dukakis was a little bit more rough around the edges.sed to fight with him about getting a new suit. he'd look better in for the presidential debates. and the funny part was in the primaries, nobody said it's dukakis liberal enough for the democratic party. it was the switch. it was when he got to the general election people saying, is he moderate enough to be president? romney has got the opposite problem. the question among conservatives is this guy too conservative? and in a way, is he too flexible? dukakis maybe wasn't flexible enough and he didn't like to do the attack ads. romney may be a little bit veering in the opposite direction of being a little too flexible and a little too hard edged on attacks. >> arthel: what a difference 24 years makes. a different political climate now, right? >> my life, too. >> arthel: and so you mentioned the general. do you think that romney has a better chance of standing or fairing in the general as compared to dukakis? >> we used to have a joke that was a wonderful pollster who died recently who w

>>this was a photo opportunity staged by the dukakis campaign.campaign brilliantly took that footage and used it against dukakis. the election results actually were swayed by the tv commercials because this was a very close election. >>the tank ad also proved that in politics some of the most painful wounds are self-inflicted. >>current tv's look at campaign ads that changed history is brought to you by pradaxa. well, online dating services can get kind of expensive. so to save money i've found a new way to get my profile out there. check me out. everybody says i've got a friendly disposition and they love my spinach dip. five foot ten... still doing a little exploring. but... my sign is sagittarius, i'm into spanish cheese, my hairline is receding but i'm getting a weave. getting a weave. there's an easier way to save. who wants some ronald tonight!? who wants some ronald tonight!? geico. fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more. [ male announcer ] cookies with smooth caramel and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter. >> all

>>this was a photo opportunity staged by the dukakis campaign. the bush campaign brilliantly took that footage and used it against dukakis. the election results actually were swayed by the tv commercials because this was a very close election. >>the tank ad also proved that in politics some of the most painful wounds are self-inflicted. >>current tv's look at campaign ads that changed history is brought to you by pradaxa. what makes sam adams boston lager great is as simple as abc. a, the appearance. amber. [ jim ] b, balance. sam adams has malt sweetness hoppy bitterness. [ jim ] c, complexity. pine notes grapefruit notes. only believe your own pallet. go taste them. >> in 80 cities across the country today, the occupy movement is gathering for a day of action called shut down the corporations. this is organized by occupy portland. these demonstrations are specifically targeted at corporations that fund a right wing group called alec. the american legislative exchange council. it is a mechanism for the nations 1% to influence what happens at the

. >> smith: with the, the bush -nd dukakis. >> lehrer: buss and dukakis.ú >> smith: and going up through> lehrer: obama. >> lehrer: absolutely. >> smith: right, and you mentionnd you talked to uu in this ook except for >> ehrer: that's right. >> smith: let's, let's start therr.&people who could not or would ot ttlk to you for >> lehrer::well first lloyd bbnstten.. >> smith: rightt3 >> lehrer: .who had suffered a stroke and was unable to >> smith: right >> lehrer: .to me. he wanted o very much but cooll not. >> smiih: ight >> lehrerr heewas juss not up tt it.3 >> smith: and at the center of one of the grrat moments3 ii debates.. ú& lehrer::oh, you bet. ú&u bet. >> smith: .over these years the journo jack kennedy -oment wouldn't it have been that? >> lehrer: eeaccly. >> smith: yeah. >> lehrer: i, i regree that very much. >> smith: yeah. >> lehrer: the other was rosssperot, wo was very somm time ago, and and he jjst also, just didn't want tootalk about it. >> smith: well let's say specificalll what t is. to, this is a great story. he figures as character. ú& lehrer: exaatly. >> lehrrr: the

presidency. >> dukakis, al gore and jesse jackson split with dukakis winning northern states and gore did well in the deep south. so did jack who won with black democrats that. same day, super tuesday did work for george h.w. bush. he won 16 of 17 states and the modern super tuesday was born. for the next four elections. anchored by vote-rich southern states sealed the deal for bill clinton in 1992. >> i fully understand why they call this super tuesday. >> bob dole in 96 and gush and gore in 2000. >> they don't call it super tuesday for nothing. >> john kerry in 04. in 2008 it was super diaper tuesday. hillary clinton and barack obama split states and delegates. clinton dominated primaries and obama the caucuses and a struggle ensued. obama didn't wrap up the race until clinton finally dropped out. the candidate for the national following, john mccain ended the race, but again regional strategies emerged with huckabee focusing on the south and romney the heartland and mccain the only that went national. many states opted out. it's small by comparison. just 11 states hold the primarie

. -- we were behind dukakis 19 points in may. we designed a reagan-style campaign. we did not try to go to the middle. as he ran over here as a reagan conservative promising no new taxes and standing for national defense ad attacking the kind of massachusetts liberalism that dukakis represented. we switched 25% of the country. one out of four american switch their view. in 1984, nobody thought it was possible. we designed a contract campaign, in which we went to the american people on a positive basis. i would offer paychecks rather than food stamps. i would offer the constitution. i would offer $2.50 a gallon gasoline. people want real choices. [applause] this has been a hard race. we jumped in in june and july. all of the elite money said that we were dead. it is pretty tough to raise money when you are dead. [laughter] we came back and by december, we were the front runner. we came back from iowa. we won south carolina. then we got $20 million of negative advertising in florida. we came back. we carried 156 out of 159 counties in georgia because they knew me well

in 1988 we were behind dukakis 19 points in may, and we designed a reagan-style campaign. -- george bush attacked the kind of massachusetts liberalism that to cut costs represented. we switched 25% of the country. in 1994 when nobody thought it possible we designed a contract campaign in which we went to the people on a positive basis, just as i've with this fall. i would offer paychecks credit and food stamps. i would offer the constitution. i would offer $2.50 gasoline. people want real choices. ok, now, this has been a hard race. when we jumped in in june, all the media said we were dead, and it is difficult to raise money when you are dead. we came back and by december we were the front runner, and then negative5 million in advertising in iowa. we came back from that. we carried 156 counties in georgia because they knew me well enough that they repeat it dtvepeated the advertising. i did not believe the other candidates can beat obama, and i will not leave the field. second, when we win, we cannot just beat obama. we have to win in a principled way on a big enough to join up with eno

(brit hume) they have all been in new hampshire lately, bush and dukakis and dole and tanner ... tanner? that's actor michael murphy, who's presidential candidate jack tanner in a movie, airing on primary eve, on hbo. it's the story of a democratic congressman who jumps into the 1988 race after gary hart drops out. no movie has ever blended fiction and reality as much. (robert altman) we created a candidate and put him out on the road and so it says you're doing a documentary film following gary hart around; we were following mike murphy or jack tanner around. and we put a staff around him and we operated as if that's the way it was happening. no, i think it's going to be you and me in the final stretch if i can hang on that long. good luck see ya in november. (robert altman) we had a fictional character that we were passing off into a world of real people. where i seem to feel i get the best results is by finding what the arena is and then set up that event and let it happen. i'm trying to give the audice a sense that, "oh, this is really happening maybe." and i'm trying to just

bush edged michael dukakis by less than two percentage points. >>> enough real news.'s gather an the water cooler to watch the first lady of the united states with david letterman last night. it was her debut on "the last show" and almost immediately she found herself answering uncomfortable questions. >> i have conversations with my wife. paul has conversations with his wife. married men and women have conversations all the time. >> we tend to talk. >> that are for no one else in the world but one another. >> that's right. >> at the end of the day, has your husband ever come home and said to you, oh, that john boehner, what an idiot? >> it has never happened. never, never. he is always upbeat, particularly about congress. >> letterman also asked the first lady if she's ever in fact able to leave the white house. remember a year ago she made that run to target where she was captured by the paparazzi. >> if you said, i'm going to the 7-eleven to get a slurpee or something, could you do that? >> i technically could. it would drive a lot of people crazy. >> right. >> i'v

michael dukakis was photo in a tank in opposition to reagan star wars fiasco cause people think he was weak on defense and actually served two years in the army was very strong on defense george mcgovern who ran against richard nixon in one thousand nine hundred eighty two was portrayed by next as people say if he dove in fact he'd been a bomber pilot during world war two successfully completing thirty five missions including one where plane had one hundred ten bullet holes in the fuselage and wings lost his hydraulic power had an engine on fire yet he made an emergency landing on a strip that was so short it killed many pilots before him but he pulled it off and was awarded the air star with three oakleaf clusters bottom line in politics perception is more important than reality and while you can come up with instances of republicans being stuck with such wrong perceptions republican political operatives love to spread this stuff about their their enemies in this primary republican strategist working for santorum and gingrich have been happy to label romney this way so would be intere

or what nixon tried to do with humphrey's race in 1968, what reagan did with carter in 1980, what dukakis tried to do in 1988 against reagan. >> you always try and tie your opponent to an unpopular figure. in 2008, george w. bush's approval ratings were low. people thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. there was a lot of unhappiness with the iraq war policies. so obama tried the strange of tying mccain to bush. then at the same time, in his own ads, he's saying, hey, i've been endorsed by warren buffett and colin powell. colin powell is a republican. and so it's a way to, when you kind of look at those three ads taken together, on the one hand you're tying mccain to an unpopular figure, george bush, while also saying, hey, leading republicans support me, warren buffett, one of the most successful businesspeople in the world, also supports me. >> in the flurry of television ads, you don't often remember most of the ads. but some you do. and this is one that people, again, four years later, still refer to as kind of a benchmark for the hillary clinton campaign. let's watch.

i think back to the 1988 campaign you never seen awkward appeals to the south like michael dukakis. he made some really pitiful efforts. in the end people know he's not from the south. i don't think he has to keep reminding him. that's the problem with what he's doing. >> essentially a three-way too-close to call race in mississippi and alabama tomorrow. what do you make of it? >> this is like student council election math. you get two popular jocks against the nerd. the nerd can win. this is basic aright tick here. you got these two candidates, and they're splitting up the same votes. and i think it shows in mississippi they're almost twice romney's number. that's what's going on here. and that's why romney's campaign does not want them to get out not now any way. they need to get through the next week or two of this dynamic. they want him out eventually, but the way to hurt romney is each together they pile up so many delegates that romney does not get the majority at the end. >> is mitt romney financing foster friess and sheldon adelson. >> you got it. i was talking to a smart op

duckweeds dukakis of the time sell the block. >>> the backup quarterback for the near ejects is the warm-uphop has named a sandwich after tito called the jet zero is backed with roast beef cheese and lettuce and rode it made no just for nutritional value. does the jury don't choke on the price. >>> of these a family of four. pizza macaulay that together you need an awfully big mouth. >>> by the way another chance to win a huge mega million jackpot on friday the price is $476 million cellular celebrating after someone got a lucky to get a jolly keans in mill valley

. >> that was the last debate between president obama and michael dukakis in 1988. >> didn't they sayn't answer that question and you said actually, i do mind. >> it was very funny. >> you were tough as nails! >> mike dukakis said i guess it was something like, well, you know, can i reframe the premise or something, and i said no, you can't. i don't know where i got the nerve to say that. >> we're going hear a lot more from andrea tomorrow about the reality of a military confrontation with iran and yet u.s. is not fighting syria. up next on big three, it's the one issue that could kill any republican's hopes of wing the white house. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." [ male announcer ] this is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence teaching data how to do more for business. [ beeping ] in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions... [ beeping ] ...to bring all the right results. it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ lightweight

what it also reminded me of, john kerry wind surfing, mitt romney etch-a-sketching, michael dukakis on tank. not good. >> when you start hearing john kerry and dukakis in the same sentence with mitt romney i know some republicans going oh, no. >> exactly. >> i'm buying stock in etch-a-sketch. i don't know about you guys but i'm getting in on it now. >> i'm cool with it. >> great to see you. >> i'm good with it. where is my etch-a-sketch app? >> stay tuned. the whole etch-a-sketch mess is just the latest example of an ongoing problem for mitt romney, the problem that he's likely going to face come november. who is the real mitt? coming up, i'm going to ask a man who knows. the author of the latest romney biography, "the real romney." that's next. not that we'd ever brag about it. turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine 2012 iihs top safety picks. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $219 a

. >> shepard: on the democratic side in '88 michael dukakis began the day with a lead over jessie jackson al gore. he couldn't pull away. the race continued. it was a similar situation in 2008. even as mccain was securing the republic nomination. >> tonight, in record numbers, you voted not just to make history but to remake america. >> shepard: hillary clinton and barack obama were locked in a tight race for the democratic nomination. the situation didn't change much on super tuesday when they split the delegates almost evenly. after that, the race dragged on for another four months. >> hillary clinton didn't concede until june. but even after all that time, then senator obama, of course, went on to become president obama. and if no clear winner emerges tomorrow, history suggests there is still plenty of time for the eventual nominee to pose a serious challenge in november. resolutions and economic punishments have failed to stop the slaughter in syria. and now senator john mccain says it's time to bomb syrian military targets with the united states in the lead. that's ahead. plus, vladi

his campaign, is part john mccain, part michael dukakis and part richard nixon. he's neither a natural politician nor a comfortable spokesman for an increasingly ideological evangelical southern and enraged political coalition. romney is a man of flexible views from the northeast, a mormon who wins votes from the least religious sectors of his party. a rather satisfied man who has to announce he's angry because he doesn't look it. hey, look. i'm really angry. michael, start with you. you are a treasure trove about your party here. tell me. this guy -- why are they nominating a guy who is the worst possible fit? the ultimate misfit? >> because, unfortunately, there has not been the sort of galvanizing around one of the other individuals to the point where they can push, you know, someone like romney aside and really move forward with a gingrich or a santorum. that hasn't happened. it hasn't happened from the beginning. there are a lot of reasons for that because the party is still trying to figure out what ground it wants to stand on going forward. it's not just a

the right to put in in place, and i think coming from a district that went from duck as accident -- dukakis, clinton, gore. people don't want to be pandered to like children. i think -- i don't know donald, but i think he's underestimating where the american people are, which is way ahead of the political class on this they want solutions, know the country is on the wrong track, and i think they will reward us for taking on this challenge. >> one thing. when you spoke aa group of conservative journalists in washington, over a week ago now. some conservatives say your budget doesn't balance fast enough. you said and told me on this on a squawk box" if you have the right growth assumptions, pro-growth tax assumptions. can you briefly walk us through that. and is this your answer to some of the conservative critics? >> yes, we have to unfortunately have to use what is the static cbo baseline that assumes massive tax increase and explosion of debt which hurts debt in the long run. we have to assume that in the baseline, as if it would if we have economic growth. we have tax reform and debt redu

to see what that means, if michael dukakis had within running in '08 with obama's elector rarkt the sameof votes he got from the group in 1980 would have been enough to win him the election works have had president dukakis. part of why george w. bush said he wanted his party to be diverse it wasn't just rhetoric it is survival but decidedly not diverse. very smart ronald brown steen pointed out in the national journal, exit polls conducted in 16 states that have held republican primaries or caucuses in all but two, whites have cast at least 90% of the votes. take, for example, tuesday's primary, the population of alabama is 68% white, 26% black. however, the voting turnout in the gop primary in alabama was 94% white and just 2% black. it was even starker in mississippi, where 59.5% of the population is white and 37% is black. the voting turnout there was 97% white and 2% black. to compare, we can take a look back at the democratic primaries both mississippi and alabama in '08. the voting turnout for the testimonies in alabama was 45% white white and 52% black and the voting turnout in mi

i mean, michael dukakis not so much, but john mccain. >> it is. like i said, if you go back to the naenl19th century, williamsn and clay who were their party's spokesmen for decades. it seemed like after world war ii it was a change of perspective, maybe television's fault or fast pace of the world, it seems like even though you had a successful political career, you lose the biggest race in the world, you're stigmatized a's loser and you don't want to be reminded of failure so you bring on someone new. as you mengtioned, gore and fols trying find new roles. >> speaking of someone who we might really think of as a loser, let's talk about newt gingrich. i say that because obviously he was also extremely powerful in the house. he keeps coming back somehow. we keep finding him again on the public stage. and right now newt gingrich is trying to shift the discourse, even within the context of a race it looks like he is going to lose, to talk about gas prices. i just want to listen quickly to newt gingrich here. >> here's the sad thing. lately we've hea

. >> nothing beats a good image in a campaign ad, whether you're talking about michael dukakis with the. >> john kerry, whichever way the wind blows. >> do you have a favorite image, something that swung a race? >> probably the most effective negative ad in modern political history was run in the 2002 senate race in montana that today is kind of in the hall of fame of opposition research. >> state senator mike taylor. >> the infamous mike taylor ad is built around charges that he abused student loans while running a beauty school in the 1980s. but it wasn't the facts that killed mike taylor's bid for the senate in montana, it was these pictures. there he is on the left, open collared, gold chained, diskco mike darrell, rubbing a man's temples at a beauty school. >> not only did he lose the race, he dropped out because the ad was devastating. >> that just doesn't play in big sky country. >> not the way we do business here in montana. >> reporter: at its most effective, it can combine an image and a fact to undercut a candidate. when john edwards was selling himself as a champion of the w

michael dukakis road in a military tank but it was used to make him look weak. >> now he wants to bef. america can't afford that risk. >> and try as politicians do with flags and statutes and impressive backdrops. try the impressive silence of power. nothing supports the commander in chief live from an air cast carrier. even when you're president, the best props -- >> oops. was that my -- oh, goodness. >> -- can fall flat. thank you for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley. go to

. >> michael dukakis, presidential candidate in 1988, got in a tank and put on a helmet, and looked very>> we live in a -- how can i put this -- much less soviet country. officials here look less oppressive. there they like to look more impressive. >> since becoming an internet sensation, the mayor continues to combat parking violators in new and unique ways. >> so they printed this special sticker and they distribute this for free for the citizens in vilnius. >> his latest innovation is a three-step sticker system. >> step one, if you see a car parked in bad way, you just put the sticker on the glass. step two, if you will see the same car, you will put much bigger sticker. and if you will see for the third time, please call to me and i will come. ♪ >>> coming up, a black belt black bear. >> it's, like, always on the verge of going out of control. >> but is he a master of kung fu or a master of trickery? >> how the hell did it do that? that's crazy. >> it looks fake. it's just so fast. >> when "caught on camera: viral videos, fact or fiction" continues. [ male announcer ] we put a week'

but parties that nominate candidates that are not all that really popular within the party, michael dukakis for the democrats in 1988, bob dole for the republicans in 1996, a lot of people within the party in both those cases said, you know, i don't think this is our best candidate. i don't really like this candidate, but i'll hold my nose and go vote for him. in both cases, they lost. and that's a big part of romney's vulnerability. the other is that he doesn't come across as authentic. >> mitt romney as human being, the problem. >> he's not authentic. there'll be a big effort to increase his authenticity as we get into the main weeks and months of the campaign. >> we'll be talking about that next on the show, his effort to do that on a late-night show last night with some reverberations mixed back. dan rather, always such a pleasure to have you here. dan is the anchor and managing editor of "dan rather reports" on hd net. and you have a really impressive special coming up on bahrain, including some really rare footage that very few people in the world have seen about the protest move in b

you don't think it's going to be michael dukakis with the helmet, flip-flops. >> i don't think so.omney is well positioned for the fall campaign. the interesting thing about what eric said, the interesting thing to me is mitt romney probably has to do less resetting of his campaign than certainly any of his competitors would because he's been talking primarily about the economic issues which is what the general electorate in the fall wants to be focused on. rick santorum would have to pivot away from social issues and start talking more about the economy. mitt romney doesn't have to change. win webber, thank you very much. >> up next, sanford's mayor jeff triplett here. this is "andrea mitchell reports." and panther coffee and panther coffee with free enterprise puns like hugh and crye, and smash records. and one saturday a year small businesses remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. like the way david kaplan at shell lumber shows you how to use a chop saw. then invites you back when the warehouse becomes the community theater. or the way camille russler of ever after t

have lost evangelicals,self-described conservatives, the south, he could be the nominee, and since dukakisat the kind of candidate we want as a front runner? >> as far as the states coming up next, they don't look great for romney. >> when you look at the states that are coming up, it's probably several weeks before romney pulls out another win, and you know, everybody is talking about ohio right now, and that's important, but sitting in the back room, i was focused on virginia for two reasons, when you look at ron paul getting over 40% in virginia, ron paul, that's an anti-romney vote. when you think, if there were only two candidates in there, romney and santorum, santorum would be taking more of the states. and that's such a critical issue right now for newt gingrich, for santorum, and for the republicans. >> virginia was an odd example because voter turnout was low and the other candidates weren't on the ballot. >> you only had one alternative to romney, and that alternative nobody thinks could be president, and he got 41% of the vote. if that was a santorum alte alternative, you would

another prop lesson in 1988, michael dukakis rode in a military tank to prove his toughness, one of theonic misfires in political history. it was used to make him look week. >> the stealth bomber, a ground emergency warning system against nuclear attack. he even criticized our rescue mission to grenada and strike on libya and now wants to be our commander in chief. america can't afford that risk. >> and try as politicians do with flags and statues and impressive backdrops, nobody can outprop a president. start with that presidential plane, a sleek, impressive silent symbol of power. and nothing spores the commander in chief like a speech from an aircraft carrier. but even when you're president, the best props -- >> oops. was that my -- oh, goodness. >> can fall flat. an

once you give an image to symbolize doubts like the windsurfing or michael dukakis in the taping, for mitt romney it's etch a sketch, something easily erased, so that goes people something concrete to hang their doubts on and it becomes serious. >> george herbert walker bush, running for reelection, asking whats the electronic scanner, confirming to a lot of people the sense he did not understand what was going on in their lives. i agree with david. where i disagree i don't think mitt romney can change. you can't flip-flop and then flip. i mean, he's already flipped on issues important-- >> woodruff: you don't think he can reposition? >> he can't reposition. then you really have a character problem. he can calibrate, but he cannot in any way-- this is a man who already switched on abortion. he's already switched on gay rights. you know, he's-- what the third one? i sound like rick perry. ( laughter ) whoops. and gun control. i mean, those are three on which he has already repositioned. so he can't flip-flop and flip. i agree with david, its natural move is to go to the middle, and i j