Bush supporters passed out copies of the newspaper which said, "The traditional values of Italian-Americans can be found in the electoral program of Vice President Bush."

After the parade, Dukakis was returning to Boston to resume preparations for his second and last debate with Bush.

"I'm looking forward very, very much to that debate on Thursday night," he told the audience at the Gen. Douglas MacArthur High School.

"This is a tight race, folks, and it's getting tighter every day," he said. Then, in a reference to the vice presidential debate between Bentsen and Quayle, Dukakis said, "And the events of the last week have tightened it up some more."

As usual, he laced his speech with disparaging references to Quayle.

"George Bush and his friends are satisfied," he said. "They say all is well. They believe Dan Quayle is the only cloudon their horizon. Dan Quayle is more than just acloud, he's a major storm system. ...This is onestorm the American people can avoid."

Dukakis dubbed his housing proposal "HomeSTART" and said it was "aimed at giving families achance to buy their first home--a start on theladder of opportunity and security thathomeownership represents."

He said it was "a simple solution. No newbureaucracies, no red tape. What it will do ispermit first-time homebuyers to invest their IRAsavings or their tax-deferred pension plans tomake downpayments on their homes."

Myles Lynk, a Dukakis adviser who worked onformulating the proposal, said there would be a$10,000 cap on the amount that could be withdrawnfrom Individual Retirement Accounts.

"We don't want to create an incentive toliquidate IRAs," he said.

In addition, Dukakis would reduce the downpayment required for federally insured mortgages.

Lynk said the principal cost of the homeownership plan would be the estimated $400 millionloss in tax revenue resulting from the increasedincentive for people to contribute to IndividualRetirement Accounts