IT’S DUKAKIS ALL OVER AGAIN: Once Al Gore dropped out of the race in 1988, I became a — not terribly enthusiastic — Dukakis supporter, and I remember that as the campaign looked worse, people were investing a lot of hope in the notion that rumors of an affair involving George H.W. Bush would emerge and deep-six his Presidency. Lots of people tried to give the stories traction, to no avail. I even remember the night of the election, on the way to the ghastly “Dukakis Victory Party” in D.C., passing a crowd of people near DuPont Circle holding up a big banner with the alleged paramour’s name. (Nowadays it would be a MoveOn commercial, which is ironic if you think about it. . . .)

Now, between former Dukakis campaign manager Susan Estrich’s wild threats of dirty tricks and Kevin Drum’s related thoughts, I think it’s fair to say that Kerry supporters are in the same unhappy place.

At any rate, Stephen Bainbridge notes that, this time around, it’s hard to argue that the Kerry campaign’s problems stem from fighting too fair. Bainbridge offers a rather lengthy list of reasons why fairness has not been at the forefront of their efforts to date.

Meanwhile, speaking of Dukakis, Eileen MacNamara of the Boston Globe notes the return of Dukakis henchman John Sasso, now in the capacity of Kerry hitman:

The problem with soliciting contributions to end the “smug and arrogant tactics of misinformation” that Sasso’s letter rightly attributes to Republicans is that it only works when the purveyor holds the moral high ground. That would not be Sasso, he of the attack video that torpedoed the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware in 1987, he of the audiotape that ridiculed the physical disabilities of the wife of Edward King, Michael Dukakis’s gubernatorial primary opponent in 1982. . . .

I agree with Prof. Bainbridge that the Kerry campaign’s problem isn’t that it has been too reluctant to sling mud. In fact, I agree with Chris Dodd, who says that Kerry’s real problem is that he hasn’t given people any sort of positive vision of a Kerry presidency.

UPDATE: The Estrich link above was wrong before; fixed now. Meanwhile Polipundit observes: “It has now been one month and four days since John Kerry last answered questions from a real reporter.”

In a non-Dukakis vein, the Los Angeles Times is channeling its Gray Davis coverage. Kerry aides are increasingly confident! But Mickey Kaus isn’t panicking yet.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is Doug Brinkley abandoning ship? Sounds like he’s at least got a toe in the water.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Trouble for Kerry in Ohio. And now he’s on vacation again. And LaShawn Barber notes bitterness at the New York Times. Hugh Hewitt observes: “When the lefty pundits start bringing up Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas, you know they are whipped. . . .Today’s New York Times piece is a desperate plea by party regulars for Kerry to play a ‘keep-it-close-so-the-party-doesn’t-get-annihilated’ campaign, like Dole in 1996.” Don’t get cocky, Hugh!