Dukakis: An American Odyssey

The Democratic governor of Massachusetts is regarded as a neoliberal technocrat, concerned with people, but careful with dollars, according to the authors. Part of this reputation was developed during his first term, when in 1974 Dukakis took office in a state on the verge of bankruptcy, and to cut the budget he slashed welfare expenditures. Defeated for reelection in 1978, he ran again and has since won two successive terms in the state house. Boston Globe staffers Kenney and Turner make much of the fact that the somewhat cold, self-righteous and condescending first-term governor was humbled by his reelection defeat and argues that Dukakis learned humility and humanity from his travail. But this is, after all, a campaign biography and the governor is presented in a sympathetic, less than objective light. (March)