We may break the snowfall record set back in '78, but Charlie Baker's fleece will never match Mike Dukakis's sweaters

Somehow my mind has always put Dukakis in pretty much the same category as Mr Rogers (and not just because of the sweaters.) Which is also a generational thing, but maybe a younger generation could consider Mr Rogers’ TV show somewhat analogous to the TV show Arthur.

I know he rides the T and he picks up trash while walking around in public. And the soup making, which is very relatable to me because I picked up the same thing from my grandfather.

He was governor in the late 70s and most of the 80s. This is when the state transformed from a dying industrial state (centered largely out of Worcester and the ports) and into the tech and finance era. Companies from MIT jumped on the power of the first microprocessor and ran with it. This gave Boston a huge advantage over other cities in the 80s and weathered the recession in the 90s better. The era became known as the Massachusetts Miracle and Dukakis presided over it.

A bunch of the money from taxation at the time was then pushed into the MBTA to improve Boston transit. So...if you think it's bad today, it could be worse. Dukakis had a hand in keeping it from being so.

Here's a decent overall summary of his time in office: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-12-26-1990360099-story.html

He was too decent and too smart to be President. Carter demonstrated that decent human beings, who genuinely cared about the people of the nation, could be elected as President. Carter loosing the re-election and Dukakis' loss proved that where President is concerned nearly half the nation prefers arrogance, idiocy and bigotry in the White House.

Consider:

Kennedy - nominal liberal
Johnson - nominal liberal
Nixon - bigot, would be tyrant
Ford - accident, a no body Nixon could ignore
Carter - smart, compassionate, liberal and irony of ironies, "born again" but without a desire to shove his religiosity down the throats of others, or to proclaim to the world how righteous he is
Reagan - liar, bigot, paternalistic, actor, senile in the last years; didn't give a flying goose about anyone but his "caste" of people
Bush I - Reagan Jr.
Clinton - nominal liberal, smart, too charismatic, too full of himself
Bush the 2nd: figurehead for Dick Cheney's rule; servant of his caste and the arms industry
Obama - smart, charismatic; could have done a lot more if wannabe dictator Moscow Mitch had not played dictator in the Senate
Trump - OMG. Just how low can we go?