Dukakis Charges GOP Was ‘Partying’ While Ignoring Trade, Budget Problems

Campaigning through Harry S. Truman country on a 239-mile whistle-stop tour Friday, Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis accused Republicans of “partying on Bourbon Street” while ignoring the nation’s problems.

The GOP convention that ended Thursday in New Orleans failed to address “the two biggest challenges we face,” the nation’s trade and budget deficits, Dukakis charged. “They don’t know how to deal with it; they don’t know what to do about it.”

Citing a litany of ills, including homelessness, the Pentagon procurement scandal and health care needs, Dukakis led crowds in chants of “not one word” as he asked what the Republicans had proposed to solve the nation’s problems.

Silent on Quayle

Despite repeated questions from reporters, however, Dukakis refused to comment on the problems facing the Republican ticket over the qualifications of vice presidential nominee Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana.

“I don’t know the man. I don’t know his record,” Dukakis said.

Although Dukakis has carefully avoided criticizing Quayle, homemade signs have begun appearing in the crowds. “Chicken Hawk Quayle Ducks Draft,” one said.

Dukakis’ only other comments were oblique, raising questions about Quayle by praising his own running mate. “Nobody has ever questioned the qualifications of Lloyd Bentsen to be the vice president or the President of the United States,” he said.

Public Affection

Dukakis did, however, respond to Republican gibes about the public affection he and his wife, Kitty, have shown together. Bush and his wife, Barbara, joked several times in the last week about the Dukakis’ “hand-holding.”

“It is true that Democrats tend to sleep in double beds, and Republicans prefer twins,” he said with a laugh. “That’s one of the reasons we have more Democrats.”

Holding rallies in such small cities as Belleville, Ill., Bismarck and Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Walnut Ridge, Ark., Dukakis usually repeated familiar lines from his standard stump speech.

Small Towns Excited

But while the lines were familiar to the traveling press corps, the sight of a presidential candidate arriving on his chartered train with “Coming to America” blaring over loudspeakers to re-enact his convention-night appearance was enough to bring considerable excitement to small towns along the route.

As the train, bearing a banner reading “Dukakis/Bentsen, Bound for Glory,” pulled into this town of 1,625, more than 2,000 people braved a gray, drizzly day to stand along the Union Pacific tracks to welcome the Dukakis entourage. The last presidential candidate seen here was Lyndon B. Johnson, when he was seeking the Democratic nomination in 1959.

“You’re part of history,” Mayor George West told the enthusiastic crowd.