Memories... the 1988 Democratic Primaries

In the Iowa caucuses, Gephardt finished first, Simon finished second, and Dukakis finished third.

In the New Hampshire primary, Dukakis finished first, Gephardt finished second, and Simon finished third.

Dukakis and Gore campaigned hard against Gephardt with negative ads, and eventually the United Auto Workers retracted their endorsement of Gephardt, who was heavily dependent on labor union backing.

In the Super Tuesday races, Dukakis won six primaries, Gore five, Jesse Jackson five and Gephardt one, with Gore and Jackson splitting the southern states. The next week, Simon won Illinois. 1988 remains the race with the most candidates winning primaries since the McGovern reforms of 1971.

Dukakis eventually emerged as the winner, with Gore's effort to paint Dukakis as too liberal for the general election being unsuccessful and causing him to withdraw. (Highlighted to show that even when he was a centrist, Gore was right. He would have been a far better candidate than Dukakis, but Jackson prevented Gore from sweeping the south, and visa-versa. I had forgotten that Gore and Jackson were the two men playing for those states.)

Jackson focused more on getting enough delegates to make sure African-American interests were represented in the platform than on winning.<2> With most candidates having withdrawn and asking their delegates to vote for Dukakis, the tally for president was as follows:

Michael Dukakis 2687
Jesse Jackson 1218
Joseph Biden 2
Richard Gephardt 2
Gary Hart 1
Lloyd Bentsen 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29_presidential_primaries%2C_1988#Primaries

(This map seems wrong to me... maybe it excludes caucuses or something. I thought Jackson won more states than shown here, but maybe I'm remembering surprising 2nd place finishes as wins.)

Sigh. That was before "triangulation".

Here's the info from Wikipedia:

He captured 6.9 million votes and won 11 contests; seven primaries (Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Virginia) and four caucuses (Delaware, Michigan, South Carolina and Vermont).<14>. Jackson also scored March victories in Alaska's caucuses and Texas's local conventions, despite losing the Texas primary.<1> <2> Some news accounts credit him with 13 wins. <3> Briefly, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total number of pledged delegates.

Looks like it's misidentifying Delaware, Vermont, and Alaska.

"Which primaries/states did Jesse Jackson win in the 1988 election?

There are conflicting accounts of this on the Web, but several major media outlets report that Rev. Jackson won 5 primaries and caucuses in 1984, and 13 such contests in 1988.

In 1988, he won primaries in Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama on Super Tuesday; contests in Delaware, Vermont, Alaska, DC, Puerto Rico, Michigan and South Carolina; as well as a caucus in Texas (even though he lost the primary and Dukakis ultimately took more delegates). I suppose the "11" figure could come if you kick out the Puerto Rico (territory) and Texas results. FYI, one Web site cited a Congressional Quarterly book with all presidential primary results."

I guess that confirms the old adage that "nobody remembers the losers". :)

On a side note, I saw Jesse Jackson speak during the '84 campaign. He was one of the best political speakers I've ever seen.

Clinton and Obama people are disputing who won Nevada, and that was just a few days ago!