CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Dukakis fanatics at this year’s Democratic National Convention should start getting psyched: The 1988 Democratic presidential nominee is coming to town Tuesday.
“We will be flying down [to Charlotte] tomorrow morning and will be there for the balance of the convention talking about [former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt] Romney’s pathetic economic record as governor of Massachusetts,” Dukakis emailed The Daily Caller on Monday.
“Under Romney we were fourth from the bottom in job creation — 47th out of 50,” he continued. “If anybody thinks Romney knows how to turn the economy around, he is kidding himself. And when he left office, the state’s infrastructure was a wreck.”
A former Massachusetts governor himself, Dukakis said he does not have a speaking slot at the convention, but will be sitting on the convention floor with the Massachusetts delegation and doing a lot of press.
The Romney campaign hit back at Dukakis’ attacks in an email to TheDC.
“It’s not surprising that a failed governor like Michael Dukakis who raised income taxes and busted the Massachusetts state budget is shilling for a failed president like Barack Obama who has raised taxes and is putting our country on a path to fiscal ruin,” said Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams.
“As governor, Mitt Romney cut taxes 19 times, lowered the Massachusetts unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, and closed a $3 billion deficit without raising taxes. As president, Barack Obama has punished private sector job creators with crushing new regulations and wasted billions of dollars on a failed, big government agenda that only a fellow liberal like Michael Dukakis could appreciate.”
George H.W. Bush soundly defeated Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Dukakis only garnered 10 states and the District of Columbia, amounting to 111 electoral votes versus Bush’s 426.
