Hello and welcome to another edition of the presidential election series and today will be talking about the Election of 1988, Ronald Reagan is on his way out the White House but his VP, George H.W. Bush is looking to stay a little bit longer, but this time as the new President of the United States and I’ll just say this in advance…It’s not about how good you are as a candidate, it’s about making your opponent look worse…What do I mean about that? Let’s get into.
The End of the Reagan Era
As President Ronald Reagan’s time in office starts to wine down by the late 1980’s the economy had rebounded and the Cold War was starting to show signs of it’s conclusion. Because of this and his victories in the two previous general elections, ‘Teflon Ron’ appeared to be untouchable or at least that was the case until a few problems began to take shape.
The first of these problems surround the growing HIV/AIDS crisis that was spreading in the U.S. in early eighties and the Reagan Administration were woeful to say the least when the issue began as they ignore it even when one of their friends from Hollywood, Rock Hudson had contracted the virus; It was only after Hudson’s death from the virus on October 2nd 1986 that the president and his team slowly began to take the issue a bit more seriously.
In terms of foreign affairs, the U.S.’s decision to bomb Libya following an incident where a nightclub on the district of West Berlin was bombed leaving two American soldiers dead and over 79 civilians injured was criticized by many countries and the United Nations, although the U.S. claimed there was evidence that connected Libya to these attacks. This was proven decades later when the Libyan Embassy and Intelligence Agency were found to be culpable while Muammar Gaddafi (Libya’s leader and ‘The Mad Dog of the Middle East’ by Reagan) was absolved of any responsibility in the bombing.
The Reagan Administration also began secretly supplying groups like the Mujahidin and the Iranians with weapons in order to fund their efforts against communist forces in Afghanistan but also in exchange for hostages.
By far the biggest scandal to engulf Reagan would have to be ‘The Iran-Contra Affair’ which saw the U.S. government using the profits the made from selling weapons to Iran to provide cash and even bags of cocaine to the right wing rebel group known as the Contras to oppose the leftist leaning party known as Sadinistas in Nicaragua…All of which was completely illegal.
This all led to an investigation and a series of congressional hearings from senior members of the Reagan Administration; Accounts of important documents being shredded, questions as to whether the president was involved and of course discussion on whether articles of impeachment should be made against the commander-in-chief.
While it was shown that Reagan had no knowledge of the sells, the scandal itself became the biggest controversy of his entire time as president.
The Story of Mario Cuomo and Gary Hart
With the Iran-Contra Affair happening in the last few years in Reagan’s presidency, the Democrats won seats in 1986 midterm elections in both the Senate and Congress which further solidified their control and gave the party confidence going into the 1988 election.
There were two names that were considered at the start with the first being Mario Cuomo, the popular Governor of New York who captured the attention of many Democrats after giving a remarkable keynote speech denouncing President Reagan’s policies at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. After winning re-election to the governorship in 1986, many wanted Cuomo to run for president in 1988, but he declined to do so on February 19th 1987 and he even refuse to support a draft movement to have him become a candidate.
The other name who was considered was Gary Hart, the former Senator from Colorado who came close to winning the nomination in ’84, but lost to former Vice President Walter Mondale. Following Cuomo’s refusal to run, Hart soon became the front runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination when it was soon discovered in Hart was having an extra martial affair with a woman named Donna Rice even though Hart claimed that no such affair was happening the weeks and months before.
Despite some polls showing support for Hart, he would eventually suspend his campaign in May of 1987 leaving the field wide open for a host of Democrats to run for their party’s nomination.
The Seven Dwarfs of the Democratic Party
While a large number of Democrats threw their hats into the race, only seven of them really got the public’s attention:
- Michael Dukakis- The Governor of Massachusetts
- Jesse Jackson- The Civil Rights Activist & Baptist Minister who ran in 1984
- Joseph R. Biden- Senator from Delaware
- Al Gore- Senator from Tennessee
- Bruce Babbitt- Governor of Arizona
- Paul Simon- Senator from Illinois
- Dick Gephardt- U.S. Representative from Missouri
Joe Biden like many of the other previously mentioned names was new on the national stage and appeared to be someone who could lead the party into the new decade, however a scandal emerged when it was revealed by Dukakis’ campaign manager, John Sasso that Biden had been plagiarizing a speech he gave to the public off of famous British Labor Party member, Neil Kinnock and this among other accusations of plagiarism dogs Biden to the point where he suspends his campaign.
Dukakis however isn’t pleased with his campaign manager’s efforts to slander his opponents and thus fires Sasso from his team, before the governor gives a public apology for the whole ordeal. Following this the primaries saw Gephart, Dukakis and Gore jockeying for position between the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary while Jackson attempted to run with his rainbow coalition for the second time which led to him winning seven primaries and 11 states including southern states like South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
By the time of the Democrats National Convention in 1988, Jesse Jackson came in second place but Michael Dukakis was able to run away with the most delegates to become the party’s nominee for president.
Some expected Jackson to become Dukakis’ running mate since he came in second at the convention, but instead the Massachusetts Governor chose Lloyd Bentsen, a longtime Senator from Texas who actually beat George HW Bush for that position in 1970.
The reasoning behind Bentsen’s pick for running mate has been attributed to the fact that the senator’s home state of Texas had enough electoral votes to get him to victory and the fact that no Democrat had ever won an election without the lone star state.
Choosing the Republican Nominee
Much like the Democrats, the Republicans also had a race for the most delegates going into their nomination with Vice President, George HW Bush announcing his candidacy on October 12th 1987.
The other two notable contenders were Pat Robertson, the former Southern Baptist Minister and media mogul of the Christian Broadcasting Network and Bob Dole, who was the former running mate for President Gerald Ford in 1976, former Senator from Kansas and now Senate Minority Leader.
Bush’s road to the nomination started off on the wrong foot when the VP came in third place in the Iowa Caucus, but soon recovered by winning the New Hampshire Primary.
Thanks to his campaign team which included future FOX News CEO, Roger Ailes, Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager in 1984, James Baker and Republican Party Strategist, Lee Atwater Bush defeated Dole and Robertson to become the GOP’s nominee for president with the most notable part of Bush’s acceptance speech being his promise to not raised taxes which was summed up by Bush with the line: “Read My Lips: No New Taxes.”
Bush chose as his running mate Dan Quayle, the fresh faced Senator from Indiana who was a polarizing pick by many due to Quayle’s lack of foreign policy experience and making a number of misstatements that would be embarrassing for the Bush team going into the general election…but more on that later.
Unleashing the Attack Ads
In the weeks before the DNC, some pollsters had the candidates chance for victory in this election be 47% for Bush and 44% for Dukakis, however after the Democratic Convention those numbers changed with Dukakis now at 50% to Bush’s 40%.
This led to the Bush campaign coming up with ways to take down the Massachusetts Governor’s polling numbers and remember what I said in the beginning about ‘It’s not about how good you are as a candidate, it’s about making your opponent look worse’ well…as you about to read throughout the rest of this piece Bush and the rest of his team will stop at nothing to tear down Dukakis’ image until he becomes a walking, talking caricature.
The problems began when rumors about the Governor suffering from depression following a failed re-election bid led to him getting treated by a psychiatrist and things only got worse when President Reagan made an off hand remark during a press conference where he claimed that he wouldn’t “Pick on an invalid.”
From allegations that Dukakis’ wife, Kitty had burned the American Flag to protest the Vietnam War to George Bush calling Dukakis a ‘Liberal’ in a derogatory way and attacking him for many of his policies while at the same time claiming that Dukakis was ignorant when it came to the military.
Attack ads that compared both Bush and Dukakis on issues like crime and commercials that bring up the governors habit of raising taxes and the pollution that was in the Boston Harbor didn’t help and neither was his refusing to respond back with negative ads or firing members of his staff who attempted to spread rumors against Bush.
The Tank Incident
The Bush campaign begin to release an ad that brings up George HW Bush’s history serving in the military when he became the youngest pilot to serve during World War Two when his plane was shot down but miraculously survived. This and Bush’s claims about Dukakis being clueless on the military leads to the Governor making one of the most iconic moments of the entire election…but for all the wrong reasons.
During an event that took place at the General Dynamics Tank Factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Michael Dukakis decides to do a photo op where he would emerge riding inside a tank where photographers to take pictures of him looking like his charge…Instead of looking presidential, Dukakis was ridiculed for how he looked in his military attire and for looking like a child having a joy ride.
As you can imagine when news coverage of this incident makes air, the Bush campaign waste no time taking the footage and making it and Dukakis himself look even more ridiculous to voters.
Many look at what has become known as ‘The Tank Incident’ as the moment that things were all over for Michael Dukakis in the election, however Dukakis has mentioned in recent times that wasn’t the case; Regardless the image of Dukakis riding the tank coupled with the attacks ads further led to this idea of him being an inept and ineffective candidate for president…But what came next would be even worse.
Willie Horton & The Revolving Door Ads
As the election gets closer, a new attack ad emerges from an independent political action committee known as ‘Americans For Bush’ who release an ad that takes about Bush and Dukakis’ views on the death penalty which brought up a furlough program that Dukakis ran during his governorship and one of the inmates was an African American male named William Horton (or Willie Horton in the ad) who stabbed a boy during a robbery 19 times.
The ad talks about how Horton received 10 weekend passes as a result of this program and at one point he kidnapped a couple in Maryland where he stabbed the man and sexually assaulted the woman before making his escape.
Although it only aired once on TV and was in no way associated with the official Bush campaign, Lee Atwater a man who created/explained the idea of the New Southern Strategy attempts to use this in a brand new ad as a way to focus on Dukakis’ troubling furlough program without mentioning or showing Horton.
The day of the Vice Presidential debates, a new ad was made by the Bush campaign demonstrating to the American people what they believe Michael Dukakis’ furlough program has done to Massachusetts.
Showing actors portraying un-named criminals “The Revolving Door Ad” sees “inmates” walking into a revolving door and then immediately walking out all while the narrator explains that 268 first degree murders who weren’t eligible for parole manage to escape and are still at large before ending the ad with the line: “Now Michael Dukakis say he wants to do for America, What his Done for Massachusetts”.
Although not racially tinged as the Horton ad, Atwater’s attack ad featuring the revolving door played on the stereotype of liberals in the Democratic Party being soft on crime but also successfully attempted to connect Willie Horton to the Dukakis campaign as if Horton was Dukakis’ running mate.
Presidential Debates
With Dukakis’ poll numbers taking a beating from the endless wave of attack ads, the campaign teams only hope is to perform remarkably well in the presidential debates and while the first one was seen as draw for both Dukakis and Bush, the VP debate wouldn’t go so well for the Bush Campaign.
During the debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen, the Indiana Senator compared himself to John F. Kennedy in terms of his experience in Congress and this led to Bentsen responding with famous phrase “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, You’re No Jack Kennedy.” This led to laughter from the audience all way Quayle looked visibly angered by the remark ensuring the victory Dukakis’ running mate.
In the second and final presidential debate a question was asked by CNN anchor and one of the mediators for the debate, Bernard Shaw asked a question to Dukakis on whether he would support an irrevocable death penalty to a criminal that had hypothetically raped and murdered his wife.
Before this debate, one Dukakis’ campaign managers helps the governor practice his answer for this topic by bringing back to Dukakis’ history of having seen his brother killed in a hit-and-run while his 70 something year old father was tied up, robbed and had his medicine stole from him which sums up the governor’s feelings and position on where he stands on the issue of crime and the death penalty
Unfortunately, when asked the question about the death penalty regarding his wife’s hypothetical killer, Dukakis responded by saying he wouldn’t support the death penalty before going into detail about why he was against it for several moments whilst delivering it a cold and unfeeling way…which didn’t resonate well as many in the media believed that Dukakis blew his one and only chance to get back into the lead in the election…Speaking of the election it’s time to look at the results.
The Results
As election day finally rolled around, many expected the Republicans to win their third consecutive general election in a row which would have been the first time since the 1920’s. When the results came in, it was forgone conclusion as George Hebert Walker Bush decisively won to become the 41st President of the United States.
Bush received 426 electoral votes and 53.4% of the popular vote, making this the first time since Martin Van Buren in 1836 that the sitting Vice President was elected President. On top of that, it was also the last time a candidate for president reached or surpassed 400 electoral votes in a general election as Bush not only won a host of southern and Midwestern states, but he also won states like California, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and New Jersey with this being the last time the GOP won the overall majority of electoral votes in those states.
The good news for Michael Dukakis his performance in the popular vote was better than Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, plus his electoral vote total was way better than that of 1980 and ’84. However, that’s not saying much as Dukakis received 111 electoral votes and 45.7% of the popular vote.
Oh yeah…one faithless in West Virginia casted their vote for Dukakis’ running mate, Lloyd Bentsen; possibly they found the senators remarks about Quayle comparing himself to JFK during the debate hilarious.
And that’s the election of 1988, George HW Bush is heading back to the White House as the new commander-in-chief and is looking to bring his ideas of a ‘Kinder, Gentler America’ into reality…But will just see how this and his promises during this campaign will hold up when comes time for the next general election.
Be sure to follow me on X @FullertonHakeem for more articles just like this and you can follow this site also on X, @Distorti0nMedia…and I will you see next time.