Victory Seen but Not Inspiration : Democrats Opting for Prosaic Competence

ATLANTA — In a bath of brilliant candlepower, presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis takes the stage tonight before his party--Democrats who discovered they could, if they tried, be both diverse and unified, who found they could agree on platform principles if they worked at it, Democrats with such a profound will to win that the ground all but shook in Atlanta this week from hatchets being buried.

For those who doubted their determination, Dukakis and his Democrats came to Atlanta to prove them wrong.

But the nominee has yet to really excite his party about it all.

“The convention’s over, isn’t it?” remarked Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) in a mood of anticlimax Wednesday. Matsui was the first congressman outside Massachusetts to endorse Dukakis.

Longtime liberal activist Stanley Sheinbaum, bankroller to countless Democratic candidates and supporter of Jesse Jackson, changed his airplane reservations in order to head back to Los Angeles a day early. “Why should I stay around? From the comfort of my own bed, I can watch Michael Dukakis do his thing.”

Nominated by Friend

Dukakis’ nominating speech--the address that was to add dimension to America’s grasp of Dukakis--was delivered Wednesday night by his friend and fellow governor, Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Listen up, Dukakis aides signaled, this speech would set the tone.

But the convention grew painfully restless over this windy account of Dukakis’ career and the attempt to “define” the nominee’s virtues. Clinton’s windup got no further than, “In closing . . . “ before a wave of relieved applause swept the hall.

With the 40th Democratic National Convention heading toward tonight’s concluding speeches by the nominee and running mate Lloyd Bentsen, delegates, party officials and campaign professionals found themselves divided, edgy and frequently defensive about the gray-flannel politics that will represent their cause this fall.

“We looked hard this year for someone to inspire us,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre. “We have settled for a bright, articulate and calculated administrator.

“To me, Dukakis is the vehicle to win in November. It would have been beautiful to have someone who could excite us, yes. But this is the kind of administrator who can at least inspire confidence.”

“Vehicle” seemed a strange, if revealing, appellation for a man who now embodies the Democratic party’s hopes. And it surfaced in other interviews as well, as if it had spread and become part of the private language of the convention.

Some Democratic strategists believe that the convention, although an internal political triumph for the businesslike Dukakis, has not been a public relations success for him, at least yet.

“You have had seven full days of attention to the Democratic Party. That has been the basic story on television and in the newspapers. And what has been the story? Has it been what great chances the Democrats have? Has the story been what a great nominee Dukakis will be? No, the story has been how Jackson reacted to the Bentsen pick, what is the deal gonna be with Jackson. It’s all Jackson, Jackson, Jackson,” Washington political consultant Sergio Bendixen complained.

Grown in Stature

New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, one of the party’s most exciting orators, saw just the opposite: “Gov. Dukakis, if anything, has grown (in stature). If anything, Gov. Dukakis has been made larger, stronger, more formidable by everything that has happened . . . . The better Jesse looks, the better Mike looks because Mike was able to put Jesse in place, with everybody pulling in the opposite direction.”

Either way, it seems a lot comes riding down to the final day for Dukakis because, even though Dukakis has been running for President for almost a year and a half, gaining over 9 million votes in primaries across the country, his aides grant what the polls tell them--most voters do not feel they know much about the Massachusetts governor.

All along, this convention has had the purpose of introducing Dukakis to the public. Defining himself, as they say in political argot. An audience of perhaps 90 million Americans awaits him in their homes, ready to size up this immigrants’ son and would-be President Michael Stanley Dukakis. And an additional 10,000 or so important political professionals will greet him in the Omni convention hall to gauge the most important performance of his life.

Some of his advisers tried to nudge Dukakis to reach high with his speech and try for the kind of emotional electricity that has powered Democrats through general election campaigns in the past. But aides then saw him reject four drafts as overwrought.

The campaign made a quick attempt Wednesday, even as the candidate and speech writers polished up the final effort, to throttle back expectations following Jackson’s powerful 55-minute address Tuesday.

“We’re going to let Dukakis be Dukakis,” said Christopher Edley Jr., the campaign’s issues adviser. “We’re not gong to try to replicate the Jackson style or approach,” he added. “We will be exciting in a different way.”

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, himself once a contender for the Democratic nomination, said Dukakis faces a challenge and a danger tonight.

‘Americans Are Buying It’

“It is time for Michael Dukakis to take control of this convention,” Babbitt said. “But, if I was his speech writer, I would warn him against trying to compete with Jesse Jackson. Dukakis won the nomination by stressing competence, so he should remain consistent and do that in his speech. Americans are buying it. It isn’t exciting, but it is what got him here. He is not from the revivalist wing of the party like Jackson and Teddy Kennedy. He’s from the governing wing of the party.”

Dukakis true believers on the convention floor drew a sharp distinction between being an exciting politician who can tug at one’s heart and being a winning politician who can reason problems into submission.

“People move in different ways. Dukakis tries to appeal to the brain and show that he’s smart . . . . He says it straight. Maybe he’s a new kind of politician. He treats politics more as a business. It’s new. At least to the Democratic Party, it’s new,” said Joseph A. Cravotta, a labor union represenative from Staten Island, N.Y.

Downplaying Passion

Campaign chairman and long-time Dukakis friend Paul P. Brountas tends to downplay the role of passion in politics.

“Put a plan together, that’s how you win elections,” he said.

Voters, he continued in an interview with The Times, are “getting a little cynical about these staged photo opportunities” and campaigns based almost entirely on television.

If Dukakis treasurer Robert Farmer succeeds in raising the unprecedented $50-million campaign fund that he has set as his goal, the campaign plans to budget much of that money for organization.

The campaign will be relying less on excitement generated by the candidate than excitement generated by the Democrats’ sense that 1988 can be the year they finally win, a year they keep saying is 1960 all over again--a nominee from Boston and running mate from Austin. A ticket like Kennedy-Johnson which could, if elected, change the direction and the perception of the Democrats.

“I’m a party activist,” said Marc Litchman, administrative assistant to Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City). “Sure, I’d like to have someone who was more motivational, more exciting. Dukakis wasn’t my first choice, or even my second. But does that mean I’ll work my heart out any less for the ticket? No. After eight years of Republicans, we’re desperate to win, desperate.”

Just the offer of political change, both in style and in substance, could work forcefully to the Democrats’ advantage, many of them believe.

Enough of Charisma

From Trudy Mason of New York: “We’ve had eight years of charisma. We’ve had an actor-President who had to read his lines. After eight years of charisma, we need some character and courage.”

From Larry Sheingold of Sacramento: “I think a stable President for a change is an exciting concept.”

But just as frequently comes the view of delegates who know excitement when they see it, and who were not seeing it.

“We’ll go along with the fellow. But it’s all kind of dull . . . . I’ve just never been excited about the man,” said John S. Gray of Houston.

And, even on nomination night, there were buttons among the delegates: “Dukakis I guess.”

Staff writers Maura Dolan, Sara Fritz, David Lauter, Keith Love, Jack Nelson, Patt Morrison and Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.