Dukakis Is Finding Out He Must Inspire Voters to Win

In his battle with the Rev. Jesse Jackson for a crucial boost in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary, Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis is finding out how different running for President is from running a state government.

The latter, done well, requires an attention to detail and an appetite for often-tedious policy discussions that Dukakis has made his trademark in 10 years as Massachusetts governor.

But campaigning for the White House requires an ability to inspire, even excite. And Dukakis is now scrambling to do more of that, even as he admits it is not his strength.

Holding a press conference at a farm here the other day, Dukakis expressed an impatience bordering on exasperation when the issue of his campaign style came up again.

Candidate ‘Isn’t Fuzzy’

Asked if he had felt compelled to sharpen his message after his landslide loss to Jackson in the Michigan caucuses last month, Dukakis said wearily:

“I don’t know what it means to sharpen a message. I’ve been in politics for 25 years and I have a reputation for being someone who isn’t fuzzy.”

Pushed on the subject, Dukakis began to bite off each word.

“It’s easy to analyze a problem (facing the country). The question is, can you get anything done? And that’s my strength. I get things done. And that’s the kind of campaign I’ve tried to present to the people of this country.”

Almost daily now there are signs that the Dukakis campaign knows it has to do something different if it is to finally pull away from Jackson and convince Democratic leaders that Dukakis is up to the task of taking on an experienced national campaigner like Vice President George Bush in the fall.

Strong Populist Rhetoric

The other day, Dukakis injected strong populist rhetoric into a speech in Milwaukee and also attempted to make a more impassioned case for his candidacy by beginning a number of paragraphs with the words, “I am running for President because. . . .”

The reasons he gave, varying from a desire to protect the jobs of manufacturing workers to ending homelessness and providing universal health care, also hit on a theme that has emerged since Jackson’s candidacy began to be taken more seriously.

Aware that some analysts believe voters are choosing Jackson simply because he is exciting or because it is a way to lodge a protest, Dukakis now virtually pleads with his audiences to consider how important this election is--”the most important since another son of Massachusetts was elected President 28 years ago.”

In Racine, State Assemblyman Jeff Neubauer introduced Dukakis by reminding the group of factory workers and teachers that recent polls show only Dukakis, among the Democratic candidates, as able to beat Bush in theoretical match-ups.

‘Serious Business’

“This election is serious business,” Neubauer said. “This is no time . . . to cast a symbolic protest for an inspirational speaker,” an obvious reference to Jackson.

So far, Dukakis refuses to say such things himself or to directly compare his experience with the fact that Jackson has never held public office.

This reluctance by Dukakis to make sharp distinctions that could help him on Tuesday is even evident in a new TV commercial.

The ad does end with Dukakis looking into the camera and making his case for a better America--an improvement over some of his recent commercials, which show him at a distance.

But the new ad looks like one designed to run in the fall as it attacks “Republican indifference” to working people and the less fortunate.

Bid to Improve Style

The ad, however, gives Wisconsin voters no reason to prefer Dukakis over Jackson or Sens. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee and Paul Simon of Illinois, all of whom have been just as critical of the Reagan Administration.

Dukakis’ issues director, Chris Edley, acknowledged that Dukakis is trying to improve his style on the stump.

“I think you’re seeing an evolution in his style,” Edley said. “We’ve urged him to be clearer in demonstrating his understanding of people’s anxieties and aspirations.”

Thus, Dukakis told some laid-off workers later in Green Bay that Massachusetts was once “an economic basket case . . . so I know what you’ve been through. I know the pain and anguish you are feeling.”

Almost a Distraction

But for all of its usefulness in speeches, Massachusetts continues to be almost a distraction at a time Dukakis faces the crucial final phase of the Democratic nominating process.

On the Dukakis campaign plane the other day, the governor wandered back to chat with reporters and got into a discussion of the all-important two weeks leading up to the New York primary on April 19.

Was he going to participate in a certain debate scheduled during that period?

“Well, if it’s early in the week we’ve got a problem,” Dukakis said, “because the way I do this is I spend Monday through Wednesday governing my state and then I head out of there to campaign for the rest of the week.”

Don’t expect too many changes in the way he does things, Dukakis told reporters recently.

“I am what I am,” he said.