As a former national staff member on Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr's 1988 Presidential staff, and the youngest member of Jackson's Illinois Delegate slate, I watched how many of our key national field staff and supporters did not support the Democratic nominee Dukakis after Rev. Jackson as the number two vote getter was not on the ticket. Rev Jackson made more appearances on behalf of Dukakis than the candidate himself but it was not enough for those who withdrew their support of Dukakis. A clear example was when Jackson was in the primary he had a rally at Arie Crown Theater with over 6.000 people, but when Dukakis came to Chicago as the nominee was not able to fill the Regal Theater with 1,500 seats. That one Chicago example clearly showed their withdrawal of support for Dukakis after Jackson was not the VP nominee and how that was duplicated across the country. In 2008, The Democratic Party cannot afford for the excitement and new generation of voters that Obama and Clinton have brought to the process to turn off by the non inclusion of the other candidate on the ticket. A lot of new voters may not understand or will accept why the two top vote getters are not automatically the ticket. Based upon my direct experience of 1988, I surely supported the Obama/Clinton Dream Ticket, for anything less I thought would be a nightmare. United they stand, but divided the party may fall. Clinton faces a tremendous burden of working hard to convince her supporters not to abandon Obama in 2008 the way Jackson supporters abandoned Dukakis in 1988. Emotions are extremely higher in 2008 than they were in 1988.

Join BBN for free to post a comment. If you already have an account, please login here to post a comment. You will be returned to this page after logging in.