Word: michigan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Such a nomination would have been unthinkable four years ago. Indeed, it was unthinkable just two weeks ago. But then Jackson's makeshift coalition of inner-city blacks, imperiled autoworkers, college students and affluent liberals swept the Michigan caucuses with 55% of the vote (the highest of any Democratic candidate outside his home state) and humbled the party favorite, Michael Dukakis. The electrifying magnitude of this Rust Belt rebellion gave the preacher-politician the credibility he had long craved. Suddenly party leaders took seriously the inexorable delegate arithmetic that showed Jackson running neck and neck with Dukakis for the lead...
...days immediately following Michigan, the Jackson campaign was infused with a front runner's frenzy. Victory unleashed the kind of primordial Democratic passions that many believed had died with Bobby Kennedy in 1968. Crowds mushroomed to unmanageable and chaotic size. Supporters all but crushed Jackson at every stop, thrusting out hands, begging for his signature on souvenirs, grasping, craving to be part of it all. Office workers cheered him through hermetically sealed windows; old women, as well as scores of the young, chanted, "Jesse! Jesse! Jesse...
...that enough? After Michigan, there is some question whether the Democrats who care enough to vote in primaries and participate in caucuses will settle for Dukakis, the jelly maker, when they can have Jackson, the tree shaker. By failing to win a major contest outside New England since Super Tuesday, Dukakis cracked the axle on his bandwagon. Indirect negotiations with Cuomo over an endorsement were broken off after the Michigan debacle. Dukakis remains by far the party's most plausible nominee, but only if he can rebound in Wisconsin, New York and the later primaries. Dukakis still holds formidable advantages...
...efforts to derail his candidacy. The Southern regional primary that was at the core of Super Tuesday was designed to lay the groundwork for a moderate nominee who could carry Dixie. Instead, Jackson vaulted into contention by capturing roughly one-third of the Southern delegates. In the weeks before Michigan, Party Chairman Paul Kirk tried to grease the way for Dukakis by arguing that whoever was ahead when the primaries were over was entitled to the nomination, even if he was far short of the 2,082 delegates needed to win. It was always an odd theory: anointing a candidate...
...them Maxine Waters, the California assemblywoman; California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, his official campaign chairman and a strong but quiet influence; and former Carter Budget Director Bert Lance. But a few current inner-circle members may soon be advising Jackson from more distant orbits. In the wake of the Michigan primary, some prominent blacks in the campaign, Brown among them, are agitating for a more significant role. They want higher-profile positions so that when the inevitable brokering takes place, they will have assigned seats at the table...