70 Year Magazine Archive

FOR THE RECORD

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As expected, Michael Dukakis steam-rolled Jesse Jackson in Indiana, Ohio primaries, and Jackson ran all over Dukakis in Washington, D.C., where 70 per cent of voters are black (and only 8 per cent of registered voters are Republican). . . . With Dukakis now headed for quasi-certain nomination, Kevin Phillips commented that the race was like “watching paint dry. The candidate-charisma barometer hasn’t been this low since Calvin Coolidge beat out John W. Davis in 1924.” . . . Major worry of Dukakis camp continues to be Jackson’s reaction to these drumfire defeats. Will he now sharpen his attacks on the Duke, as he did after New York, inflicting permanent post-primary damage? And will blacks demand a place on ticket for Jackson? Recent Newsweek is ominous on subject. It says 20 per cent of blacks plan to vote Republican or not vote at all if Jackson is not on ticket. . . . Paul Kirk and other big shots at Democratic National Committee shaken by suggestion of Mayor Flynn of Boston that a black should be on ticket “even if that means that we lose the election.” Commented political consultant Stephen Hess about Flynn’s statement: “On that score, I wonder what he is smoking.” No. He’s running for re-election in Boston, where there is a heavy black vote. The gloves are coming off. L. Brent Bozell III, executive director of the Conservative Victory Party, says his group is raising big money to expose Dukakis as a leftist. “We’re not going to let Mike Dukakis get away with sounding like a conserve ative.”… Boston Globe columnist Bella English abandoned Globe’s pro-Dukakis stance to have a little fun. ”Every time I read Pinocchio to my daughter I think about Dukakis. Except that Pinocchio, the wooden puppet, turns into a real person at the end.” . . . What liberal columnist Jimmy Breslin says he can’t stand about Dukakis is that he’s a bore. “I have met tens of thousands of exalcoholics and many ex-criminals,” writes Breslin, “but never in my life have I met an ex-bore.”

Also as expected, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum won easy renomination in Ohio Democratic primary and all reports have him increasing his lead over Republican Mayor George Voinovich of Cleveland in that Senate race. . . . In Indiana, Evan Bayh, son of the former liberal senator, will be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate this year. . . . In California, Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy made bad tactical error when he invited Helen Caldicott, the pacifist, to speak in his behalf. In stemwinder address, Mrs. Caldicott compared Mikhail Gorbachev to Jesus Christ, called former Pentagon hard-liner Richard Perle “a war criminal,” and threatened never to return to California if McCarthy isn’t elected to Pete Wilson’s Senate seat. Post-Caldicott polls show Wilson pulling even further ahead.

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