20th Century Vision: ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Report- 1988 Iowa Caucus, Democratic Candidates’

Source:20th Century Vision– PBS News political analyst David Gergen.

Source:The New Democrat 

“These guy’s get everything wrong.”

From 20th Century Vision

Governor Michael Dukakis looked like the clear Democratic nominee for President as early as the summer of 1987 and was never really seriously challenged for that nomination. Representative Dick Gephardt was supposed to win the Iowa Caucus and that is exactly what he did being from Missouri and having so much support from organized labor and Iowa being a big organized labor state. Mike Dukakis being more of a New Democrat from Massachusetts even, which is probably not very common, who was to the right of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Mike Dukakis was the Democrat that the George H.W. Bush Campaign feared in 1988 and knew he could definitely beat them. And knew that voters especially Independents would probably like Dukakis who had a great personal and family story coming from a Greek immigrant family. Working his way up and making big success in life. Compared with George H.W. who was an Anglo-Saxon-Protestant, from Connecticut, who was born to great wealth. And the Bush Campaign set to take Dukakis down as soon as he won the nomination, because they knew Dukakis would probably beat them otherwise.

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C-SPAN: U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee 1994 Hearing on Tobacco- Tobacco CEO’s Testify Before Congress

Source: C-SPAN– U.S. Representative Ron Wyden, D, Oregon

Source: The New Democrat

The then Democratic controlled House of Representatives looked into tobacco by investigating the industry and looking at ways of regulating the industry. The famous scene with all of those tobacco executives lying under oath that tobacco isn’t addictive. Which no one with a brain who’s familiar with tobacco believes, was the big moment during that investigation. People who support regulating tobacco like a drug didn’t achieve their goals in the 103rd Congress. But with a Democratic Congress both House and Senate and a Democratic President in Bill Clinton, it was worth the effort.

As far as health care reform and the Clinton Administration’s attempt to reform the health care system in America. If it wasn’t dead by the spring of 1994, it probably just had a heart attack and needed emergency surgery in order to save it. If you look at the plan that President Clinton proposed and what President Obama was able to get through another Democratic Congress in 2010, both laws are very similar. Expanding health insurance through the private insurance system and helping people who aren’t officially poor, but do not make enough money to buy health insurance. And regulating the private health insurance system.

But the problem that President Clinton and his economic council had was that they weren’t able to explain what I just did as simply as I did. And the plan was dubbed socialize medicine, even though there was never a plan offered by President Clinton or the Democratic Leadership in Congress to nationalize health care system. Either health insurance or health care delivery. And the Clinton Administration was never able or never did fight back in an effective way. And argue that the Clinton health care plan was mainstream and not some big government socialist takeover.

C-SPAN: U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee 1994 Hearing on Tobacco- Tobacco CEO’s Testify Before Congress

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