Hello and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series and today we will be going over the Election of 1988; George H.W. Bush is looking to become the new President of the United States and his willing to pull out all of the stops to make it happen.
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 come to an end.
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 with the first of these problems surrounding the HIV/AIDS crisis that was spreading in the U.S. in early eighties. The Reagan Administration were woeful to say the least when the issue began as they ignore it, even when one of Reagan’s old 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 America’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 Iran Contra Affair
Also around this time, the Reagan Administration were 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 they 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 discussions on whether articles of impeachment should be made against the commander-in-chief were all happening by the time of Reagan’s second term.
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.
George HW Bush for President
With Reagan set to leave the White House by 1989, the Republicans had a race for the most delegates going into their nomination convention with Vice President, George Herbert Walker Bush announcing his candidacy for president 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, a former Senator from Kansas and now the 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, the vice president 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 who was a fresh faced Senator from Indiana and 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.
1988 Democratic Primaries
With the Iran-Contra Affair happening in the last few years of Reagan’s presidency as well as the Democrats winning seats in the Senate and Congress in the 1986 midterms gave the party confidence going into the next general election.
Some Democrats wanted the Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo to run after his impressive keynote speech denouncing President Reagan’s policies at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Despite that remarkable speech and winning re-election as Governor in 1986, Cuomo had no desire to run for president and refused to support any attempts at a draft Cuomo Movement.
Next up was Gart Hart, the former Senator from Colorado who came close to winning the nomination in ’84, but lost. After Cuomo declined to run, Hart soon became the front runner for the party’s nomination until it was discovered that Hart was having an extra martial affair with a woman named Donna Rice. Though Hart claimed that no such affair was happening, evidence soon emerged that proved otherwise; Despite some polls showing support for Hart in spite of the affair, he would eventually suspend his campaign in May of 1987.
This left a handful of candidates to run for the party’s nomination with the media labelling them “The Seven Dwarfs”, these so called ‘dwarfs’ consisted of:
Michael Dukakis- Governor of Massachusetts
Jesse Jackson- 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 dogged Biden to the point where he suspends his campaign.
Dukakis however wasn’t pleased with his campaign manager’s efforts and thus fired Sasso before the governor gave a public apology for the whole ordeal. 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 Democratic Convention in 1988, Dukakis was getting the most delegates to become the party’s nominee for president and some expected Jesse 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 this pick has been attributed to Bensten’s home state of Texas having a lot of electoral votes and the fact that no Democrat had ever won an election without the lone star state.
Unleash 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 National Convention came to an end 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 Governor’s polling numbers and they would stop at nothing until Dukakis became a walking, talking caricature of a liberal politician.
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 worst 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 were just some of the things that were thrown at Dukakis.
There were also attack ads that compared both Bush and Dukakis on issues like crime while commercials that aired on TV brought up the governor’s habit of raising taxes and the pollution that was still in the Boston Harbor.
Bizzarely, Dukakis refused to respond back with his own negative ads and he also fired members of his staff who attempted to spread rumors against Bush.
The Tank Incident
The Bush campaign released an ad that brought up George Bush’s history serving in the military as a pilot during World War Two before his plane was shot down but miraculously survived. Combined with Bush’s claims about Dukakis beng 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 could take pictures of him looking like his in charge…Instead of looking presidential, Dukakis was ridiculed for how he looked in his military attire and for looking like a small child having a joy ride inside the tank.
When news coverage of this incident aired on TV, the Bush campaign wasted no time taking the footage and in the process made Dukakis look even more ridiculous to voters.
Many look at what is known today as ‘The Tank Incident’ as the moment where things came crashing down for the Dukakis campaign, however Dukakis himself has mentioned in recent times that wasn’t the case.
Even still 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 19 times during a robbery.
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 prison inspired 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.
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 team.
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:
This led to laughter from the audience all while Quayle looked visibly angered by the remark ensuring victory for Dukakis’ running mate.
In the second and final presidential debate a question was asked by CNN anchor and mediator, Bernard Shaw 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 it 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 whilst delivering it a cold and unfeeling way…which didn’t resonate well as voters and many in the media believed that Dukakis blew his one and only chance to get back into the lead in the election.
Election of 1988: The Results
As election day finally emerged, the results were a 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; This would be 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 what Democrats got in 1980 and ’84. However, that’s not saying much as Dukakis received 111 electoral votes and 45.7% of the popular vote.
Oh yeah…and 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.
With this victory, George HW Bush became the first sitting Vice President to become president since Martin Van Buren all the way back in 1836 and it also marked the third consecutive victory for the Republicans in a general election since the 1920’s.
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