Edition: U.S. / Global


By E. J. DIONNE Jr., Special to the New York Times
Published: July 22, 1988

Michael S. Dukakis accepted the Democratic Presidential nomination tonight with a pledge to lead the nation to ''the next American frontier.''

In an address to the Democratic National Convention that roused thousands to prolonged cheers and thunderous applause, the Massachusetts Governor said he wanted to ''rekindle the American spirit of invention and daring'' and to move the nation beyond what he called the ''cramped ideals and limited ambitions'' of the Reagan era.

Then, at the end of the speech, and as the four-day convention drew to a close, Mr. Dukakis was joined onstage by all of his onetime rivals for the nomination except former Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. The most successful of those rivals, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, smiled and put his arms around Mr. Dukakis, a warm gesture of the endorsement the Governor had sought. Attack by Bentsen

It was a harmonious footnote to a particularly harmonious convention, which by acclamation earlier tonight nominated Mr. Dukakis's choice, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, for Vice President. In his own acceptance address, Mr. Bentsen attacked the Federal budget deficits, saying the Reagan Administration had achieved an illusory prosperity by writing ''hot checks for $200 billion a year.''

Mr. Bentsen was soon followed to the rostrum by the standard-bearer, who defined his ''frontier'' both with a call to specific commitments - to greater government activity in areas like education and child care - and with a broader call for change. [ Transcript of the speech, page A10. ] Echo of Kennedy Just as his choice of theme was an echo of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, so were some of the passages Mr. Dukakis used to describe it.

''Maintaining the status quo, running in place, standing still, isn't good enough for America,'' he declared. ''Opportunity for some isn't good enough for America.''

And, in an effort to counter Vice President Bush's attempts to portray him as a ''liberal,'' the nominee said:

''This election isn't about ideology; it's about competence. It's not about meaningless labels; it's about American values - old-fashioned values like accountability and responsibility and respect for the truth.'' Introduced by Video

Excited all evening, the delegates shouted and applauded for about 10 minutes after Mr. Dukakis had entered the hall, under a spotlight, to the strains of Neil Diamond's ''Coming to America.''

The Governor was introduced by a folksy video starring his cousin Olympia Dukakis, the Academy Award-winning actress. She chatted about Mr. Dukakis's Greek immigrant roots, which the candidate himself emphasized again tonight. In his address, when Mr. Dukakis spoke of his late immigrant father, the eyes of the usually cool candidate brimmed with tears.

The address was the Governor's most comprehensive effort to define the purposes and the hopes of his candidacy, and he drew on thoughts from many of his old speeches to offer the country a look at his values and priorities for the next four years.

His aides had said that the speech was critical to Mr. Dukakis, who had seen Mr. Jackson, his final rival for the nomination, challenge him for the convention limelight. Salute to Jackson

Tonight Mr. Dukakis paid tribute to Mr. Jackson as ''a man whose candidacy says to every child, aim high; to every citizen, you count; to every voter, you can make a difference; to every American, you are a full shareholder in our dream.''

More pertinent to the nominee's own goals was his clear effort to join a select group of politicians who have used acceptance addresses to define their political cause and to bequeath memorable oratory to the nation's history. History, however, remembers mostly the rhetoric of eventual winners.

Kennedy, for example, used his 1960 acceptance address to define the New Frontier as ''not a set of promises'' but rather ''a set of challenges.'' Mr. Dukakis's similar phrase, ''the next American frontier,'' is actually drawn from the writings of Robert Reich, one of his economic advisers. Mr. Dukakis used the phrase occasionally before the Iowa caucuses last winter and then dropped it until tonight. Several Political Goals

The speech was crafted to meet several clear political goals, one of which was to establish the Governor, who has no foreign policy experience, as a moderate who supports initiatives for peace but also backs national strength.

Thus, Mr. Dukakis was careful to praise President Reagan for his arms control initiatives with the Soviet Union and said he also agreed with the President's sometimes skeptical view of Soviet intentions.

''President Reagan has set the stage for deep cuts in nuclear arms,'' Mr. Dukakis said, ''and I salute him for that. He has said that we should judge the Soviet Union not by what it says but by what it does, and I agree with that.''

''But we can do a lot more to stop the spread of nuclear and chemical arms,'' the nominee said. ''We can do a lot more to bring peace to Central America and to the Middle East. And we can, and we will, do a lot more to end apartheid in South Africa.''