James Pinkerton, writing at Newsday, points out the almost eerie similarities between what happened to Michael Dukakis in 1988 and what just happened to Hillary Clinton. In both cases, it was a fellow Democrat who opened the vein and started leaking blood into the water.
The Democratic presidential front-runner is charging ahead, blowing past weak opposition. A lagging Democratic rival raises a critical issue in a candidates' debate, but does so in a halfhearted manner that gets little traction among Democrats. So the front-runner stays out front, as the others falter and fall out.
But damage has been done to the front-runner. A wound has been opened, a slow hemorrhaging has commenced, even if Democrats don't notice.
Over on the other side of the aisle, Republicans see the crimson trail – and smell blood. So they sit back and wait, until the general election.
That's the story of the 1988 presidential campaign. I know, because I was there. And that's also looking to be the story of the 2008 campaign.
It was none other than Al Gore who unleashed the prison furlough problem on Dukakis. A vastly unpopular program in his home state, it became a massive problem for the candidate during the general election. So it is with the Eliot Spitzer licenses for lawbreakers scheme in New York. Clinton has a real problem. Having backed the program, she will now begin to suffer at the hands of an enraged populace of voters who are overwhelmingly in favor of securing the border and stopping the flood of illegals into this country.
Isn’t “Dukakis” the Greek for “Mondale”?
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The Clintons should become actors in Hollywood.
The country is just tired of them as politicos.
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