1988- What should Dukakis have done differently?

[pbrower2a]

I think that the debate question where they asked if he would support the death penalty if someone raped and murdered his wife really hurt him. Instead of asking why someone would ask such a horrific question, he just droned on about how he opposed the death penalty.

He actually flip flopped on the death penalty while answering that question. He said that he opposed the death penalty, but was still very tough on crime.

It's possible to be tough on crime without having the death penalty (sentences are long and parole is difficult-to-impossible in Canada) and possible to be soft on most crimes yet have the death penalty (easy parole as used to be the case in Texas 00 two of the perpetrators of the dragging death of a black man in Texas were "accelerated graduates" pf the Texas penal system.