> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Ronn!Blankenship > Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 1:20 PM > To: Killer Bs Discussion > Subject: Re: Star Trek (Was: RE: L3 Re: Your Favorite SciFi/Fantasy Movie > Soundtrack?) > > At 02:04 AM 2/23/03 -0500, Jon Gabriel wrote: > > >Frex: it's all well and good to be morally against the death penalty, > >but try answering the infamous 'Dukakis question' > > > > ??? > > "Can a Presidential candidate ride in a tank without looking like a > complete doofus?" > > Or something else? >
Ancient history from 1988's Dukakis / Bush debates: From http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/debates/history/1988/index.shtml: CNN's Bernard Shaw opened the debate with this question to Gov. Dukakis: "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis responded, "No, I don't, Bernard. And I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime. We've done so in my own state." Dukakis went on to talk about the drop in Massachusetts' crime rate and segued into the need for international cooperation in the war against drugs. The question was meant to give Dukakis an opportunity to show -- and the voters an opportunity to see -- the emotional side of a candidate dubbed by many as the "Ice Man." Shaw had said that the voters had a difficult time getting a "feeling fix" on Dukakis, and felt that only a very personal question could elicit an emotional response. (In fact, he feared that he might be criticized for asking a too-easy question.) But Dukakis' response did just the opposite. Dukakis' passionless response was the news out of the debate. Bush didn't perform particularly well either, but he didn't have to after Dukakis' first response. The presidential polls did not move for the first few days after the debate, but they soon started moving in Bush's favor. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An episode of The West Wing from this season followed up on the question: Televisionwithoutpity's recap: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q18821293 Jon _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
