Copyright thedispatch
One theory is that candidates and their communications teams have gotten savvier and more risk-averse about PR in an age when everyone carries a video recorder in their pocket. In 2025, Team Dukakis would carefully consider the “meme potential” of a goofy photo op before greenlighting it. Another possibility is that, as politics has grown hyperpolarized, the universe of voters who will realistically be influenced by “bad optics” has shrunk. In 1988, there was an enormous faction of persuadable centrists who might tilt one way or another on Election Day based on what they learned about the candidates during the campaign. That’s less true today.
