comparing Dean and Dukakis (among other observations). Apropos, here is an excerpt of a Talk of the Town piece on their personal and political relation:
October 13, 2003 The New Yorker
The D Word Jane Mayer
Howard Dean, the putative Democratic front-runner, may be gathering strength around the country, but in Washington, D.C., political professionals have tended to see him as a sure loser, a reincarnation of the Democrats' disastrous 1988 nominee, Michael Dukakis. Many commentators have suggested that Dean bears the markings of a Dukakis liberal. Certainly, Republicans would like to think so. One Republican operative has even coined a political verb, promising to "Dukakisize" the Democratic candidate, whoever it turns out to be.
One Democrat who has not found these comparisons particularly amusing is the former standard-bearer himself, the original Michael Dukakis. Reached by phone at home, in Brookline, Massachusetts, on a recent Sunday afternoon, Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts, who now teaches political science at Northeastern, took a moment to clarify the record. It would appear that Howard Dean should not be called a Dukakis liberal, for one simple reason: Dean was among those who declined to endorse Dukakis's Presidential bid when it mattered most, back in the early spring of 1988, and the reason, Dukakis said, was that Dean, who was then lieutenant governor of Vermont, "thought I was too liberal for him."
"Hell no, it doesn't bother me," Dukakis said, with a touch of forced jollity, when he was asked about the irony of this. "But no one then thought of Howard Dean as a liberal. He was a moderate Democrat. I'm a progressive Democrat." Although Dukakis said that he has got over the slight, he still sounded a bit prickly when it came to judging Dean's record. "He was a pretty good governor," Dukakis said. At the time, he added, Dean's endorsement wouldn't have made much difference; the governor of Vermont, Madeleine Kunin, a Democrat, had endorsed Dukakis. But Dean chose instead to head up the Vermont committee for Richard Gephardt, who was also seeking the nomination that year.
Bill Carrick, Gephardt's campaign manager in 1988 and a media consultant for him now, recalls seeking Dean's support fifteen years ago, during a visit to Vermont. "I met him in his office, the doctor's office. We went from there over to his house. He had his brain trust gathered there. We had a conversation in which Howard said he thought that Dick was a little too liberal for him, but he *knew* that Dukakis was *way* too liberal for him. So he was more comfortable endorsing Dick."
Up in Burlington, members of the Dean for America campaign declined to discuss Dean's reasons for opposing Dukakis in the past. Kathy Hoyt, Dean's former chief of staff, noted that after the Vermont primary in 1988, which Dukakis won, Lieutenant Governor Dean did support Dukakis, who was by then the presumptive nominee.
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