Warnings from 1988

In a fascinating article entitled, Dukakis, Once Burned, Refuses to Be Optimistic About 2008, Steve Kornacki describes Michael Dukakis's warning about a Democrat defeat that would follow a failure to learn the lessons of the former Massachusetts governor's stomping in 1988.

Michael Dukakis has seen this script before: a Republican administration besieged by scandal and running out the clock on its second term, while wide-eyed Democrats confidently lick their chops, knowing there’s no way in hell voters will reward the G.O.P. with four more years in the White House. (para 1)

Dukakis's recommendations: precinct-by-precinct organization and rapid responses to Swiftboat-like attacks:

“I’m talking about every precinct,” he said, “with a precinct captain and six block-captains that make personal contact with every single voting household. And I mean starting a year in advance. I’m not talking about parachuting in with two weeks to go. That’s baloney. And these people are people who’ve got to be from the precinct, of the precinct, look like the precinct and talk like the precinct.” (para 10)