this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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Michael Dukakis tanks his presidential campaign, 1988 (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by setsneedtofeed to c/historyporn
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Michael Dukakis was a Democrat candidate running for President in 1988. He had previously been criticized as being soft on national defense, so in September of that year he orchestrated a photo op in an M1 Abrams tank meant to toughen up his image.

The public found the image of Dukakis in the oversized safety helmet comical, and the photo op had the opposite of the intended effect of making him look tough. So much so that his opponent, George H.W. Bush used footage of Dukakis' tank ride in his own advertisements.

Photo source.

Wikipedia.

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[–] PorradaVFR 56 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Between this and cheating on your wife with a porn star paid off with campaign funds not derailing a campaign. Boggles the mind how the bar fell so far.

[–] automattable 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Was the payout actually from campaign funds? I thought the problem was that it wasnt and that the money needed to be reported as a campaign contribution because keeping it quiet was obviously for the benefit of the campaign.

[–] PorradaVFR 11 points 11 months ago

My understanding is that Michael Cohen paid out of his own pocket and was reimbursed by the campaign effectively (as you noted) being an unreported contribution. But that aside, we used to hold candidates to a standard - Dukkakis's photo op, Hart's boat trip, Dean's silly yell - that was the end of their run. Trump literally cheats on his wife, talks about fondling women, is…himself over and over and quite literally takes the unprecedented step of refusing to gracefully cede power and…he still thrives. It's beyond parody.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is his helmet "oversized"? It just looks like it has built-in hearing protection and headphones, which makes sense for use in a tank.

[–] setsneedtofeed 27 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The general public tends to make snap impressions. Even if this was how a CVC looked on a real tanker, people weren't looking at them side by side. The photo op was a very transparent attempt to "look tough" by someone who simply didn't, and probably shouldn't have tried to do so.

That aside, his liner at least does seem about a size too large. The liner is massive and because of that, the CVC shell's lip is about even with the top of his head. As opposed to a properly fitting CVC, the lip of the shell just about touching the top of the eyebrows:

Finally, for some reason Dukakis also has the chinstrap hanging off of his lower lip instead of his chin, which isn't helping.

[–] Waldowal 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Election losers and how they lost:

  • Dukakis - Tank picture
  • George Bush Sr - "No new taxes, 1000 points of light, and potatoe"
  • Bob Dole - holding a pencil weird
  • Ross Perot - big ears and too many charts
  • Al Gore - "Lockbox"
  • John Kerry - Flip-flopper
  • John McCain - "Maverick" and "dontchaknow Palin"
  • Mitt Romney - Mormon
  • Hillary Clinton - "Pokémon Go To the Polls" (plus Russian led disinformation campaign to paint her as an unlikable bitch)

Then there's: Trump - sleeps with prostitutes, promotes "grabbing women by the pussy", openly racist, praises world dictators, makes fun of handicapped people - wins election.

[–] Delphia 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Now I'm Australian so what I saw might not have been the full picture but it felt like Hillary ran a lazy campaign at least from the international coverage.

I dont remember a single specific thing about it, no policies, platforms or sound bytes. It wasnt memorable. What I do remember was mostly commentary about how she was clearly better than Trump. It felt like she expected to win on name recognition and because he was so clearly wrong for the job.

Just my thoughts, I have no doubt there was medding but I also dont think she played a strong game either.

[–] teamevil 22 points 11 months ago

That was her problem, she basically figured it was her "turn" after Obama and then all she had to beat was that moron Trump. Technically she did have more votes it our stupid electoral college system let him win more electoral votes. She did absolutely suck and there needs to be better options in this country.

[–] JJROKCZ 11 points 11 months ago

Yea her campaign was “I’m not trump, and I did decent under Obama” unfortunately those two statements were a major problem for what appears to be nearly half the voting population

[–] SkyezOpen 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Russian led disinformation campaign to paint her as an unlikable bitch

Are you saying she isn't an unlikable bitch?

Also don't forget the balloon drop reaction.

[–] postmateDumbass 3 points 11 months ago

Rush Limbaugh did the majority of the damage in the 90s.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Mitt Romney also had a "binder full of women"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

And the 47%

[–] Blue_Morpho 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Ross Perot - big ears and too many charts

Ross Perot was never going to win. Especially after dropping out then rejoining. He said dirty tricks party threatened to out his daughter which came off weak instead of just saying "Republicans"

Al Gore - Bragger

It was Al Gore is a bragger for saying he invented the Internet. Which he didn't say, and Vint Cerf repeatedly defended Al Gore as the only politician who saw the potential of the Internet and worked to make it happen.

Mitt Romney - Binders full of women

[–] weariedfae 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Do the Dean scream next! I will never forget how something so so so stupid can kill a campaign. But only if they're D.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Dean's campaign was dead and starting to rot before the scream happened. It wasn't the death so much as the obituary.

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX 21 points 11 months ago

Similar to John Kerry's bunny suit photo... In the US you can be an absolute shit of a person, but don't you dare let someone take an unflattering of you or the American people won't vote for you.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Potatoe

[–] Everythingispenguins 3 points 11 months ago

Seeing I clearly remember the Dukakis administration this must have worked wonders.