WI: Better Dukakis Death Penalty Response

Delta Force

Banned
During the second debate in the 1988 Presidential Election, Michael Dukakis was asked a question about if he would be in favor of the death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered (video here). He responded by noting the statistical ineffectiveness of the death penalty, which pundits agree really hurt him in the poll. What if Dukakis had given a response showing more emotion, perhaps even verbally attacking Moderator Bernard Shaw for asking such a loaded and offensive question?
 
It's one less blemish on a campaign that had more blemishes than an unhygienic teenager. It would help, but when a boat has twenty holes in its hull, plugging up just one of them won't save it from still sinking into the briney in the end.
 
I don't think that Dukakis or any else Democrat had any changes for victory.

So not matter what Dukakis says, he will lose anyway.
 
He actually had a great response planned in which he would tell the story of two family members being victims of violent crime and basically turning it on Bush.

But for some reason he didn't use it

He still would have lost but this killed the race completely
 
He does better but does not win.

As long as Atwater is around Dukakis can't win.

I agree with both of you. It would be closer, but Bush still wins. You'd need Bush to run a worse campaign (similar to Gore in 2000) or you'd need Reagan's second term to go worse than it did (maybe Iran Contra is treated as the crime that it actually was) in order for Dukakis to win.

I'm glad Dukakis didn't win though. The early '90s was going to be tough economically regardless of who was President, plus I doubt Dukakis would handle Foreign Policy better than Bush Sr. did. I'd much rather have Bush Sr. win in '88 to get Clinton in '92 than have Dukakis win in '88 and get a Republican more conservative than Bush get elected in '92.
 
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