A Wonderful Town

In retrospect, the New York primary was decided in Wisconsin, where Jesse Jackson’s second-place finish meant that he would not come roaring into town with the Big Mau Mau. But it didn’t necessarily look that way at the time. Michael Dukakis had dropped two big ones the month before (Illinois and Michigan); if he dropped New York, Mario Cuomo, the exotic dancer of Albany, might drop another veil. Accordingly Dukakis was calling on every resource.

One of his biggest resources throughout the campaign has been money. I attended a powwow of Dukakis money-raisers in the board room of the Equitable Building on April 6, the day after the Wisconsin primary. You could plunk the Oval Office into the Equitable Board Room and never notice it. A post-modern proscenium window gave a Valhalla view of the West Side. Several of the Dukakis people noted the resemblance of the circular board table to the one in Trading Places.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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In retrospect, the New York primary was decided in Wisconsin, where Jesse Jackson’s second-place finish meant that he would not come roaring into town with the Big Mau Mau. But it didn’t necessarily look that way at the time. Michael Dukakis had dropped two big ones the month before (Illinois and Michigan); if he dropped New York, Mario Cuomo, the exotic dancer of Albany, might drop another veil. Accordingly Dukakis was calling on every resource.

One of his biggest resources throughout the campaign has been money. I attended a powwow of Dukakis money-raisers in the board room of the Equitable Building on April 6, the day after the Wisconsin primary. You could plunk the Oval Office into the Equitable Board Room and never notice it. A post-modern proscenium window gave a Valhalla view of the West Side. Several of the Dukakis people noted the resemblance of the circular board table to the one in Trading Places.