Massachusetts Miracle

Dismissing the "Massachusetts Miracle" as the "Massachusetts Mirage," Vice President Bush ridiculed the economic record of Michael S. Dukakis yesterday and said the governor deserved a gold medal in the "tax-and-spend competition. " The speech to the Commonwealth Club of California marked Bush's first frontal attack on Dukakis' assertion that his performance in managing the economy of Massachusetts qualifies him for the presidency. In addition, it provided an infusion of new material for Bush, whose rhetoric had seemed stale and repetitive this week - to the point that the Republican candidate had all but disappeared from the television networks' evening newscasts.

At their convention here this week, ranking Republicans have made fun of Michael S. Dukakis' height, suggested that he has no friends and revealed what they say is his "fundamental character flaw" - an inability to tell the truth. Then there is the comic book, endorsed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, showing Dukakis in drag; the "Get Out of Jail Free" Monopoly card from the College Republicans, and Alexander Haig Jr.'s description of Dukakis as "the dimunitive clerk from Massachusetts" and the Democratic ticket as a bat "hanging upside down for extended periods in dark, damp caves up to its navel in guano.

June hasn't been the best of months for the "Massachusetts Miracle" of presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. After winning enough delegates to capture the Democratic nomination, the Massachusetts governor returned home to find his current state budget unexpectedly hemorrhaging red ink and projections of similar deficits for the fiscal year that begins Friday. The headlines read like the numbers on a telethon scoreboard: nearly every week, they announced new budget shortfalls.

Incumbency has its perils. Vice President Bush has known that for a long time. As the presidential candidate of the two-term Republican administration, he is subject to all its frailties. Now Michael S. Dukakis, for 10 years governor of Massachusetts, is learning, too, the risks in having a record. All through the primaries where he won the Democratic presidential nomination, Dukakis found his reputation as governor a boon to his campaign. Whenever his Democratic rivals talked about their plans, Dukakis could say, "Look what I've already accomplished.

It looks as though Vice President George Bush is hip-deep in the doo-doo and sinking fast. He not only is trailing Democrat Michael Dukakis in the polls, he's not doing so hot against Manuel Noriega. President Reagan gave him an endorsement so lacking in warmth that he had to run it through the microwave to get it to room temperature. Each week brings new revelations that cast doubt on Bush's claims that he was innocent of guilty knowledge in either the Iran-Contra Follies or the CIA's "Just Say Yes to Drug-Runners Show.

What remains of the presidential campaign caravan has arrived in Pennsylvania, leaving a trail of spent candidacies and spent money. There won't be the television advertising blizzard voters in other states have had to endure, but there will be some. You've probably already seen a few TV spots over the last 24 hours: the Rev. Jesse Jackson, backed by country-western music, or Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis framed in the glory of his "Massachusetts Miracle. " Nothing nasty.

Hey, how about giving Michael Dukakis some respect? Even after coming in third in the Illinois primary, he's still the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. He's run more successfully in more places than anyone predicted. On Super Tuesday he tied two Southerners in their own regional primary. Polls show him a 3-to-2 favorite over Jesse Jackson and a 2-to-1 favorite over Al Gore among Democrats, while the hankering for Somebody Else (Mario Cuomo, Bill Bradley, Sam Nunn)

To America's aging industrial belt, to its struggling farm communities and depressed Southern oil states, presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis has been carrying the amazing story of "the Massachusetts miracle" for nearly a year now. To no one's surprise, he has been enthusiastically received. "Twelve years ago, they were calling us the new Appalachia," the governor tells his audiences. The state's double-digit unemployment rate was among the highest in the country. So were its taxes.