Perhaps the most lasting public moment for Mrs. Dukakis during the campaign was a matter of debate placed on her. The Moderator of the debate, Bernard Shaw of the CNN, had asked Mr. Dukakis: “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis had been raped and assassinated, would you prefer an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”
“No, no, Bernard,” replied Dukakis without emotion before reaffirming his opposition to the death penalty and discuss his record on crime. The analysts called the response tone, one of the worst in the history of the presidential debate, and said they had contributed to sinking the chances of Mr. Dukakis against his opponent, the vice -president George HW Bush, who continued to win 40 states and the presidency.
Kitty Dukakis was embarrassed, he later told journalists. The scandalous and inappropriate question was also livid and defined.
“Thank God I’m not the candidate,” he said warmly, “because I don’t know what I would have done.”
Katharine Dickson was born on December 26, 1936 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in nearby Brookline. He loved his father, Harry Ellis Dickson, who was the first violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and director of the Boston Pops.
He had a more pungent relationship with his mother, Jane (Goldberg) Dickson, which Mrs. Dukakis described as a demanding perfectionist whose standards were almost impossible to satisfy. In his first book, “Now You Know”, published in 1990, Mrs. Dukakis reminded that her mother had told her that she was nice but that her younger sister, Jinny, had personalities. This and many similar comments, said Mrs. Dukakis, gave her self -esteem that has afflicted her throughout her life.