Katharine D. Dukakis

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Katharine Dickson Dukakis (born December 26, 1936), known as Kitty Dukakis, is the wife of former Massachusetts governor and U.S. presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

During the 1988 presidential election, a number of false rumors were reported in the media about the Dukakises, including the claim by Idaho Republican Senator Steve Symms that Katherine Dukakis had burned an American flag to protest the Vietnam War, as well as the claim that Michael Dukakis had been treated for a mental illness. Republican strategist Lee Atwater was accused of having initiated these rumors, although there is no direct proof that he did so.

Kitty Dukakis became an indirect subject of discussion following a 1988 presidential debate, when CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked her husband if he would still be against the death penalty were his wife to be brutally raped and murdered. Michael Dukakis' subdued, scholarly answer was ridiculed by many pundits, who said it made him appear unfeeling.

In 1990, Dukakis published her memoir, Now You Know, in which she candidly discussed her ongoing battle with alcoholism, astounding readers when she revealed that she even drank rubbing alcohol.

It also discussed the pressures of being a political wife, and her disappointment over her husband's defeat in the 1988 election.