'Bubble boy' Kerry evokes Dukakis tank fiasco
July 27, 2004: On second thought, perhaps presidential candidate John Kerry should have stuck with kissing babies.
Instead, the Democrat from Massachusetts donned one of NASA's head-to-toe protective suits to tour the Discovery space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and, in the process, found himself being compared to the unflattering image that helped tank another Massachusetts Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, Michael Dukakis.
Late-night comedians had fun with the picture and Republicans e-mailed it to thousands of supporters under the caption "Earth to Kerry." The headline on the front page of the Boston Herald read, "Bubble Boy."
"My hunch is that the brilliant Republicans who put George Bush in a flight suit to strut around an aircraft carrier won't get very far giving advice to NASA and John Glenn about the kinds of coveralls to wear on the Discovery," a Kerry spokesman said.
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