Dukakis says Kerry would bring Truman-like style to White House

[demlandslide2004]

Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis said he's hoping John Kerry, should he win the presidency this fall, applies the sort of wisdom to issues like the Middle East turmoil and universal health care that Harry Truman would have in his administration.

Dukakis was the keynote speaker at the second annual Truman Legacy Symposium that ended Saturday in subtropical Key West, where Truman spent 11 working vacations from 1946 to 1952. Dukakis said Truman's focus on securing good health care and health insurance for Americans is needed in present-day Washington.

Dukakis, a three-term governor of Massachusetts, had Kerry - this year's presumptive Democratic presidential nominee - as his lieutenant governor from 1982 to 1984. Dukakis earned the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and lost to George H.W. Bush, the current president's father.

"My hope is that beginning in January we can pick up on the Truman legacy under John Kerry and begin to move forward and do what Truman urged us to do so many years ago," Dukakis said Friday evening during an opening reception at the Harry S. Truman Little White House Museum.


http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/APN/405150730

[skooooo]

1. Ok, I'm ignorant...

...what does a "Truman-like" style mean exactly?

[meti57b]

2. Truman dropped two atomic bombs.

[mulethree]

13. busy few years

the UN formed
the Nuremberg war crime trials
the U.S. snatching of Nazi scientists and hiding others who should
probably have been tried at Nuremberg
the Marshall plan
Inflation, housing and Job shortages
the Fair Deal (social programs largely to fix the aforementioned)
the Cold war started
The Truman Doctrine
The Berlin Blockade
NATO
Israel
Taiwan/china involvement
the Korean war(s) and MacAurthur
the whole National Security culture started (CIA etc)
the beginning of the military-industrial complex
McCarthyism

[0rganism]

14. Gotta admit, it's something of a mixed bag

But it beats to all hell the bag we've got now.

[goforit]

16. Go from a perverse Bush to an Atomic Kerry. .......Hang up Truman!

When will the Dems wake up to a decent strategy!!!

Are they trying to run for the Republican ticket???

[demlandslide2004]

3. The buck stops here

on July 26, 1948 President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981. The order brought an end to racial segregation within the ranks of the United States military forces. The written document contained six paragraphs with less than 250 words.

...



Today, thanks in large measure to President Truman's gutsy decision to do the right-thing, the U.S. military is a paradigm of institutional racial integration, a 50-year-old role model. One with a path to success, that would be a wise choice to follow, for the many public and private institutions that seem unable to modify their racist policies.


http://www.majorcox.com/columns/truman.htm

[Don_G]

9. Unlike This Clown

[MGKrebs]

10. Jeez, did they really put gold drapes in the Oval Office?

Let them eat cake, indeed.

[Don_G]

17. Gold???

Knowing Dimbo, it's Kevlar curtains behind bulletproof glass.

[struggle4progress]

7. HT had a reputation for ...

(1) uncompromising personal honesty;
(2) being able to pay attention to details;
(3) saying what he thought ("Give 'em hell Harry");
(4) taking ultimate responsibility for what occurred in his Administration ("The buck stops here").

[ozone_man]

12. I don't see Kerry fitting many of those characteristics.

Kerry does not seem to be direct like Truman. Not a put down really, just that it doesn't seem to be a good comparison.

[taxidriver]

4. kerry should stay the hell away from Dukakis.

[mobuto]

5. Agreed

His name has become shorthand for "bland unelectable liberal," despite the fact that Dukakis really wasn't all that liberal at all.

[blackcat77]

6. Yep.

Thanks Mike, but please just sit there quietly for the next six months.

[progressivebydesign]

11. I like Dukakis a lot.. I don't understand the rudeness toward him.

The man is brililant, kind, and above reproach. I suppose if you're judging him by the Republican brush with which he was painted, I suppose you couldn't help being so rude. He's a gracious man, and his wife if absolutely charming. I met them, and had a chance to hear him speak in Santat Barbara six years ago, about economic issues. He's extremely intelligent. I refuse to view him or Jimmy Carter through the republican's eyes.

[hyphenate]

15. Ditto

Dukakis was a great governor as far as I'm concerned. He was humble and he was intelligent, and I don't think those are bad values in anyone. As a matter of fact, GWB is as far from the Dukakis values as he is from Truman's values.

[eurolefty]

18. Another Dukakis & Carter fan here!

It was really sad to see the Dukakis campaign. I was living in the US at that time, and I could not understand why Americans preferred Bush.

[JI7]

19. doesn't need to stay away from Dukakis, he just needs to learn from him

he just needs to learn from the campaign and other campaigns and do what works and what doesn't.

[NashVegas]

8. "Kerry - the New Dean"

sorry, couldn't resist.