A thematic comparison, conducted by columnist Arianna Huffington, of two political profiles by Gail Sheehy that appeared in the November 1987 and September 1995 issues of Vanity Fair:

Newt Gingrich:

He props his hands, as acquisitive and chubby as a baby's, on top of his head.

Michael Dukakis:

He begins moving slowly, sinuously.

Newt Gingrich:

"He completely ignores her," observes a Washington journalist.... "It's my impression the marriage is a dead letter. He is so self-absorbed, she could open the door wrapped in plastic wrap and he wouldn't notice."

Michael Dukakis:

Dukakis is being projected also as an ideal husband.... "The marriage is an inspiration."

Newt Gingrich:

During 1979 and 1980 Newt ... entered a period of crisis. He almost ... "wiped out."... "There were people concerned about his stability."

Michael Dukakis:

All the wunderkinder had a midlife crisis. A screeching inner halt that made him take stock.... For a wunderkind like Dukakis, often the best thing that can happen is a major midlife crisis.

Newt Gingrich:

His blind spot may be his own perceived invulnerability, his faith in his ability to always manipulate opinion.

Michael Dukakis:

The real blind spot for Dukakis lay in operating as a politician too principled to practice politics.

Newt Gingrich:

If you ever fight with Newt on one of those things, he will either go ballistic or he will break down. It's dangerous.

Michael Dukakis:

According to those closest to Dukakis, he is not without emotional range. He can blow up at the kids and Kitty. He gets choked up over tragedies that befall friends.

Newt Gingrich:

But in his mania for immediate headlines, Newt has drawn blood, and his enemies will swear vengeance.

Michael Dukakis:

The opposition laughed him off, as usual underestimating. He won.

Newt Gingrich:

Another expert, a psychiatrist at New York Hospital, elaborates on hypomania.... "And in Gingrich, his upbringing and the hypomaniac flair of the personality might create a double reason for his being grandiose because he's trying to overcome the feeling of tremendous inferiority."

Michael Dukakis:

"I think," says psychoanalyst Dr. Don Lipsett, "he began to examine himself in exquisite detail, in a very cognitive, intellectual way."

Newt Gingrich:

Confusion over his identity was a recurrent theme in Newt's boyhood.

Michael Dukakis:

He was the kind of kid other people's mothers loved to hold up as an example.... Did young Michael even have a failure? I ask his mother.... Finally she remembers one occasion. His sixth-grade teacher kept scolding him for writing small.

Newt Gingrich:

He drives himself monomaniacally, obsessed only with his goal. No amount of personal deprivation—100-hour workweeks, no vacations, no time with his wife—diminishes his narcissistic vision of the global glory that will ultimately be his prize.

Michael Dukakis:

The question is, can Michael Dukakis transmit his personal discipline and sacrifice and unswerving confidence to a nation sliding into the twilight of its youthful supremacy?

Newt Gingrich:

From the beginning there has been an overheated quality to Gingrich's ambition ... a sort of Wagnerian overreaching.... Atrocities are forgiven. Especially if the action is rapid fire.... Speed is unfailingly of the essence. The 100-day Contract With America is the best proof. The Speaker has the tendency to set up accelerated timetables and artificial deadlines, based on the necessity to keep his "frenetic psyche" within some boundaries.

Michael Dukakis:

The wunderkind, who had always been in such a hurry to be ahead of everyone else.... He moved like a bullet train through the next fifteen years.

Newt Gingrich:

He should be stopped before it's too late.

Michael Dukakis:

Dukakis is the living, breathing restoration of the American Dream.

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