Dukakis: Promise, Not Just Promises : He May Be Short on Charisma, but He Will Grow in the Office

Barring a miracle, Michael Dukakis will go forth from the California primary to Atlanta as the Democratic nominee, despite an exciting and valiant campaign by Jesse Jackson. It is a measure of their intelligence and integrity that after 46 hard-fought primary and caucus battles Dukakis and Jackson are not only still talking to each other--about the issues--but that they are doing so in a civilized, constructive manner. Compare this to the Dole-dumping and Bush-bashing that the Republican contestants engaged in.

We are, finally, in the last reel of the Reagan presidency. Only a few more months of government by horoscope, of U.S. dependence on Star Words, and then the first couple will saddle up and head for the sunset (entrance to Bel-Air), and, mercifully, it will be bedtime for Ronzo.

But the torch has been passed. The emperor who wore no clothes is handing them down to his err-apparent.

Do we really want the understudy to take center stage? Do we want George Bush to step into the President’s shoes, soggy as they are from spending so much time in the previous owner’s mouth?

We are given daily reminders of Bush’s ineptitude within the innermost circles of incompetence in the White House.

Take Panama. Please. Bush has been given permission to have his own opinion on the matter, to sing bass in the eunuchs’ choir. The President finds no fault with the vice president’s disagreement on how to get a lock on Panama. This, mind you, is the same President who finds no fault in the continuing presence in office of his attorney general, who can generally be found in the office of his own attorney.

While it’s tempting to review the parade of horrors of the past eight years with Bush sitting in the co-pilot seat, let us deal with the present, and let future history and comic books make what they will of a President whose career went from Max Factor to the sleaze factor.

The two subjects dearest to Californians are education and the environment.

Bush wants to be the “Education President.” He is an arsonist hoping to become a fire chief. As the No. 2 man, he watched the Administration cut aid to education by 16%, slash funds for vital programs in bilingual education, education for children with special needs and college loans. Or perhaps he was out of the room that day.

Recognizing the key role of education in creating opportunity, Dukakis and the Massachusetts Legislature quadrupled scholarship assistance and increased resources for public higher education faster than any state in the Union.

Bush proclaims, “Ich bin ein environmentalist!” Given the opportunity to prove it, he responds by choosing not to oppose the coming sale of Northern California offshore drilling rights, suggesting that offshore oil platforms will be very much a part of any Bush platform. On the Southern California desert protection bill before Congress, which could preserve millions of acres without costing the taxpayer a dime for acquisition of the land, Bush is mum--a conservative disinterested in conservation.

Dukakis opposed oil drilling in fishing grounds off the Massachusetts coast, prosecuted toxic polluters and fought for state legislation that requires Massachusetts to reduce emissions in the absence of federal acid-rain legislation. Dukakis also enacted legislation to manage and protect the quality of drinking water, said “no” to inadequate evacuation plans for the Seabrook nuclear-power plant and launched the largest open-space acquisition in Massachusetts’ history.

I prefer promise to promises. A Dukakis Administration offers the promise that this man from the East can do for the West, the North and the South what he did for his own state. He can bring care and compassion, experience and expertise to a nation longing for a sense of order and decency and for a President who will not take direction but one who will give it. If Mike Dukakis is short on charisma, just remember that George Bush is a man who lights up a room after he leaves it.

I wish Dukakis would smile more. I wish he wasn’t a Celtics fan. I wish he was a little taller.

But he does smile when he wins. On June 7 and Nov. 8 his smile will be so wide it will have to be continued on the next face.

And once in the White House he’ll have to be a Lakers fan, too. As for his height, doesn’t every President grow in the office?