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Originally Posted by tarcone
How did he lose to Dukakis?
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Dirty politics... no seriously.
1988 Democratic Party presidential primaries - Wikipedia
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Delaware Senator Joe Biden led a highly competitive campaign which ended in controversy after he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party.[7] Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one of which he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video and sent to the press by members of the Dukakis campaign. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications. Allegations were also leaked to the press that Biden had been guilty of plagiarism years before, in law school. Though Biden professed his integrity, the impression lingering in the media as the result of this double punch would lead him to drop out of the race. Dukakis later acknowledged that his campaign was responsible for leaking the tape, and two members of his staff resigned. The Delaware Supreme Court's Board on Professional Responsibility would later clear Biden of the law school plagiarism charges.[8]
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Back then such a scandal ended your Presidential campaign.
Then karma got Dukakis as Lee Atwater spread rumors that he had mental health issues - it was so bad that Atwater actually apologized to Dukakis for how nasty it got sometime later.
Dukakis was also Governor of Massachusetts when it was really, really economically successful:
Massachusetts Miracle - Wikipedia