POLITICS 88 : Tearful Dukakis Says ‘Message Came Through Loud and Clear’

With a teary embrace of his mother and an Olympic-style gold medal around his neck, Michael S. Dukakis met his cheering supporters here Tuesday night to declare the largest margin of victory in the history of contested Democratic presidential primaries in New Hampshire.

“Last week in Iowa, our message started to shine through,” a grinning Dukakis told a packed victory party. “We won the bronze. Tonight our message came through loud and clear. We went for the gold, and we won it here in New Hampshire.”

And as hometown supporters chanted “Duke! Duke! Duke!,” the three-term Massachusetts governor said his campaign offered a “message about the best America.”

“The best America doesn’t settle,” he said. “It soars. The best America doesn’t blame. It dreams. . . . The best America isn’t behind us. The best America is yet to come.”

With his wife, Kitty, and family around him on the crowded stage, he added: “And the best America is a nation where a son of Greek immigrants can seek and win the presidency of the United States.”

Tears in His Eyes

Tears appeared in the candidate’s eyes as he hugged his beaming 84-year-old mother, Euterpe, and gave her the Olympic-style medal, which had been a gift from his wife.

Ten months after joining the race, the decisive victory positions the 54-year-old Dukakis as the Democrat to beat as the party’s nomination battle moves into its most difficult and expensive phase.

Dukakis carries significant advantages as he leaves his New England political stronghold this morning for two days of campaigning in Georgia, Florida, South Dakota, Minnesota and Texas.

With nearly half the nation’s states voting in Democratic primaries or caucuses between now and Super Tuesday, March 8, Dukakis has more money in his war chest--about $4.5 million, with millions more now expected--and a broader organization across the country than any of his rivals.

Dukakis told supporters that he doesn’t have a “Southern strategy” or a “Northern strategy” or a “Western strategy” for the bruising weeks ahead.

“I have an American strategy,” he said.

Half Dozen Key States

Actually, the strategy appears more limited. Aides said Dukakis will concentrate his time and money on winning delegates in a half dozen key states, rather than go all-out in hotly contested Southern states on Super Tuesday, the nation’s largest-ever primary contest.

“Our goal on Super Tuesday is to win as many delegates as possible,” Tad Devine, the campaign’s national field director, said earlier Tuesday. “When you have 20 states on the same day, you need a measure of success, and we think the measure is to win delegates, not states. So that’s how we are targeting our efforts.”

A total of 1,449 Democratic delegates are at stake on Super Tuesday, with 2,081 delegates needed to win the party’s nomination in Atlanta next summer. Two thirds of the delegates are in the South, with the rest scattered from Hawaii to Rhode Island.

Dukakis already has opened 11 offices and spent more than $250,000 in Texas. Texas has 183 delegates, and is Super Tuesday’s richest prize. He has opened 4 offices and spent nearly as much in Florida, which is second with 136 delegates. He draws heavy media attention in both states, often giving interviews in Spanish to local TV reporters.

Campaigns in Other States

The campaign also will be “competitive” in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas and Louisiana, according to Debbie Willhite, Southern operations director in Atlanta. Dukakis also has found support in Washington state, where Seattle’s mayor has endorsed him.

Dukakis presumably can depend on Massachusetts, which is the third largest Super Tuesday bloc, with 98 delegates. He hopes for similar favorite-son support in nearby Rhode Island, as well as in Vermont and Maine, which vote the week before Super Tuesday.

“The way we look at Super Tuesday is not who wins which states, but who has the most delegates on Wednesday morning when the results are in,” explained Susan Estrich, the campaign manager.

But Dukakis’ advisers acknowledge the Boston-bred politician needs to broaden his geographic base of support as well as win delegates to become a “national candidate.” The first test comes next Tuesday in Minnesota and South Dakota. Dukakis began building his Minnesota campaign last August and is running a heavy TV ad campaign in both states.

Although Illinois Sen. Paul Simon is popular in liberal Minnesota, he faces an uphill race after his third place finish here. Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt has moved much of his Iowa staff to South Dakota and is considered strong there. But his financially strapped campaign will need to raise millions for the media-dominated Super Tuesday battle ahead.

Odds Get Tougher

After that, Dukakis’ odds appear much tougher: Democrats in the South have not voted for a Northern liberal since John F. Kennedy ran in 1960.

Moreover, aides expect Dukakis to come under sharp attack as the front-runner. “Everyone will be coming after us,” said Francis O’Brien, campaign spokesman. “We know that.”

Gephardt has boasted in recent days of his support of President Reagan’s 1981 and 1986 tax programs. He later aired TV ads attacking Dukakis as “one of the biggest tax raisers in Massachusetts history.”

Dukakis says he has lowered taxes five times in the last four years, including the 1975 surcharge that Gephardt referred to. But the governor denied in an interview Sunday that Gephardt’s attack on taxes would keep him on the defensive in the conservative South.

“If you come from Congress, you’ve got to defend what’s been happening,” Dukakis said. “What I bring is a very strong contrast to this very sorry record of the last 7 years. I think that’s a great strength.”

Competes With Jackson

But Dukakis will compete with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who finished fourth here, for liberals in the South. And Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., who hopes regional appeal in the South will launch his candidacy, has espoused more conservative defense positions than Dukakis, setting a contrast to the governor’s inexperience in international affairs.

To help establish his credentials, Dukakis gave a speech in Derry on Sunday entitled “Renewing America’s Strength: A Foreign Policy for the 1990’s.” He used the word “strength,” or some derivation, about 30 times, arguing that “America must be true to its values.”

“The current Administration has tried to impose 1950s solutions on a 1980s world,” he said. “It has acted alone, when it should have sought support from regional powers. It has relied on force, when it should have used diplomacy.”

But a senior adviser acknowledged Dukakis call for closer international partnerships may be a tough sell. “He doesn’t believe America should act as a lone cowboy in foreign affairs,” the adviser said. “Unfortunately, America liked that in Ronald Reagan. That’s the problem we have.”

‘Hope and Optimism’

In the weeks ahead, Dukakis said he will offer a message based on “hope and optimism,” focusing on health care, education and economic opportunity.

“I will make a very, very strong appeal to our economic future,” Dukakis said. “To the kind of leadership which can build that future. And which is strongly committed to traditional values. . . . That’s the kind of message I’ll bring to the South.”