Word: bentsen
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...Dukakis, as Bentsen pointed out, "wasn't looking for a clone of Mike Dukakis." He was looking for someone who would give the ticket balance, and by choosing one of the most probusiness, prodefense Southerners around, he got it. "It makes our problems much more difficult," says Republican John Connally, a former Texas Governor. Bentsen helps shield Dukakis from the liberal label Bush is trying to pin on him and makes the ticket more appealing to the Bubba vote: conservative whites who defected to Ronald Reagan...
...next few days, Jackson, the maestro of mixed signals, seemed to lurch between wrath and reconciliation. Bentsen, he said, "represents the Establishment. I represent enthusiasm and energy." In a speech to the N.A.A.C.P. annual convention in Washington, a revved-up Jackson brought the audience to its feet when he cried, "One thing that I know. I may or I may not be on the ticket, but I am qualified. Qualified! Qualified...
Dukakis went to the N.A.A.C.P. convention, Bentsen in tow, the day after Jackson's defiant speech. Dukakis' uninspiring talk, praising his own record on minority hiring in Massachusetts and barely acknowledging Jackson, did not go down well. "I would not say to Governor Dukakis' people," noted N.A.A.C.P. Leader Benjamin Hooks, "to sit there and think the black vote is in your party...
...Jackson and his forces at a time when Dukakis should be preparing to preside over a Democratic love feast in Atlanta. It also seemed to undermine Dukakis' reputation for efficiency and suggest that before the campaign is over, he may have a rendezvous with his own arrogance. If selecting Bentsen, as Dukakis said, is the "first presidential act I will ever do," he had better quickly learn a more presidential way to handle such delicate tasks...
...know. The reporters following Dukakis organized a pool on his Veep choice. The bets: John Glenn, 13; Al Gore, 6; Richard Gephardt, 1; Lloyd Bentsen...