appeal, skilled marketing, or raising populist hell was foreign to him. Clinton indeed goofed he was savvy enough to keep on morfing that got him what he wanted, the political leverage to do the little he intended.
Dennis Breslin
Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:
>
> > . The
> > lost opportunity for single payer then is one of the biggest
> > domestic goofs that Clinton had.
>
> I just won't buy the argument that this was a "goof" by the Clintons (or
> lack of political courage). Just as Dukakis preferred losing in '88
> rather than launch a serious registration and get-out-the-vote campaign,
> so Clinton from the beginning wanted to avoid at all cost, and on
> principle, a single-payer plan. From as early as I can remember (early
> '40s) through '64 I was willing to "explain" Democratic results as
> "defeats" of Democratic goals due to errors or cowardice or what have
> you. I am now convinced that the Democrats have always gotten what the
> Democrats wanted. That includes non-reform of Taft-Hartley, etc. etc.
> etc.
>
> Carrol