POLITICS 88 : CAMPAIGN ’88 : Campaign ‘Sky Surfers’
With Dukakis as the undisputed leader for the Democratic nomination, his accompanying press corps has grown in size, if not decorum. Last Friday, Dukakis’ lead advance man, Jack Weeks, attempted the campaign’s first “sky surfing,” running and sliding on a tray down the aisle of Dukakis’ chartered 737 jet as it was taking off.
On Saturday, reporters awaiting the governor in Gary, Ind., penned painfully familiar stump speech slogans and drew Dukakis’ profile--actually mostly bushy eyebrows and large nose--on several dozen balloons brought on the jet after a rally. When Dukakis boarded, he grinned but barely looked up at the balloons.
On Sunday, however, as he whistle-stopped across Pennsylvania, he roared with laughter when several dozen reporters and camera crews taped fake, furry, eyebrows on their foreheads and filed en masse back to the governor’s railroad car. “You just need a prominent nose now,” Dukakis said.
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