Dukakis Gives Press Something to Be Sore About

The presidential election may still be 96 days away, but Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis already is winning a lot here: a cowboy hat, boots and bragging rights over the national press corps.

At a rally in Denver’s City Park on Saturday afternoon with more than 2,000 supporters, Dukakis got the hat and boots and waved them against a spectacular backdrop of the Denver skyline, the Statehouse’s gold dome and the Rocky Mountains.

Earlier in the day, at 6 a.m., he visited the same park, to challenge the press to a 40-minute, 2 1/2-mile “heavy hands” walk. The morning walks with 4-pound weights in each hand have become his favorite form of campaign exercise.

Not all were up to the challenge. As camera crews rode ahead in gasoline-powered golf carts to film the event, a half-dozen of the campaign’s less fit reporters rode behind in a black stretch limousine complete with cable TV.

Dukakis remarked that the reporters “have a lot of work to do” to get in shape.

Others in the entourage did better. “It’s pretty fast for a walk,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). The 74-year-old senator, a longtime avid runner, did not appear to be sweating.

Those who kept up with Dukakis discovered what he likes to talk about when he relaxes in a park on a beautiful morning: land use planning, parkland acquisition and economic development.

There was, of course, a point to all this. The hat, the boots and a three-hour meeting Dukakis held with about 40 Western senators, governors, congressmen and mayors were all designed to convince Western voters that Easterner Dukakis “understands Western issues,” as Sen. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) put it.

And the brisk morning walk was designed to remind voters nationally once again that Dukakis is in good health. Tired members of the press corps now hope the health issue does not arise again.