Dukakis offers some counsel

In case Barack Obama is in the market, Michael Dukakis had some free advice today:

Don't let Republican attacks, no matter how scurrilous or specious, go unanswered -- a mistake Dukakis said he made in 1988 as the Democratic nominee, and Senator John F. Kerry did in 2004.

Asked on CNN this afternoon what he would tell Obama, who appears to be the likely Democratic nominee, Dukakis replied: "To be ready, to respond immediately, to take the fight to McCain, and never to let up. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't be positive, because the American people are looking for a very positive agenda for Barack Obama and they're going to get it from him. But you cannot let the Republicans do what they did to me and what they did to Kerry."

The former Massachusetts governor also said Democrats should get past what he called the red state-blue state "nonsense." Democrats have won election as governor in several red Republican states, showing that Democrats shouldn't give them up without a fight, Dukakis said.

He urged a strong grassroots effort, along the lines that Obama is already planning in traditionally GOP states.