When Dukakis chose to retire, party regulars turned to Francis Bellotti, 67, a swaybacked former attorney general burdened with a liberal business-as-usual image.
He put on morning games for night workers, staged pig races and handed out outlandish door prizes, including a swaybacked horse.
A lean, grey wheel horse of the Democratic Party, politically swaybacked, politically a pensioner, he retired to quieter pastures.