The 1988 National Election : ‘Don’t Be Discouraged,’ Dukakis Urges Weeping, Cheering Backers

BOSTON —  His face was drawn, his campaign a battered memory, but Michael S. Dukakis reached back to his roots Tuesday night to reassure his young supporters that his ordeal, and theirs, was all worthwhile.

“I don’t want you to be discouraged,” he said. “I want you to be encouraged. I hope many of you will go into politics and public service. It’s a noble calling, a noble calling.”

It was a fitting farewell from an earnest politician who rose from youthful suburban reformer to Massachusetts governor to Democratic nominee for President. And with his family flanking him and hometown fans cheering and weeping before him, Dukakis thus ended his 20-month run for the White House with thanks and praise.

“Our hearts are full,” he said. “We love you all. We love this country.”

Telephoned Bush

Dukakis told the thousands who crowded the World Trade Center exhibition hall that he had telephoned his congratulations to Vice President George Bush, the rival with whom he had traded bitter gibes and jabs for months.

“He will be our President,” Dukakis said, his voice flat and tired after three days of round-the-clock campaigning. “We must work together.”

Dukakis offered no response as the crowd chanted “ ‘92! ‘92!” But his wife, Kitty, told The Times in an interview that she did not expect her husband to run for President again. “I think you only have one of these in you,” she said.

Standing before a sky-blue backdrop of stars and a rendering of the Statue of Liberty, Dukakis pledged to continue “fighting for you so that every citizen can be a shareholder in the American dream.”

And he praised the families he had met in his campaign: the homeless, the unemployed and the uneducated.

‘Continue to Fight’

“It is very important we continue to fight for them, and families like them, all across America,” he said.

And Dukakis recalled that he had labeled his campaign a marathon when he launched his candidacy on a snowy day here in April of 1987.

“We had some good days . . . and not-so-good days. We reached Heartbreak Hill and overcame it. And then we found the strength for the final push.”

That push was a grueling, 72-hour, round-the-clock dash across nine states and 8,500 miles that didn’t end until the polls closed Tuesday. In a sharp break with tradition, Dukakis had campaigned all afternoon, giving TV interviews via satellite to eight states.

In a hall filled with glum faces, Dukakis thanked the people he had met in the long campaign, and praised his running mate, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas.

“I’m going to continue to work with you,” he told the crowd. “Above all, I’ll be working with the people of Massachusetts.”

John Sasso, Dukakis’ longtime friend and chief aide, said Americans voted “for continuity” at the polls. “We asked them to set their sights higher,” he said.

No Regrets

Sasso said neither he nor Dukakis had any regrets about the long and brutal campaign. “He was fighting for the things people believed in up until the polls closed today,” he said. “We ran out of time.”

Dukakis’ 15-minute address ended a roller-coaster day in which aides and supporters held last-minute hopes of an upset.

Even as network anchors began calling the roll of states for Bush, the band in the cavernous hall had struck up a jazzy tune: “Hang on Til Tomorrow, Don’t Give up Today.”

But the bravado could not be kept up for long. As the returns grew worse and worse for the Democrats, the giant TV screens in the room were switched from channel to channel in search of good news and finally to a closed-circuit picture of the hall’s on-stage entertainment.

Volunteers, supporters and staff members embraced and cried. One middle-aged man in a jacket and baseball cap stood by a pillar hoisting a Dukakis sign over his head while tears rolled down his cheeks.

Dukakis, wife, Kitty, and their three children and Sasso watched the returns on three TVs n the living room of his Brookline home while top aides monitored the news from campaign headquarters in downtown Boston.

Left in Motorcade

Shortly before 11 p.m. Eastern time, as polls in California closed, Dukakis left home in a Secret Service motorcade for one of the last times, heading for the Trade Center for his final campaign speech.

He entered to the now-familiar strains of Neil Diamond’s “America” while green and blue lasers played on the walls and ceiling. A light show illustrated the song’s coming to America theme on a screen behind the stage.

Dukakis had returned to Boston from Los Angeles early Tuesday morning after a pre-dawn airport rally in Des Moines that drew more than 1,500 supporters--and even several protesters--into the freezing night.

Later, Dukakis stopped again for a 7 a.m. rally in a cold gray rain in Detroit. Hundreds of friends and staffers welcomed him home two hours later at Boston’s Logan Airport. The Michigan stop proved unsuccessful in the end, as that state joined several other major industrial states in supporting Bush.

‘Power Walking’

Despite the grueling schedule, the governor found energy to go “power-walking” with hand weights Tuesday afternoon, and to rake leaves in his back yard. “He’s the bionic man,” said his son, John.

Dukakis had found his voice in the final two weeks, appearing fiery on the stump, and drawing giant crowds with his newly populist chant: “We’re on your side!”

But it wasn’t enough.

“It was a heck of a challenge,” said campaign adviser Kirk O’Donnell. “But nobody’s offering any excuses.”

Dukakis certainly isn’t. At 8 a.m. today, he was scheduled to board his usual Green Line trolley and go back to his job as governor of Massachusetts.