Dukakis fired his campaign manager who did know how to run a campaign over the Biden plagerism scandal, didn’t trust anyone else, and scarred by the Biden thing demanded a positive campaign.
AHC: Hart vs Reagan in 1984
- Thread starter Amadeus
- Start date
This is the exact same mistake Dewey made in 1948. Dewey didn't understand that the aggressive style of campaign which won him the nomination (and allowed him to do better than any of FDR's previous opponents in 1944), was what was needed to win the general election. For whatever reason, Dewey thought he had shot himself in the foot with attacks on other politicians so he sat on the sidelines in the campaign against Truman. This paved the way for Truman to win in an upset. The same series of events repeated itself in 1988, except that Dukakis was an even worse politician than Dewey:
Polling from March 1984 actually showed Hart to be a strong candidate against Reagan: Gallup had him leading Reagan by 9 points! (With a margin of error of 5 points). In contrast, Reagan lead Mondale by 5 points.
But given Hart's failure to beat Mondale, and his 1988 disaster, I'll reiterate what I've said earlier: I just don't think he'd beat Reagan. Reagan was an incumbent President running on a strong economy. He could attack Hart's McGovernite past, and the GOP would exploit rumors of Hart's affairs. But I do think that Hart could run a much more narrow race against Reagan than Mondale did.
What do other people think?
But given Hart's failure to beat Mondale, and his 1988 disaster, I'll reiterate what I've said earlier: I just don't think he'd beat Reagan. Reagan was an incumbent President running on a strong economy. He could attack Hart's McGovernite past, and the GOP would exploit rumors of Hart's affairs. But I do think that Hart could run a much more narrow race against Reagan than Mondale did.
What do other people think?