Texas Surprise

Dream tickets have a lot of allure, until they are analyzed against the cold reality of the American presidential electoral map. Candidates rarely,if ever, have the luxury of picking sentimental favorites for the No. 2 spot on the ticket. Some compromise is inevitable. And such a concession to practical politics usually is keenly disappointing to the nominee’s most ardent backers.

Thus there was some grumbling among Democratic liberals on Tuesday when Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis reached into the good-ol’-boy political Establishment of Texas and came up with Sen. Lloyd Bentsen to join him on the 1988 Democratic presidential ticket to oppose Vice President George Bush and a Republican vice presidential nominee to be announced later. Bentsen is rich, slick and not high on the list of Democrats who think that big oil companies already get too much government help. But the real test of Dukakis’ decision will come on Nov. 8, when the nation will learn whether Bentsen has helped carry Texas and with it the presidency.

Dukakis desperately needed ticket-balancing of the sort that could not be provided by a Bill Bradley, Jesse Jackson or Mario Cuomo, and probably not even Sam Nunn. He needed a Washington veteran with foreign-affairs experience whose Democratic credentials were good but who was not a liberal, and who might appeal to the white Southern males who have deserted the Democratic Party in recent elections.

Bentsen generally fills the bill. His Rio Grande Valley origins help blunt the glitter of his wealth.He speaks fluent Spanish, he is able and hardworking, and he has a track record in economics that will offset Bush’s charges that Dukakis represents the tax-and-spend Democrats. Dukakis really does not, but perceptions, if not everything, still are very important.

Bentsen also has a long, admirable record on civil rights, going back to a 1949 vote in the House of Representatives in opposition to the poll tax. That record should help neutralize any criticismor disappointment on Jackson’s part that he was not chosen to run with Dukakis.

Asked if he was angry because he was not chosen, Jackson bit his tongue and said he was too mature for that. Dukakis should have tried harder to tell Jackson personally of his decision rather than having him learn it from the media. But Jackson also should recognize that he was not entitled to be on the ticket merely because he ran second to Dukakis in the Democratic primaries this spring. The Democrats face a far different electorate this fall.

There were a lot of nostalgic allusions to the 1960 election as Bentsen joined Dukakis at Boston’s Faneuil Hall for the announcement. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they remember down the stretch that this is 1988 and not a revival of Camelot. Nor is Lloyd Bentsen another Lyndon B. Johnson, with either his best or his worst features. But Texas today is even more important in the Electoral College than it was in 1960, and that seems to have been the major consideration on Tuesday. After all, a dream ticket remains only a dream if it cannot win.