mcgovern, mondale, kerry, and, of course, michael dukakis. oh, michael dukakis.f only you had let america see you dance. last night's emotional highlight, the dramatic appearance of senator ted kennedy who apparently arrived in denver via scooner. despite having brain surgery less than two months ago he looked great and delivered an impassioned speech that brought the house down. even the most jaded political observers were impressed. >> the kennedy thing is the most emotional i have ever seen. >> you're going to be moved by that -- you couldn't be a human being, i don't care if you're a democrat or a republican. >> i don't care if you're some kind of bizarre alien from a distant planet with some kind of a bizarre alien -- some sort of being with a funny-shaped skull and no hair on your head, a kind of snapping turtle face with yellow-tinted glasses because the light spect rup down here plays tricks on your mind and you've got to have special features to hide your alien face -- ah, ah. >> jon: still, an emotional highlight that set the stage for the main speaker

i thought it was just superb. >> michael dukakis, kitty dukakis, michael dukakis of course was the democraticresident in 1988. thank you very much for talking with us. back to you, wolf. >> thanks very much for that, dana. thank governor dukakis for us as well. we're standing by for the official start of this the final night of the democratic national convention right here in charlotte. pretty soon we're gog to hear the national anthem with marc anthony at the mic. or makes another sale, or hires another employee, it's not just good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we've extended over $4 billion in new credit to local businesses across the country so far this year. because the more we help them, the more we can help make communities stronger. dad vo: ok, time for bed, kiddo. lights out. ♪ (sirens) (train horn) ♪ vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. alright, yand... flip!in? whoa! did you get that? yep, look at this.

we're doing the same here, fair and balanced with the democrats, michael dukakis,

the first was michael dukakis. i'm kinds of amused because republicans are beginning their preemptive pushback against the clinton speech and it rests on the idea we like bill clinton. the 1990s were great and barack obama is nothing like bill clinton. i get a little smile on my face. it's almost like they didn't impeach the guy. why don't we get your thoughts up there on the big bill clinton speech tonight. >> i'm thinking about what is the it actual relationship between bill and barack. maureen dowd has an interesting thought in today's "new york times." it's not a bro man's, she says, it's a transaction. they're working together to help each other. ryan lizza has an interesting comment in his new yorker piece about the relationship between bram and clinton when he says this is a very clintontonian move. he pitched himself as the antidote to the clintonism, now presenting himself as the heir apparent. it's a tactical maneuver on obama's part. for me it recalls ted kennedy's support of fwhoem 2008 when the big han

i want you to listen to a clip of bill clinton as he placed the nomination of michael dukakis as the988 candidate. [video clip] >> in closing -- [cheers and applause] i want you to remember -- i want you to remember when michael dukakis becomes president in november, the people of massachusetts and this country will observe the 25th anniversary of the death of john kennedy. that will be a tribute to the life and legacy of john kennedy. when john kennedy died, the difference of what is and what might have been. michael dukakis has spent his whole life working on the difference between what is and what might have been. that is why i am so proud to say that he ought to be president, and that is why i am proud to give me the name of the next president, michael dukakis of massachusetts. [cheers and applause] ♪ somewhere at this very moment, a child is being born in america. let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, it and a hopeful future. let it be our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her god-given capacities. [cheers and ap

michael dukakis' vote. weekend furloughs to first-degree murderers never supposed to be let out of prison. but no, no, no, michael did you dukakis with the admiration of the aclu vetoed it. first liberals lie about furlough policy. when that doesn't work, they call it racist. >> sean: in many ways we've allowed this narrative to build and build. whenever there's a high-profile case, you go back to o.j., rodney king. you mentioned the more recent one, trayvon martin, the duke lacrosse case. in every single case a narrative gets advanced and moved into the political arena. >> right. >> sean: what have we learned from all of these cases? there's step by step, what is happening? >> what we've learned is everyone, blacks especially, are better off when the white guilt bank is shut down, as it was for more than a decade after the o.j. verdict, and liberals kept trying to push the racial narrative in their newspapers and tv. americans weren't buying it. they were done after october 3rd, 1995, when they saw that ve

his nominating speech for michael dukakis ran 33 minutes.linton got the biggest cheer of the night when he said "in closing" signalling an end to that epic speech. last night's speech by the way, 15 minutes longer than that one at 48 minutes. and now for the real news, let's check in wour man russian president vladimir putin as he adds to his long list of staged adventured. remember these classics showing off his physique while fishing shirtless in siberia in 2007. saving a television crew by tranquilizing a wild tiger. there was his treasure hunt in the black sea last year when he recovered an urn dating back to sixth century bc. they had planted the artifact so he could discover it. his judo skills were put to the test during a training session in st. petersburg and now yesterday, a new level of crazy. he climbed onboard a motorized hand glider to lead a group of young endangered cranes, birds, on their migration to central asia. putin was dressed in a white costume meant to imitate an adult crane. this is the president of a nation. local

in fact, the last democratic nominee to lose the convention state was michael dukakis.failed to carry georgia in 1988 despite holding the dnc in atlanta. >>> let he is gather around the water cooler to watch a special thursday night election season edition of "saturday night live." and in this sketch, president obama takes questions from the audience at a campaign rally in ohio while many voters down in the dumps over the job market watch the president look for something that they can all agree on. >> hi. i got laid off in 2009. i still haven't found a job. i don't want to vote for romney. but i really thought things would be better by now. >> real change takes more than one term. or even one president. i don't know if it will even happen in eight years. might take 12. frankly, i might be long dead. who here has a job? there we go. there we go. what do you do, sir? >> i'm a manager at burger king. >> and where were you four years ago, probably working the counter, right? >> i was a vice president for bank of america. >> oh, okay. the point is that today you're a manager

bush took on michael dukakis, two other guys, harry rubenstein and larry byrd, have been on a mission to save the party swag for posterity. >> to me this is really what democracy is all about. >> reporter: harry and larry are in charge of preserving political artifacts at the smithsonian and every four years they go on a road trip to the primaries and conventions making sure all this history doesn't get swept away with the confetti. >> i'm looking for something that is almost iconic, you know, a piece of americana that is representing an individual's activism. >> reporter: in charlotte this week they convinced some delegates to send them their glitzy hats and shirts and donkeys aplenty. >> it would be a real honor to have them in the collection. >> oh, really. >> it would be an honor? >> how many of these do you have just generally? >> about four. different designer outfits. >> reporter: and while clint eastwood's now famous chair certainly caught their eye -- >> i can't tell him to do that. they regret they don't have room for it. most of what they do have more than 65,000 pieces of

he'll definitely get a bounce, but michael dukakis got a bounce and he was 17 points ahead.u see both of them on the stage and you pick up the particular nuance and texture and that will define the election probably more than anything, but both conventions had unity. they gave respectable speeches and now the voters, very few undecided, i think will make their determination based on the debates and, of course, the organization of the grassroots, but nobody was hurt by their conventions and there's no damage done and they come up uplifted and that's the point of these conventions. >> quickly my last question for you in about 30 seconds or so, did you hear anything tonight from president obama that will sway the independents? they're the ones that decide these elections. >> yes. i think what he tried to do is that he's experienced and that he as commander in chief has more of an understanding of the world and foreign affairs and what you do in time of crisis. >> fox 5 political analyst mark plotkin, live in charlotte. >>> outreach side on the republican side mitt romney had no

gallup had michael dukakis leading by 17 points after the democratic convention, but lost to bush byn 1992, the incumbent president was down nine points in mid-september, tied with bill clinton by the end of october, though clinton eventually won. a former clinton pollster is questioning the assumptions being made in today's polls. >> these polls are assuming that you have the same high level of african american, latino, and young people vote in 2012 that you had in 2008. >> obama campaign senior advisor david axelrod told fox, "public polls are widely variant in their sampling and methodology so it's hard to case when they all point in one direction they're all wrong, but we are planning for a close race as we always have." another democratic strategist offered this assessment -- >> the race isn't over. look, this thing can move back and forth three or four times between now and november 6th. if i'm romney, you try to create that momentum. he saw a sign to do it. >> of the eight presidential races in the past 10 where the leads were cut or flipped by the opponent, the average of the

. >> gallop had michael dukakis leading by 17 points but lost by 17.5%. he was tied with clinton in october although he one. one pollster questions the assumption made from today's polls. >> they assume you have the same high level of african-american, latino, yo ung people from 2008. >> david axelrod said polls are widely different in the methodologies so to think they are all wrong. but this is a close race. as we have always predicted. >> the race is not over. it can go back and forth 34 times. met romney half's to create the moment of. >> in the past races were the lead was cut or flipped it is roughly 5% and some cases it was the debate that moved the nidal. lou: our congressional correspondent. thank you mike. 1992 in depended candidate ross perot entered the first of october and ended up 19% of the vote. and special prosecutor decided to influence the outcome to take caspar weinberger with the iran contra affair to lead the way for william jefferson clinton. >> this is called art and to be funded it. we will talk about art to and religion and money

somebody spoke, who was it that spoke for 35 minutes nominating michael dukakis and got a standing ovationweek. >> greg: bill clinton. >> dana: right. you were there? >> bob: i was. twice as long as it was supposed to be. 20 minutes. going on for policy. he got applause "in conclusion." yea! >> greg: i have trivia. last week, the amount of time that bob went to atm and disappeared. the amount of time that male delegates hit on andrea at the bar. 16, right? >> andrea: more or less. >> greg: the timer rick went to bed unknown. >> bob: i can answer that. no. >> eric: because my wife is watching can explain that. >> greg: you were helping the homeless. >> eric: the speeches went to 11:00. your went on and then i had to get a run in. >> andrea: i saw you jogging in the suit home. >> bob: birthday suit. >> greg: the amount of pictures that dana showed of her dog. >> dana: when we were stuck on the way, we were asked for the picture to be taken what was the common denominator of everyone who saw me? sparkly back pack. how is your dog? >> dana: last night my husband was walking jasper here and he

you know, go after everyone, it is well going after michael dukakis for response, to bernie shaw abouthat would he do with if his wife were raped. it -- it used to go after jimmy carter who talking about how he consulted his 8-year-old daughter amy on nuclear proliferation it loved to get a gogot you with either party, now it seems, i'm not saying just right or left. but only the right, where they go for this when sometimes, it is obvious as all heck, both sides if you want to go there are giving you ample room. >> when i was in law school, james restin came to speak, during my freshman year, it was refreshing to hear him talk about journalism, yo you put our feelings aside, it is gone, your example with pacs is most recent, there is foreign policy, and the economy, what do you hear people talk about, any little improvement in the economy it is how story of president obama on the right track, and very little coverage of the 48 straight months of unemployment. neil: durable good orders sliding and housing industry not taking off, these numbers don't get the coverage, i think saying, thi

july of 1988, you have michael dukakis ahead of bush. 55-38, 17-point lead. you got 1980, carter over reagan, this is september 1980, four-point lead and went higher than that after that. how do you interpret the polls now. the single most optimistic person in terms of romney winning this of anybody i know, why? >> i'm one of the only people that talks on tv that is a pollster, made my living to doing it. there are three sources of distortion in these polls you are looking at. the first is this is the first election when turnout matters. romney doesn't get any black votes, only a few latino votes. obama did very well among college students, poorly among the elderly. it makes who you are demo graphically. while many of these polls like rasmussen use likely voters, what they then do is weight the sample so it reflects what they believe the turnout is going to be. >> sean: 2008 model versus the 2010 model. >> so for example, russ mass seven has obama ahead 49-45. rasmussen assumes 13% black vote. historically it's 11, it was 13 in 2008, it was 11 in '10. it was

she gave political experience volunteering for the presidential run of michael dukakis cain 1988. she began her career with the clinton administration in various communication roles later moving on to work for senator ted kennedy. s she received her first level with presidential campaign senator john kerry. it was where we saw her trademark tactics emerge. >> add the middle chlass to pay more taxes than he could give 250,000 more tax cut for people making more than 3 million a year. it's like robin hood in reverse. it's romney hood. >> but in 2004 it was stephanie cutter making the same claims than president bush appearing on fox news cutter attacked president bush claiming he pursued a policy that put the wealthy on top and left the middle class behind. cutter's time with the kerry campaign was rocky due to her difficult and surl lee personality. members of the campaign immortalized cutter with the creation of a new verb. to schutter means to try to control or dominate. the word has a more crude definition as well, to, well, blank up. a refrps to her miss handling of the vote. >>

. >> michael dukakis was ahead of you guys. >> he was ahead of us going into our convention 7, 8 points then we came out of our convention about five points ahead. in those days you had bounces. >> and they were spread out. >> because campaigning didn't start so early. tito bam ma decid -- tito baat obama decided to start. >> you have to have a very good communication strategy that is going to touch the hearts of american people. to say if romney were president he can bring people together he will work to do that. he is the one that will help the person on welfare to get off welfare. he will help the person who needs to get a better paying job. he is the one that understands how to grow opportunities. america is building opportunity society. we have more opportunities in this country than anywhere in the world talk about it articulate it, believe it. that's the vision, that's the story that will get romney elected president. >> vice president quail, always a pleasure. thank you very, very much. >> glad to be here. >>> if you see this coming who is it really helping you? quayle. >> is it

she gave political experience volunteering for the presidential run of michael dukakis cain 1988. she began her career with the clinton administration in various communication roles later moving on to work for senator ted kennedy. s she received her first level with presidential campaign senator john kerry. it was where we saw her trademark tactics emerge. >> add the middle chlass to pay more taxes than he could give 250,000 more tax cut for people making more than 3 million a year. it's like robin hood in reverse. it's romney hood. >> but in 2004 it was stephanie cutter making the same claims than president bush appearing on fox news cutter attacked president bush claiming he pursued a policy that put the wealthy on top and left the middle class behind. cutter's time with the kerry campaign was rocky due to her difficult and surl lee personality. members of the campaign immortalized cutter with the creation of a new verb. to schutter means to try to control or dominate. the word has a more crude definition as well, to, well, blank up. a refrps to her miss handling of the vote. >>

. >> michael dukakis had advice, keep hammering mitt romney.olitico, he's got to make sure everybody in america understands what a disaster mitt romney was when it the came to the massachusetts economy. >>> the super pac is hitting ads on the support for same-sex marriage. >> obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country. that's not the change i voted for. >> and counterprogramming, new jersey governor chris christie hanging out with jimmy fallon and talking about his love for the boss, bruce springsteen and broke into song. ♪ >> chris christie, everybody. >> is it mean to say don't quit your day job. i shouldn't either. former president clinton enjoying his highest approval ratings ever and tonight he'll give his seventh democratic convention speech. what he'll say is a mystery, he has not given his speech to the campaign to review farce we know. joining me from charlotte, karen finney and former dnc communications director and i'm joined by former noout gingrich spokesman and senior adviser to the akin campaign. how does he help presi

. >> michael dukakis has opposed virtually every defense system. >> in oregon and washington and michigan then we're going to washington, d.c. to take back the white house! >> i actually did vote for the $87 billion before i voted against it. >> there you go again. >> you know who voted for it? might never know. that one. you know who voted against it? me. >> i read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media. >> what one specifically? i'm curious. >> all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. >> can you name any? >> i have a vast variety of sources. >> well, there's new evidence tonight mitt romney's suffering after his own moment of impact. these words could follow him the rest of his life. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. my job is not to worry about those people. they should take personal responsibility for their lives. have i to convince the 5% that are independent. >> romney's 47% comments just won't go away. in fact, the "new york times" crunched the poll data to find out i

. >>> also, remember that great "snl" segment in which michael dukakis says of george herbert walkerh, i can't believe i'm losing to this guy? that's how republicans feel about president obama, but they're wrong and that may be because -- we'll talk about it. they think he's a foreign-born, socialist, muslim, in the fever swamps of their gop minds. anyway, they're not losing to that guy, because that guy doesn't exist. >>> anyway, clint eastwood asked the question since his convention performance, what was he thinking? >> if someone is dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, you know, they're going to have to take what they get. >> and that somebody dumb enough was the candidate, mitt romney, believe it or not. he's putting him down, too. anyway, that's in the sideshow. >>> let me finish with mitt romney's redefining of the word, redistribution. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ female announcer ] roam like the gnome this fall. and get outstanding deals with the travelocity fall hotel sale. you can save up to 40% on select hotels. so book

let's take a look at convention bounces over the years going back to 1988 with michael dukakis. he got a 7 point bounce, bush got the bounce. bill clinton got a 16. that went against president bush's 5-point bounce. 3 points for dole. you see bouncing has kind of disappeared -- it gets down tho these tiny little bounces and steve i'm not even sure we can call what's happening now a bounce. there's a real move. you can see in this poll the president has a measurable move. but that isn't what we used to call a bounce. >> it isn't but the one that jumps out at me is 2004. because i see a mirror image of 2004 here. kerry lost ground after his convention. >> romney lost one point exactly like john kerry did. that's exactly what happened here. >> if you remember that new york convention bush came out of here, his lead got up to about 6, 7 poijts. he kept the lead all the way through the debates. it was tight the rest of the way but i see something potentially similar happening here where obama gets ahead. >> we'll see what the debates have to say about that. >> thank you both for join

. >> in the next election, democratic candidate michael dukakis is asked this controversial questionin his debate with vice president george w. bush. >> governor, if kitty dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? >> no, i don't. i think you know i have opposed the death penalty during all of my life. >> the public sees his answer as cold and dispassionate and that very night, his poll numbers dropped. during the 1988 vice presidential debate, republican senator dan quayle's comparison to john f. kennedy elicits this blistering response from his opponent. >> senator, you are no jack kennedy. >> body language plays a part in the presidential debate. in 1992, george h.w. bush deliberately looks at his watch and he pays for it when the audience and voters see it as disrespectful. body language makes a difference in the debate between al gore and george w. bush as well. gore sighs over and over again and bush, the underdog, surprises by winning the debate and of course, the election. both president obama and governor romney are seasoned

. >> george, the big difference in american politics in a generation is this, in 1988, michael dukakisic convention with a huge bounce ahead of george herbert walker bush, on election day he lost by 7 points. it's 24-point swing. in today's electorate that you could have that volatility. that matters, because i think what the republicans are counting on are undecided to break against the incumbent. >> well, actually, it's interesting to see in comparing the 2008 exits with the 2012 average abc polls the groups of americans who have gone off on obama, moderates, midwesterners, people with less than $50,000, they haven't gone on to romney and that's exactly, they're still getting what mccain got. he's getting what mccain got there. those are the groups of people that he has to get. look, the fact the jobs numbers don't mean anything in this election. i think, everybody's factored that in already. we know what story is there. what the democrats are trying to do and i think probably will succeed in doing is putting together blocks of voters and so, you know, you have women and minorities,

then-governor clinton gave the nominating speech at michael dukakis' convention in 1988.rphed his 15-minute allotment into a 33-minute sermon that turned the friendly crowd impatient. >> in closing -- [ cheering ] >> this year, bill clinton will speak to his seventh straight convention, covering a span of nearly a quarter century. he is set to deliver the nominating speech for president obama which is not without some risk. clinton still subscribes to the more words the better school of speak, and he still has issues with message discipline. this year undercutting the administration's position on tax cuts and praising mitt romney. >> a man who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> and there is always the possibility bill clinton outshines the sitting president, except that's almost the point. for team obama, struggling to activate some democrats disappointed with the last four years, bill clinton is the good old days, just the ticket. in a gallup poll taken before the 2010 midterm elections, 53% of democrats said they'd

. >> michael dukakis opposed every defense system. >> in oregon and michigan and then we go to washingtonc. to take back the white house. >> i actually did vote for the $87 billion before i voted against it. >> there you go again. >> to bomb iran. bomb, bomb, bomb. >> you know who voted for it? that one. you know who voted against it? me. >> most of them with a great appreciation for the press and the media. >> which specifically? >> all of them. any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. >> you can name a few? >> i have a vast variety of sources. >> there is new evidence tonight mitt romney is suffering after his own moment of impact. these words could follow him the rest of his life. >> there 47% of the people who vote for the president no matter what. my job is not to worry about those people. they should take personal responsibility and i have to convince the 5 to 10% in the center that are independents. >> romney's 47% comments just won't go away. in fact the "new york times" crunched the poll data to find out if the 47% comment is actually hurting the candidate.

she gave political experience volunteering for the presidential run of michael dukakis cain 1988.th the clinton administration in various communication roles later moving on to work for senator ted kennedy. s she received her first level with presidential campaign senator john kerry. it was where we saw her trademark tactics emerge. >> add the middle chlass to pay more taxes than he could give 250,000 more tax cut for people making more than 3 million a year. it's like robin hood in reverse. it's romney hood. >> but in 2004 it was stephanie cutter making the same claims than president bush appearing on fox news cutter attacked president bush claiming he pursued a policy that put the wealthy on top and left the middle class behind. cutter's time with the kerry campaign was rocky due to her difficult and surl lee personality. members of the campaign immortalized cutter with the creation of a new verb. to schutter means to try to control or dominate. the word has a more crude definition as well, to, well, blank up. a refrps to her miss handling of the vote. >> it was brought back fro