Could Dukakis have won?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Possibly.  He would have needed to have done the following:

1.  He needed to have picked a Southern running mate from a state he was not sure to lose.  Sam Nunn of Georgia, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, even Richard Shelby of Alabama would have been better picks than Bentsen (who, admittedly, would have defeated Bush head to head in Texas).

2.  He needed to have responded more quickly and affirmatively to attacks on "social issues" (Pledge of Allegiance, Willie Horton, etc.)  These attacks hurt him because he allowed them to linger out there.

3.  He needed to AGGRESSIVELY defend Massachusetts as a state.  "Liberal Massachusetts".  He should have, over and over, pointed out that Massachusetts was the birthplace of Liberty, of Paul Revere and the original Patriots.  He should have described himself as a Greek-American who was grafted into this Heritage when his parents emigrated from Greece to America. 

Dukakis did none of this.  He was unwilling to get in the dirt with Poppy Bush.  Trump has shown what happens when you are willing to get into the dirt with a Bushie.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Sure. Besides his responses on the issues, he didn't try to unite his party. He picked Bentsen as his running-mate but didn't try to reach out to the New Democrats otherwise. He would have been far better off if he made a targeted effort to unite the party. If he managed to convince Jeane Kirkpatrick or Tim Wirth to join him on the ticket, he would have done better among Democratic Hawks.

I think that Wirth or a Southerner like Bob Martinez, alongside having surrogates and platform concessions to New Democrats and Blue Dogs, would have helped very much.

Bob Martinez was a Republican in 1988; he left the Democratic Party around 1983.