Presidential Election of 1988 Change History! Try out the 1988 interactive map 1988 Election Facts Dukakis won West Virginia; however one Elector cast a vote for Dem. Vice-President candidate Lloyd Bentsen (with Dukakis as Vice-President) Issues of the Day: Stock market crash, Iran-Contra, Progress in US-USSR relations (INF Treaty) Margin of Victory Map This map is shaded by how large the popular vote difference was between the two nominees. It is a way to view the relative competitiveness of each state. These maps are also available as a timeline for each election from 1972-2016 . X Content Display Issues A few people have reported problems viewing certain 270toWin election maps and/or polls. If you have an Ad Blocker in place, please disable it. Separately, you may not be able to view our maps in the new IE10 browser due to some changes Microsoft has made regarding the display of Flash content. This issue will not be fixed prior to the election, so you may want to visit 270toWin using a different web browser. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Copyright © 2004-2017 270towin.com All Rights Reserved The Election of 1988 . George H. W. Bush . WGBH American Experience | PBS Other General Articles Though the presumptive heir to President Ronald Reagan , Vice President George H.W. Bush ran into trouble early in the 1988 campaign. Bush's problem was his image. A Newsweek cover that ran the week he announced his candidacy read, "Fighting the Wimp Factor." His preppy style, coupled with a perception that he was unable or unwilling to question President Ronald Reagan, contributed to a sense that he did not have a stiff enough spine to lead the country. Hard Questions About Iran-Contra After an embarrassing loss to Senator Bob Dole in the Iowa caucuses, Bush appeared in a live television interview with Dan Rather on CBS. The Bush campaign team claimed that the CBS News team had pitched the interview as a routine candidate profile.

But on the day of the interview, the Bush team received a tip from a member of the CBS newsroom that the producer of the segment had been walking around the newsroom saying, "We're taking Bush out of the campaign tonight." According to the tip, Dan Rather was preparing a hard-hitting interview heavy on Iran-Contra. Bush aides prepared Bush to have a response ready in case the tip proved accurate. A Knock Out Punch The newscast did indeed begin with a prepared news package that concentrated exclusively on Iran-Contra. As soon as the package finished and the interview began, the combativeness was clear. When Rather pushed too hard a few minutes into the interview, Bush responded with the rehearsed line calling attention to an incident in which an angry Dan Rather had walked off the stage during a live broadcast and left several minutes of dead air -- Vice President Bush: I'm not suggesting. I'm just saying I don't remember it. Dan Rather: I don't want to be argumentative, Mr. Vice President. Vice President Bush: You do, Dan. Dan Rather: No ... no, sir, I don't.

Vice President Bush: This is not a great night, because I want to talk about why I want to be president, why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me. And I don't think it's fair... Dan Rather: And Mr. Vice President, if these questions are ... Vice President Bush: ...to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York? Dan Rather: Well, Mister ... Vice President Bush: ... Would you like that? Dan Rather: Mr. Vice President ... Vice President Bush: I have respect for you, but I don't have respect for what you're doing here tonight. CBS News maintained that they had informed the Bush campaign that the interview would concentrate on Iran-Contra and therefore the Bush campaign had no right saying they had been ambushed, but to most Americans, Dan Rather had sucker-punched Vice President Bush and Bush delivered a knock out blow in return. Lee Atwater later referred to this interview as a turning point in the primary campaign. The showdown with Dan Rather helped to dispel Bush's wimp image.

"Senator Straddle" In the weeks after the Rather interview, the Bush campaign launched another attack, this time an ad targeting Senator Dole, who was leading in the New Hampshire primary. Titled "Senator Straddle," the ad depicted Senator Dole's record as inconsistent. Bush had originally scuttled the ad, but when aides presented him with evidence that not running it could cost him the primary, he approved the ad. Bush won the primary -- and the model for the general election was set. The General Election Vice President Bush's Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, was a relative unknown. Rather than present a positive view of Bush's accomplishments, the Bush campaign decided to instead focus on attacking Dukakis. The Bush campaign set out to define Dukakis on their terms rather than allowing Dukakis to define himself. It was a break with conventional wisdom, but it succeeded. Some commentators would later call the 1988 campaign the dirtiest in history. Attacking Dukakis By Memorial Day weekend, Vice President Bush was an astonishing 17 points behind Governor Dukakis. That weekend in Kennebunkport , Bush aides presented Vice President Bush with results of a focus group held in Paramus, New Jersey.

Comprised of 30 individuals who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984 and were planning to vote for Michael Dukakis in 1988, the participants were asked questions such as -- "What if I told you that Dukakis vetoed a bill requiring school-children to say the Pledge of Allegiance? Or that he was against the death penalty? Or that he gave weekend furloughs to first-degree murderers?" By the end of the focus group session, it was clear to Bush aides that the cumulative effect was devastating to the groups' assessment of Dukakis. The team reported their findings to Bush with strategist Lee Atwater summing up the sentiment, " You gotta go negative . You just gotta." Bush allowed his surrogates to do just that, raising the issue of convicted murderer Willie Horton, an African American inmate who received weekend furloughs in Massachusetts. Bush Victory The tactics worked. Author Evan Thomas would later say: "One of the ironies of George Bush's life is that a fundamentally decent man presided over a moment when politics got meaner and rougher...

Lee Atwater and these henchmen for Bush looking for the so-called wedge issues, not really staying on the high road and talking about the great issues of the day, but rather sniping at their opponent to find some weakness in him. And Bush put up with that." Bush went on to win the November election by a wide margin, capturing 53 percent of the popular vote. United States presidential election of 1988 | United States government | Britannica.com United States presidential election of 1988 United States government United States presidential election of 1988, American presidential election held on Nov. 8, 1988, in which Republican George Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis . Results of the American presidential election, 1988… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The campaign The 1988 campaign featured an open contest on both the Republican and Democratic sides, as Republican Pres. Ronald Reagan was entering the last year of his second term. Numerous contenders on the Democratic side entered the race. Commentators referred derisively to them as “The Seven Dwarfs.” They included former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt , Delaware Sen. Joe Biden , Massachusetts Gov.

Michael Dukakis, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt , Tennessee Sen. Al Gore , civil rights leader Jesse Jackson , and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon . Three candidates who were somewhat more inspiring had decided not to run: former senator Gary Hart of Colorado , who dropped out because of a sex scandal, reentered the race and then dropped out for good; New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley ; and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo , who simply declined to run. Michael Dukakis, 1988. Rick Friedman/Black Star The Republicans, seeking a candidate who could match the stature and electability of Reagan, were similarly at a loss. The nominal front-runner, George Bush, suffered from a reputation as a “wimp” who in 22 years of public life—as a former representative, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , director of the Central Intelligence Agency , and, for more than seven years, Reagan’s vice president—had failed to distinguish himself as anything more than a docile instrument of someone else’s policy.

There were three interesting Republican alternatives: Bob Dole of Kansas , the Senate minority leader, who was respected for his wit and intelligence though considered by some to be overly acerbic; former New York representative Jack Kemp , revered among many conservatives as Reagan’s true ideological heir; and the Rev. Pat Robertson , a popular televangelist. None of the three, however, made it through the primary season. Vice Pres. George Bush (right) offering advice to Pres. Ronald Reagan. David Valdez/The White House United States presidential election of 1972 Biden retired from the race after he was caught quoting, without credit, from the speeches of Neil Kinnock , the British Labour Party leader. Among the other Democrats, Babbitt, Simon, and Gephardt all dropped out along the way after failing to string together enough primary victories—or raise enough money—to continue. Babbitt, though he gained attention with a courageous promise to raise taxes to help reduce the swollen U.S. budget deficit, did not come across well on television. Simon’s characteristic bow tie and old-fashioned big-government approach to domestic problems failed to attract enough support.

Gephardt managed to win the crucial Iowa caucuses , but his basic theme—trade protectionism—did not play well outside the Midwest. That left Gore, Jackson, and Dukakis. Young, attractive, and Southern, with a reputation as a centrist, Gore appeared to have momentum after he won five Southern primaries on a single day, "Super Tuesday," March 8. Yet his campaign fizzled in New York, where he had unwisely accepted the backing of New York City’s controversial mayor, Ed Koch . When the votes were counted for the April 19 New York primary, Dukakis had finished first, providing a major impetus to his campaign. Dukakis, who was born and raised in Brookline, Mass., the son of Greek immigrants, went on to become the first Greek American nominated for the presidency. Jackson, who by then had the second highest delegate count and was the first African American to mount a serious presidential campaign, decided to continue running through the final four primaries, California , Montana , New Jersey , and New Mexico , on June 7. U.S.

Presidential Elections When the Democrats convened in Atlanta in July to crown Dukakis as their nominee, Jackson made a behind-the-scenes effort to claim the vice presidency but soon relented, fearful of splitting the party along racial lines, and contented himself with winning a few planks favourable to minorities in the party platform. Dukakis instead chose Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen to be his running mate. The convention ended on a note of uncharacteristic harmony for the Democrats, whose ticket was soon as far as 17 percentage points ahead of the Republicans in opinion polls. Britannica Stories Cheetahs Face Extinction Risk That lead did not last long. Bush, who had gotten off to a poor start in the primaries, finishing third in Iowa behind Robertson and Dole, made an impressive comeback. He outpolled Dole and Kemp in the February 16 New Hampshire vote and did well on Super Tuesday. On March 29, after Bush won the Illinois primary with 55 percent of the vote (Kemp had by then dropped out), Dole withdrew from the race, and Bush became the Republicans’ de facto nominee.

That role was made official in August at the party’s convention in New Orleans , where Bush surprised many politicians by picking Dan Quayle , a young and relatively undistinguished Indiana senator, as his running mate. Dan Quayle, 1989. Cynthia Johnson—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images Bush’s success in winning the nomination was more due to the strength of his organization than due to his ability to project a clear vision of what a Bush presidency would be like—a deficiency that the candidate himself referred to as "the vision thing." Trailing his Democratic opponent in the polls late in the summer, the vice president made a risky decision; instead of stressing his qualifications for the job and his plans for the country, Bush would campaign against his opponent’s weaknesses. Accordingly, Bush’s speeches and campaign advertising focused on such ostensibly trivial issues as a Massachusetts prison furlough plan, Dukakis’s veto of a state law requiring public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance , and Dukakis’s alleged failure to deal with pollution in Boston Harbor. More pressing national concerns—the federal deficit and a host of domestic and foreign policy questions—went largely unaddressed. Though many commentators criticized the Bush approach as negative and trivial, it worked.

(The most controversial ad of the campaign, the so-called Willie Horton ad featuring a felon who was let out on a weekend furlough in Massachusetts and subsequently assaulted and raped a woman, was considered racist by many but was actually run by an independent group rather than the Bush campaign.) By mid-August Bush had taken the lead in opinion polls. He never lost it, though Dukakis enjoyed a minor rebound after his vigorous performance in the first of two televised presidential debates. Much of Bush’s ultimate success could be traced to the relatively inept performance of the Dukakis camp, which was slow to respond to Bush’s attacks. As a result, the vice president was able to depict his opponent as a dangerous liberal. That was an unaccustomed accusation for Dukakis, whose three terms as governor had marked him as a moderate. Dukakis himself proved to be a passionless campaigner at crucial points in the race. One such moment came in the second debate, when he was asked by moderator Bernard Shaw whether he would still oppose capital punishment if his wife were raped and murdered. Instead of responding to that provocative question with outrage or earnestness, Dukakis delivered a cool, academic brief against the death penalty without once mentioning his wife’s name.

A few days later the governor was as far as 17 points behind in one opinion poll. Button from George Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The Dukakis effort finally caught fire in the last two weeks of the campaign. Embracing the "liberal" label and making a fiercely populist appeal, the governor began drawing huge, enthusiastic crowds. He even edged closer to Bush in the polls. By then, however, it was too late. On election day, November 8, Bush won 54 percent of the vote to Dukakis’s 46 percent. The vice president carried all but 10 states and the District of Columbia . That gave him a 426–112 margin in the electoral college . When the electoral college met in December, however, Dukakis received only l11 votes. Apparently in protest against the electoral college system, an elector from West Virginia , a state that Dukakis had won, chose Bentsen for president and Dukakis for vice president.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies "The people have spoken," Bush said shortly after learning he had won. Nevertheless, in the minds of many Americans—and especially the Democrats, who retained control of Congress—Bush’s negative campaign had left a sour impression. Perhaps sensing those doubts, he attempted in his victory address to deal with "the vision thing" and reach out to those who had voted against him. "When I said I wanted a kinder and gentler nation, I meant it—and I mean it," he said. "My hand is out to you, and I want to be your president, too." United States presidential election, 1988 (Biden vs. Bush) | Alternative History | Fandom powered by Wikia United States presidential election, 1988 (Biden vs. Bush) 41,202pages on United States presidential election, 1988 November 8, 1988 52.1% 46.9% Presidential election results map.

Blue denotes states won by Biden/Gore Red denotes those won by Bush/Quayle, President before election Joe Biden Democratic Party (United States) The United States presidential election of 1988 featured an open primary for both major parties. Ronald Reagan , the incumbent President, was vacating the position after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the Democrats nominated Joe Biden, a Senator from Delaware. Bush attempted to capitalized on Reagan's popularity while Biden criticized Bush for "losing touch with real Americans", and capitalizing on Biden's perceived connection to middle class and poor Americans. Contents Senator Joe Biden of Delaware Senator Al Gore of Tennessee Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri Senator Paul Simon of Illinois Former Senator Gary Hart of Colorado Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona Reverend Jesse Jackson of Illinois Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts Having been badly defeated in the 1984 presidential election, the Democrats were eager to find a new approach to win the presidency.

They felt more optimistic this time due to the continuing Iran Contra scandal plus the large gains in the 1986 mid-term election which resulted in the Democrats taking back control of the Senate after six years of Republican rule. In early 1987, Senator Gary Hart was the clear frontrunner in the field, Hart had put in a strong showing in the 1984 presidential election, and had refined his campaign in the intervening years. However, questions of extramarital affairs dogged the charismatic candidate. One of the great myths is that Senator Hart challenged the media to 'put a tail' on him. In actuality, the Miami Herald had received an anonymous tip from a friend of Donna Rice that Rice was involved with Hart. It was only after Hart had been discovered that the Herald reporters found Hart's quote in a copy of The New York Times Magazine. On May 8, 1987, a week after the Donna Rice story broke, Hart dropped out of the race. In December 1987, Hart returned to the race. However, the damage had been done. Senator Edward M.

Kennedy of Massachusetts had been considered a potential candidate, but he ruled himself out of the 1988 campaign in the fall of 1985. Two other politicians mentioned as possible candidates, both from Arkansas, didn't join the race: Senator Dale Bumpers and Governor Bill Clinton. In late 1987, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who had been gaining support and was starting to lead in some straw polls due to his "Massachusetts Miracle" campaign, started to drop in polls due to his views on prison furloughs and news stories regarding Willie Horton became public. Civil Rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was initially polling strong in some southern states, saw his numbers drop when he came to the defence of Dukakis on the Willie Horton issue. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware's campaign took advantage of the fumbles, portraying Biden as tough on crime, but also making a strong appeal to young and rural voters by showing himself as a common guy, and promising to represent all Americans. Democratic Primaries In Iowa Dick Gephardt won strongly, Paul Simon came in second and Michael Dukakis managed an unexpectedly strong third.

The Dukakis camp tried to paint it as a comeback and started running negative ads against Gephardt. In New Hampshire there was an unexpected turn, Joe Biden won the New Hampshire primary. This was mainly accredited to Dukakis' attacks on Gephardt, Gephardt still managed to come in a close second. Simon finished third, Gore in fourth and Dukakis in a dismal fifth. After that the tide turned strongly for Biden who then won strong victories in the northern states and ultimately won 32 states. Al Gore managed to win 11 and come in second while Jesse Jackson won four states, coming in third. Democratic Convention The 1988 Democratic National Convention was held in Atlanta, Georgia from July 18–21. In his first major national speech, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton placed Biden's name in nomination. The speech lasted for so long that some delegates began booing to get him to finish. The most memorable speech given at the Democratic Convention was by Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards, who two years later was elected the Governor of Texas.

Richards uttered the famous line: "Poor George, he can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy's remarks contained the famous iteration "Where was George?", which became a popular slogan of the campaign. Al Gore was selected as Biden's Vice-Presidential Candidate. Gore, who was also Biden's closest competition in the primaries, was chosen main due to his youth (Gore was 40 at the time) and in hopes Gore would help Biden carry a few southern states. At the Democratic National Convention Biden gave a speech to appeal to all America: "We all know- or at least we are told continually- that we are a divided people. And we know there's a degree of truth in it. We have too often allowed our differences to prevail among us. We have too often allowed ambitious men to play off those differences for political gain. We have too often retreated behind our differences when no one really tried to lead us beyond them. But all our differences hardly measure up to the values we all hold in common ... I am running for President because ...

I want to make the system work again, and I am convinced that is what all Americans really want." 'Integrity' became one of the slogans chosen for Biden's campaign, based on the speech at the convention. Biden left the campaign with a large 17 point lead over Bush in the polls. Republican Party Candidates Senate Minority Leader and 1976 vice-presidential nominee Bob Dole of Kansas Vice-President George H.W. Bush of Texas Former Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV of Delaware RNHA chairman Ben Fernandez of California Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig Representative Jack Kemp of New York Former Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada Televangelist Pat Robertson of Virginia Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois Former Governor Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota Bush unexpectedly came in third in the Iowa caucus, which he had won in 1980, behind Dole and Robertson. Dole was also leading in the polls of the New Hampshire primary, and the Bush camp responded by running television commercials portraying Dole as a tax raiser, while Governor John H. Sununu campaigned for Bush. Dole did nothing to counter these ads and Bush won, thereby gaining crucial momentum, or what he called "Big Mo".

Dole was bitter about his defeat in New Hampshire, going on TV to tell Bush to "stop lying about my record." Once the multiple-state primaries such as Super Tuesday began, Bush's organizational strength and fund raising lead were impossible for the other candidates to match, and the nomination was his. Republican National Convention The 1988 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana from August 15 to August 18, 1988. It was the second time that a major party held its conclave in one of the five states known as the Deep South, coming on the heels of the 1988 Democratic National Convention, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The convention nominated Vice President George H. W. Bush for President, as expected. The second spot on the ticket was not publicly known before the convention; Bush chose James Danforth "Dan" Quayle, U.S. Senator of Indiana, as his vice-presidential running mate. The revelation of Quayle's selection as running mate did not come until the second day of the convention, when NBC News broke the story.

The convention is perhaps best known for Bush's "thousand points of light" speech accepting the nomination. Written by Peggy Noonan, it included the "read my lips: no new taxes" pledge that was the most popular sound bite coming out of the convention. The successful speech gave him a "bounce" that erased Biden's original lead in the polls. General election Campaign Joe Biden had a strong voting record and was known to cross party lines and work with Republicans on important bills. This made it hard for the Republicans to develop an attack strategy. The public's perceptions that Biden was a "common man", and thus could better represent average Americans than the wealthy, Yale educated George H.W. Bush. Despite an initial strong lead in the polls due to his "no new taxes" speech, Bush suddenly found himself of the defensive. The Bush campaign attempted many different tactics to show Bush was in touch with average Americans. One of the attempts included showing Bush cooking at a public BBQ, in a apron that read "Kiss the cook" and a cooks hat. This proved to be a public relations disaster, Bush came off looking totally out of place and uncomfortable which only amplified the belief that Bush was out of touch with average Americans.

This became known as the "BBQ Incident", Biden campaign ran an ad that show clips of the event with the tag line "Send Bush back to the grills, vote Biden - Gore". Bush's campaign then tried to point to the success of the Reagan campaign and Bush's promises of "a kinder gentler Reaganism". The Biden campaign stuck with the "Where was Bush?" line and attempted to connect Bush with Iran - Contra. Things did not improve for Bush when the Presidential Debates started. Bush and Biden held their own through out most of the debates, but when the question turned to how both relation to the average American Biden gave a passionate speech over starting off with near nothing and working to the top, Biden also went to tears when talking about the tragic loss of his first wife and daughter. Bush had a hard time answering the question when following Biden, this reinforced the idea that Bush was out of touch. The Vice-Presidential Debate also did damage to the Bush Campaign. Dan Quayle was clearly outmatched by Al Gore, who was seen by as the clear winner of the debate.

This caused a call from the right for Bush to dump Quayle from the ticket, but the Campaign Advisers Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes warned Bush that doing so would make him look indecisive, doing far more damage to the campaign. The Biden campaign started airing commercials showing Quayle's poor debate performance, with the tagline "Dan Quayle: One heartbeat away". A number of false rumors were reported in the media about Biden, including the claim by Idaho Republican Senator Steve Symms that Biden's wife Jill had a criminal record, as well as the claim that Biden himself had been treated for a mental illness. Lee Atwater later had to resign from the Bush campaign after the rumors were traced back to him. Ultimately, this did much more damage to Bush than Biden. Results The election on November 8, 1988 was a majority for Biden in the popular vote and a lopsided majority in the Electoral College. Biden managed to do what no Democratic Candidate since Lyndon Johnson had done- win in a landslide. This is attributed to Biden's "common man" campaign, and Bush's failures to come up with any response to it.

The Bush BBQ incident went down as one of the worst campaign moves ever, and was the ultimate humiliation to Bush. Despite Americans happiness with the Reagan Administration, Biden was able to disassociate Bush from the Reagan success. The selection of Dan Quayle as Bush's VP was also seen as a large mistake. Quayle was seen as dumb by the public, and the chance of him becoming president was not something the public wanted to risk. Quayle was not able to secure his home state of Indiana for Bush. George Bush - U.S. Presidents - HISTORY.com Google Early Life and Military Service George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts , to Dorothy Walker Bush (1901-92) and Prescott Bush (1895-1972), a banker who went on to represent Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963. The younger Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1942. Did You Know? A car bomb assassination plot against George Bush was foiled in Kuwait in 1993.

After graduation, Bush joined the U.S. Naval Reserve to fight in World War II (1939-45), which America had entered in December 1941. When he received his wings shortly before his 19th birthday, Bush was the nation’s youngest commissioned pilot at the time. He flew 58 combat missions during the war, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery after his torpedo plane was shot down by the Japanese in the vicinity of the Bonin Islands in the Pacific on September 2, 1944. During that incident, Bush’s plane was hit and set on fire but he continued toward his target, a radio station, and successfully bombed it before parachuting out of his plane. He later was rescued from the water by an American submarine. Family and Oil Business On January 6, 1945, while on leave from the Navy, Bush married Barbara Pierce (1925-) in Rye, New York . The couple had met as teenagers at a dance.

The Bushes went on to have six children: George (1946-), Robin (1949-53), John (known as Jeb, 1953-), Neil (1955-), Marvin (1956-) and Dorothy (1959-). After completing his military service in September 1945, Bush enrolled at Yale University, where he studied economics and was captain of the baseball team and a member of Skull and Bones, an elite secret society. He graduated in 1948 then moved his family to Texas , where he began a prosperous career in the oil industry, eventually becoming president of an independent offshore oil drilling company. Political Career In 1964, Bush won the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas, but lost in the general election. Two years later, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served two terms. In 1970, he ran for the U.S. Senate but again was defeated in the general election. President Richard Nixon (1913-94) then appointed Bush the U.S.

ambassador to the United Nations, a role in which he served from 1971 to 1973, when he became chairman of the Republican Party. In that capacity, on August 7, 1974, amidst the Watergate scandal, Bush formally requested that Nixon resign the presidency. Nixon officially stepped down two days later. In the fall of 1974, Nixon’s successor, President Gerald Ford (1913-2006) appointed Bush as the head of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China, where he served until becoming director of the CIA in January 1976. After Democrat Jimmy Carter (1924-) was elected president, Bush resigned from the CIA in January 1977. Vice Presidency: 1981-1989 In 1980, Bush ran for the Republican presidential nomination but lost to Ronald Reagan . The former actor and governor of California selected Bush as his vice-presidential running mate, and the two defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale (1928-) in the general election.

After two terms as vice president under Reagan, Bush became the Republican presidential nominee in 1988. With running mate Dan Quayle (1947-), a U.S. senator from Indiana , Bush defeated Democratic challenger Governor Michael Dukakis (1933-) of Massachusetts and his running mate Lloyd Bentsen (1921-2006). Bush captured 426 electoral votes and more than 53 percent of the popular vote, to Dukakis’ 111 electoral votes and more than 45 percent of the popular vote. Presidency: 1989-1993 A key focus of Bush’s presidency was foreign policy. He began his time in the White House as Germany was in the process of reunifying, the Soviet Union was collapsing and the Cold War was ending. Bush would be credited with helping to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), and in July 1991, the two men signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Bush also authorized military operations in Panama and the Persian Gulf.

In December 1989, the United States invaded Panama and overthrew the nation’s corrupt dictator, Manuel Noriega (1934-), who was threatening the security of Americans who lived there and trafficking drugs to the United States. Then, after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) launched an invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990 and threatened to invade Saudi Arabia, Bush organized a military coalition of more than 30 countries who began a U.S.-led air assault against Iraq in mid-January 1991. After five weeks of the air offensive and 100 hours of a ground offensive, Operation Desert Storm ended in late February with Iraq’s defeat and Kuwait’s liberation. On the domestic front, Bush, a moderate conservative, signed such important pieces of legislation as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. He made two appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court: David Souter (1939-) in 1990, and Clarence Thomas (1948-) in 1991.

While Bush gained support among the American public for his foreign policy initiatives, his popularity at home was marred by an economic recession. After promising “no new taxes” in his presidential campaign, he upset some by raising tax revenues in an effort to deal with a rising budget deficit.In 1992, Bush lost his bid for re-election to Governor Bill Clinton (1946-) of Arkansas . Clinton won 370 electoral votes and 43 percent of the popular vote, while Bush captured 168 electoral votes and 37.5 percent of the popular vote. Third-party candidate Ross Perot (1930-) garnered approximately 19 percent of the popular vote. Post-presidency In 2000, Bush’s son George, a two-term Texas governor, was elected president. The Bushes were the second father and son to ascend to the presidency. (The first were John Adams , the second U.S. president, and John Quincy Adams , the sixth U.S. president). Another Bush son, Jeb, was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007 Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today.

Tags American History: The Presidential Election of 1988 American History: The Presidential Election of 1988 August 08, 2012 George Bush and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis at their final debate Share See comments Read, listen and learn English with this story. Double-click on any word to find the definition in the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary. STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. This week in our series, we look at the presidential election of nineteen eighty-eight. (MUSIC) ► Listen to this story in high-quality 192kbps audio (or right-click/option-click to save) Ronald Reagan was finishing his second term. He was America's fortieth president and one of the most popular. During his eight years in office, many Americans did well financially. Many felt more secure about the future of the nation and the world. The possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union did not seem as great a threat as it had in the past. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. So, in nineteen eighty-eight, the country prepared to elect a new chief executive.

There were three main candidates for the Republican Party nomination. They were George Herbert Walker Bush, Bob Dole and Pat Robertson. Bush had just served eight years as Reagan's vice president. Dole was the top Republican in the Senate. Robertson was a conservative Christian who had his own television program. Ronald Reagan's popularity helped George Bush gain the Republican nomination. Neither Dole nor Robertson won enough votes in the primary election season to be a threat. Bush was nominated on the first vote at the party convention. The delegates accepted his choice for vice president, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. Eight candidates competed for the nomination of the Democratic Party. One of the candidates was Jesse Jackson, a black minister and political activist. He won about twenty-five percent of the delegates. He had also sought the nomination four years earlier. The Democrats chose Michael Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts. His running mate was Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. In public opinion surveys Dukakis looked like a strong candidate after the party conventions. But then he began to lose popularity. Many observers said he had waited too long to launch a nationwide campaign. The candidates heavily attacked each other through campaign advertising on television.

Dukakis came under attack from the Bush campaign, targeting his record as a governor. Campaign ads said Dukakis had not been tough enough with criminals. ANNOUNCER: “Bush and Dukakis on Crime. Bush supports the death penalty for first degree murderers. Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty – he allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. One was Willy Horton, who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him nineteen times. Despite a life sentence, Horton received ten weekend passes from prison. Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. Weekend prison passes – Dukakis on crime.” Ads by the Bush campaign also said Dukakis would weaken America’s military power. And they accused him of not protecting the environment by seeking a permit to dump sewage from Massachusetts off the coast of New Jersey. ANNOUNCER: “The Environmental Protection Agency called Boston Harbor one of the dirtiest harbors in America. But not long ago, Governor Dukakis proposed a way to help clean it up – by dumping Massachusetts sewage sludge off the New Jersey shore, just one hundred and six miles from New York.

Now, Michael Dukakis says he wants to do for America, what he’s done for Massachusetts. New Jersey can’t afford to take that risk.” DUKAKIS: “I’m fed up with it -- never seen anything like it in twenty-five years of public life.” Dukakis fought back. DUKAKIS: “George Bush’s negative TV ads distorting my record -- full of lies, and he knows it.” Dukakis accused Bush of not telling the truth about his part in the secret sales of arms to Iran to finance contra rebels in Nicaragua. He also criticized Bush for being part of an administration that reduced social programs. DUKAKIS: “I must have been living through a different eight years from the ones the vice president’s been living through, because this administration has cut and slashed, and cut and slashed programs for children, for nutrition, for the kinds of things that can help these youngsters to live better lives. “It’s cut federal aid to education, has cut Pell Grants and loans, to close the door to college opportunity on youngsters all over this country.

And that, too, is a major difference between the vice president and me.” (MUSIC) In the end, Bush's campaign succeeded in making Dukakis look weak on crime and defense. Dukakis did not help himself with a commercial in which he was looking out of a moving tank while wearing a large helmet. Many people made fun of the ad. On Election Day in November, Bush defeated Dukakis by almost seven million votes. George Bush was sworn into office on January twentieth, nineteen eighty-nine. GEORGE BUSH: "No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference, if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made -- not of gold and silk, but of better hearts and finer souls -- if he can do these things, then he must. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do." (MUSIC) George Bush was the son of a United States senator and had led a life of public service.

He joined the Navy when America entered World War Two. He flew attack planes. He was just eighteen years old -- at that time, the youngest pilot the Navy ever had. He flew many bombing raids against the Japanese in the Pacific. He was shot down once and rescued by an American submarine. George Bush came home from the war as a hero. He became a university student and got married. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. He ran for the United States Senate in nineteen sixty-four, and lost. Two years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate again in nineteen seventy, and lost again. But by that time, he had gained wider recognition. Over the next eight years, he was appointed to a series of government positions. He was ambassador to the United Nations. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was America's representative in China before the two countries had diplomatic relations. And he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency. In nineteen eighty, Bush ran against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. Bush lost but became Reagan's running mate. After two terms as vice president, he felt ready to lead the nation himself.

The new president took seven foreign trips during his first year in office. In Europe, Bush met with the other leaders of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He proposed a major agreement on reducing troops and non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The Soviet Union considered his proposal an important step in the right direction. (MUSIC) In June of nineteen eighty-nine, the Chinese government sent tanks and troops to crush pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of demonstrators were killed. President Bush took some steps against China, but many critics felt the sanctions were not strong enough. In central and eastern Europe, communist governments also faced protests. Since nineteen eighty-seven, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had let countries in the Warsaw Pact experiment with political and economic reforms. But those reforms were not enough to stop the fall of communist governments in one country after another. In the summer of nineteen eighty-nine, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland. Both nations were trying to develop free-market economies. Both were suffering as they moved away from central control. (AUDIO: Polish Solidarity Union demonstrators singing) In Poland the leader of the Solidary trade union, Lech Walesa, led the push for reform.

(AUDIO: Walesa addressing rally in Polish) He would later become president of a democratic Poland. [MONTAGE: BERLIN WALL] (AUDIO: West German “Tagesschau” television evening news program anchor announcing opening of Berlin Wall; car horns; crowds at wall) November of nineteen eighty-nine brought a dramatic expression of the changes taking place in eastern Europe. On November ninth, East Germany opened the wall that had divided it from the West since nineteen sixty-one. ANNOUNCER (over ABC New Theme): “From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, reporting tonight from Berlin.” PETER JENNINGS: “From the Berlin Wall specifically. Take a look at them. They’ve been there since last night. They are here in the thousands; they are here in the tens of thousands. Occasionally they shout ‘Die Mauer muss weg!’ – the Wall must go! “Thousands and thousands of West Germans come to make the point that the wall has suddenly become irrelevant. Something, as you can see, almost to party on. How do you measure such an astonishing moment in history?

“The East German government said tonight they were going to make more openings in the wall, at least a dozen more, put bulldozers right through the wall, so that more people could cross to the West. The East German communist leadership tonight said there’d be a new election law guaranteeing secret elections which the rest of the world could monitor. “And only twenty-four hours after East Germans were told they could go anywhere, anytime, the Soviet Union said – That was a sensible move!” Within days, citizens and soldiers began tearing the wall down as the world watched with hope for a new era of peace. SONG: “Freiheit” (Freedom) JENNINGS: “What’s it feel like to be standing on top of the Wall?” YOUNG GERMAN MAN [#1]: “Incredible. For me, it’s…I can’t describe really my feelings. It’s something unreal for me.” YOUNG GERMAN MAN [#2]: “If there is someone who sleeps for eight weeks, and you told him what happened here, he thinks you are crazy.

It’s unthinkable [hard to imagine].” SONG: “Freiheit” (MUSIC) The fall of the Berlin Wall pointed to the end of the Soviet Union, the end of Communist rule in most of the countries in the former Soviet Bloc – and the end of more than 40 years of the Cold War between the East and West. The presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush will be remembered as the time during which these world changing events took place, as well as the beginning of the Persian Gulf War with Iraq, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. ___ The Election of 1988 About Watch and Favorite Watch Watching this resources will notify you when proposed changes or new versions are created so you can keep track of improvements that have been made. Favorite Favoriting this resource allows you to save it in the “My Resources” tab of your account.

There, you can easily access this resource later when you’re ready to customize it or assign it to your students. The Election of 1988 The 1988 United States presidential election was defined by the victory of Republican George H.W. Bush over Democrat Michael Dukakis. Learning Objective Describe the election of 1988 Key Points In the election of 1988, Republican George H.W. Bush capitalized on a good economy and a stable international stage, while Democrat Michael Dukakis ' campaign suffered from several miscues. The result was a third consecutive Republican win. After President Reagan's image was tarnished in the Iran-Contra scandal, and with Democrats winning back control of the Senate in the 1986 congressional elections, Democratic leaders felt more optimistic about winning the presidency in 1988. During the election year, the Bush campaign sought to portray Dukakis as an unreasonably left-wing liberal and critiqued him for opposing mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, and being a member of the ACLU. Bush adopted a largely Reaganesque style on matters of economic policy, promising to shrink government and keep taxes low.

In the November 8 election, Bush won a majority of the popular vote and a lopsided majority of states in the Electoral College . Terms Full Text Overview The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan could not seek reelection after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the 22nd Amendment . Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the Democrats nominated Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Bush capitalized on a good economy, a stable international stage, and Reagan's popularity, while Dukakis's campaign suffered from several miscues. The result was a third consecutive Republican landslide victory. George H. W. Bush became the 41st president of the United States. Michael Dukakis at a campaign rally at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on the eve of the 1988 election. The Campaign In the 1984 presidential election, the Democrats nominated Walter Mondale , a traditional New Deal-type liberal, as their candidate. When Mondale was defeated in a landslide, party leaders became eager to find a new approach to win the presidency.

After Reagan's image was tarnished in the Iran-Contra scandal, and with Democrats winning back control of the Senate in the 1986 congressional elections, Democratic leaders felt more optimistic about winning the presidency in 1988. Confident they could win back the White House, Democrats mounted a campaign focused on more effective and competent government under the leadership of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. When Bush found himself down in the polls, political advisor Lee Atwater launched an aggressively negative media campaign, accusing Dukakis of being soft on crime and connecting his liberal policies to a brutal murder in Massachusetts. The Bush campaign sought to portray Dukakis as unreasonably left-wing and critiqued him for such positions as opposing mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, and being a member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). More importantly, Bush adopted a largely Reaganesque style on matters of economic policy, promising to shrink government and keep taxes low. Official portrait of George H. W. Bush, former President of the United States of America (1989). Results In the November 8 election, Bush won a majority of the popular vote and a lopsided majority of states in the Electoral College.

Although his victory was not a landslide in the popular vote, Bush was the last Republican to carry certain states that have since gained a reputation as "blue states" favoring the Democratic party , including Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey , Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania , Michigan, Illinois, and California. This, in fact, was the last election to date in which a Republican presidential nominee won a majority of northern electoral votes. Bush's victory percentage of 53.4% has not yet been surpassed in any subsequent presidential election, and he was the last candidate to get a majority of the popular vote, until his son, George W. Bush, in the 2004 election. American History: George Herbert Walker Bush Is Elected President in 1988 (VOA Special English 2007-07-11) George Herbert Walker Bush Is Elected President in 1988 Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Tony Riggs with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell the story about the presidential election of 1988.

America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan, was one of the most popular. During his eight years in office, many Americans did well financially. Many felt more secure about the future of the nation and the world. The threat of nuclear war did not seem so strong or frightening. American law does not permit presidents to serve more than two terms. So, in 1988, the country prepared to elect a new one. There were three main candidates for the Republican Party nomination. They were George Bush, Robert Dole, and Pat Robertson. Bush had just served eight years as vice-president. Dole was the top Republican in the Senate. Robertson was a very conservative Christian who had a nation-wide television program. George Bush gained from Ronald Reagan's popularity. Reagan's successes were seen as Bush's successes, too. Neither Robert Dole nor Pat Robertson won enough votes in local primary elections to threaten Bush. He was nominated on the first vote at the party convention. The delegates accepted his choice for vice president, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. Eight candidates competed for the Democratic Party's nomination. One was Michael Dukakis. He was governor of Massachusetts. Another was Jesse Jackson.

He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. He had competed for the nomination four years earlier. In 1988, Jesse Jackson received about twenty-five percent of the votes in local primary elections. But he did not win his party's nomination. Delegates at the convention chose Governor Dukakis, instead. For vice president, they chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. For a time after the party conventions, public opinion studies showed that a majority of Americans would vote for Dukakis. Then, however, Dukakis began to lose popularity. Political observers said he campaigned too long in his home area before starting the national campaign. Dukakis also suffered from criticism from George Bush. Bush attacked his record as governor. He said Dukakis had not been severe enough with criminals. He said Dukakis would weaken America’s military power and he accused Dukakis of not protecting the environment. Governor Dukakis made charges of his own. He accused Bush of not telling the truth about his part in what was called the Iran-Contra case. He said Bush knew that the government had sold weapons to Iran in exchange for Iran's support in winning the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

And he said Bush knew that the money received for the weapons was being used illegally to aid Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He also criticized Bush for being part of an administration that reduced social services to poor people and old people. Television played a large part in the campaign of 1988. Each candidate made a number of short television films. Some of these political advertisements were strong, bitter attacks on the other candidate. Sometimes it seemed the candidates spent as much time on negative campaign advertisements as they did on advertisements that made themselves look good. In the end, Bush's campaign was more effective. He succeeded in making Dukakis look weak on crime and military issues. He succeeded in making himself look stronger and more decisive. On Election Day in November, Bush defeated Dukakis by almost seven million popular votes. George Bush was sworn-in on January twentieth, 1989. In his inaugural speech he said: BUSH: "No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are.

But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference, if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made -- not of gold and silk, but of better hearts and finer souls -- if he can do these things, then he must ... We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do." George Bush had led a life that prepared him for public service and leadership. His father had served as a United States senator. When America entered World War Two, George decided to join the Navy. He became a pilot of bomber planes. He was just 18 years old -- at that time the youngest pilot the Navy ever had. He fought against the Japanese in the Pacific battle area. He completed many dangerous bombing raids. He was shot down once and was rescued by an American submarine. George came home from the war as a hero. He became a university student and got married. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. He ran for the United States Senate in 1964, and lost.

Two years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate again in 1970, and lost again. But by that time, he had gained recognition. Over the next eight years, he was appointed to a series of government positions. He was ambassador to the United Nations. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was America's representative in China before the two countries had diplomatic relations. And he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1980, Bush competed against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. He lost. But the party chose him to be its vice presidential candidate. Bush gained more power in the position than many earlier vice presidents. After two terms, he felt ready to lead the nation. The new president took seven foreign trips during his first year in office. Observers said his visit to Europe in the spring was especially successful. President Bush met with the leaders of the other countries in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He proposed a major agreement on reducing troops and non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The Soviet Union called this proposal a serious and important step in the right direction. In June, the government of China crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.

President Bush ordered some restrictions against China to protest the situation. Many critics, however, felt that this action was not strong enough. Unlike in China, communist governments in central and eastern Europe were not able to prevent the coming of democracy. Since 1987, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had permitted members of the Warsaw Alliance to experiment with political and economic reforms. Reforms were not enough, however. One after the other, these countries rejected communism. Communist governments were removed from office in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. In the middle of the summer, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland. Both nations were trying to reform their economies. Both were suffering from severe problems as they changed from a centrally controlled economy to an economy controlled by free market forces. President Bush promised America's advice and financial help. For almost 50 years, the United States had led the struggle against communism around the world. Now, many of its former enemies needed help. In the autumn of 1989, there was a dramatic expression of the changes taking place in the world. On November 9th, East Germany opened the wall that had divided it from the West since 1961.

Within days, citizens and soldiers began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended almost fifty years of fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. All over the world, people renewed their hopes and dreams of living in peace. And former enemies looked to the United States to lead the way. This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Tony Riggs. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. U.S. Presidential Election 1988 U.S. Presidential Election 1988 US Prez Polls' Results Declared: Donald Trump President Elect, Mike Pence VP The much anticipated results of the US Presidential elections were finally declared late on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party has scored a landslide victory. Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence are going to be the next President and Vice President of the USA. Republican Dominance in House of Reps to Stay The Republicans' dominance in the US House of Representatives is set to continue.

While the party may find it difficult to retain majority in the Senate, continued Republican dominance in the House could hamper any legislative agenda taken up by Clinton, in case she is elected. On the other hand, Trump's victory could lead to a prompt demise of outgoing President and Democrat member Barack Obama's health reforms.﻿ Tweets about @Mapsofworld The presidential election of 1988 was a contest between incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush and the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis. Vice President Bush rode on President Ronald Reagan's popularity and the improved economy, and won the election in a landslide victory. George H. W. Bush became the forty-third President of the United States. Since incumbent President Reagan was unable to run for reelection as per the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, after already having served two full terms, his vice president was the next best choice. Reagan threw his support behind his vice president, who campaigned on continuing Reagan's policies and promising to not add any new taxes. Bush was elected without opposition at the Republican National Convention, choosing Dan Quayle, a senator from Indiana, to be his vice presidential nominee.

The Democratic Party decided to choose a new candidate, after the enormous failure of Walter Mondale in the election of 1984. The party knew they needed a strong, centrist candidate who could unify the party. Many candidates were considered, including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Senators Al Gore and Joe Biden. Mondale's main opponent during the 1984 primary season, Senator Gary Hart, was an early frontrunner until he dropped out of the race. Finally, Governor Michael Dukakis took the lead in six of Super Tuesday's contests. At the Democratic National Convention, Dukakis beat out his nearest competitor, Jackson, by a wide margin, to become the Democratic nominee. His vice presidential nominee was Lloyd M. Bentsen, a senator from Texas. Ron Paul of Texas ran as the Libertarian Party candidate with vice presidential nominee Andre V. Marrou. During the campaign, Dukakis was seen as too liberal to appeal to the nation as a whole. His lack of military knowledge and experience was highlighted by the Republican Party, which damaged his image with conservative voters. A fierce campaign strategy by the Republicans effectively ended Dukakis's chances at winning the election, despite his success during the first presidential debate.

Bush won forty of the fifty states, and a grand total of 426 electoral votes to become the next President of the United States. His popular vote victory was just over 53 percent of the vote, with Dukakis not far behind at 45 percent. Bush won several states which have gone to the Democratic candidate in every election ever since, including California and much of the Northeast. The breakdown of candidates and electoral votes was as follows: Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis - Biography - IMDb Michael Dukakis Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (15) | Personal Quotes (2) Overview (3) 5' 8" (1.73 m) Mini Bio (1) Michael Dukakis, three-term governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who served longer in that post than any other person in history, is best remembered in history as the 1988 Democratic candidate for President in an election in which Ronald Reagan 's vice president, George Bush , effectively used "Swift Boat" tactics to undermine Dukakis' candidacy.

Born Michael Stanley Dukakis on November 3, 1933 to Greek-immigrant parents in Brookline, Massachusetts (the birthplace of both John F. Kennedy and his 1988 Presidential opponent Bush). Dukakis' father was a Harvard-educated physician and his mother was a Massachusetts schoolteacher. She worked to eliminate first her native Greek accent and then her New England accent to remove imperfections from her speech pattern that might hinder her teaching ability. In a time and place where non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicity was looked down upon (even that of the Irish Americans who emigrated to the U.S. with the ability to speak English and a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon politics) and even proved a hindrance to social mobility, the Dukakis family was committed to assimilation.

Part of the bad rap against Dukakis that would cost him his first reelection campaign as governor and his bid for the White House was that he was too stiff and formal; yet, being brought up in an era and place in which overt displays of emotion were looked down upon upon by the ruling class of Boston Brahmins as too "ethnic" (as well as betraying lower-caste origins), one can understand Dukakis' coolness and reserve as being an attempt not to be stereotyped by his social "betters". (His contemporary, three-term New York governor Mario Cuomo , said that when he entered law practice in the early 1950s, he was told to ditch his Italian name and rename himself something along the lines of "Mike COnnors". He, of course, refused, though that type of ethnic cleansing was considered normal among upwardly mobile and socially ambitious "urban ethnics" of the time.) The class system in Boston was so strict before being shattered by John F. Kennedy 's presidency that JFJ's father, Joseph P.

Kennedy , felt the need to relocate his family to New York City in the 1930s so that they would no grow up amidst anti-Irish prejudice. Despite the fact that he was one of the richest men in the country and his wife was the daughter of a Boston mayor, an Irish Catholic was beyond the pale, socially, to the Boston Brahmins, the brethren of the Cabot and Lodge families that dominated the self-proclaimed "Hub" of the universe. (A local ditty went about Boston hailed the Hub as "...the land of the bean and the cod,/Where the Lodges speak only to the Cabots,/And the Cabots speak only to God.) After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1955, Dukakis served as an enlisted intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army. After completing his military service, he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1960. After serving in the General Court (Massachusetts legislature), Dukakis was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1974, defeating the incumbent Republican Francis W. Sargent.

The commonwealth was undergoing a fiscal crisis and the Republican Party was very unpopular in the commonwealth, the only state that had been won in the electoral college by 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern two years before. Dukakis' victory was the result, partially, of his taking a pledge not to increase the state's sales tax to balance the state budget, but he reneged on the promise soon after taking office. During the great Blizzard of 1978, which shut down Boston and a good deal of the Commonwealth, "The Duke" went into local TV studios in a sweater to announce emergency bulletins. The coldness of his public persona in the midst of the crisis was likened to that of the weather itself, and hurt his popularity. Combined with a nation-wide and local backlash against the high property tax rates, and his reneging on his promise to not raise the sales tax, he lost to Edward J. King in the Democratic primary, as King capitalized on the issue of taxes. Following California's lead, the voters of the Commonwealth voted for Proposition 2 and 1/2 that limited property tax rates to 2 1/2% of the property valuation.

Dukakis defeated King in in the Democratic primary in 1982, and easily defeated his Republican opponent to be reelected governor. (Fellow future Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry was elected Lieutenant Governor on the same ballot with Dukakis, serving in the Dukakis administration from 1983 to 1985, when he was took Paul Tsongas 's Senate seat.) The second term and the first years of Dukakis' third term as governor were very successful (he won re-election in 1986 with over 60% of the vote), during which time he presided over a booming economy fueled by the high-technology industry, second at the time only to that of California. A reform-minded technocrat, Dukakis was given credit for the "Massachusetts Miracle" (part of the credit of which should be attributed to Masssachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neil, who had taken over JFK's old congressional district, who as the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House helped direct billions in defense spending to the Commonwealth). The National Governors Association voted Dukakis the most effective governor in 1986, positioning Dukakis for a bid for the presidency.

Basing his candidacy as the architect of the "Massachusetts Miracle", Dukakis overcame the other contenders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination (a group dubbed the "Seven Dwarfs" by the media for their collective lack of stature or prominence on the national stage; Dukakis' own personal lack of stature). The success of the Dukakis' campaign was largely attributed to campaign manager John Sasso, who had originally worked for rival candidate Joseph Biden. (Having also managed the campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry , Sasso is now 0-3 in presidential election contests.) Dukakis came out of the Democratic convention with an overwhelming lead over Ronald Reagan's heir-apparent, Vice President George Bush , the Republican nominee, but would not or could not handle the dirty campaign tactics that were the stock-in-trade of all the Vice President's men, including Lee Atwater . While the Dukakis camp expected an attack on their candidate as a traditional liberal, they did not seem to be able to cope with the McCarthyite vitriol from the Bush camp, which sought to make the "L" word the equivalent of what communism had been in the early 1950s.

Harking back to McCarthy, Bush had accused Dukakis during one of their televised debates as being a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union," replacing "communist" with the ACLU (a variation of the "L"-word) and recycling an old charge from the '50s against liberals and "fellow travelers". Unlike future Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (who had delivered the key-note address at the 19988 Democratic convention), who when confronted with Bush's dirty tactics, such as pillorying his wife Hillary, shot back that "I'm not running for First Lady", thus touching on Bush's Achilles heel, the "Wimp Factor" -- Dukakis would not fight back. He either was constitutionally unable to fight back, or thought it beneath his dignity to answer the smears and accusations. Issues the Bush campaign chose to highlight were his veto of legislation requiring public school teachers to lead pupils in the Pledge of Allegiance and his opposition to capital punishment.

As it had during the Big Blizzard, The Duke's stoical personality as projected to the voting public was interpreted as a lack of passion (which ran against the traditional stereotype of the Greek-American being fiery if not hot headed, an image that Dukakis, like his mother earlier, chose to expunge from his being). His opponents, touching on his reputation as a technocrat and superb administrator, referred to him as "Zorba the Clerk." Nevertheless, Dukakis widely was perceived to have performed well in the first presidential debate with Bush, and his candidacy was buoyed by his running mate, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who was not afraid to take off the gloves. However, in the second debate, the runner stumbled; Dukakis had been suffering from the flu.

Still, his performance was poor and played to his reputation as being cold, particularly his response to moderator Bernard Shaw 's question, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Projecting himself as a man of reason, Dukakis replied with no visible emotion, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life," and then explained his stance. Many observers felt Dukakis' answer lacked the normal emotions one would expect of a person discussing a loved one's rape and death. Many - including the candidate himself - believe that this, in part, cost Dukakis the election, as his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42% nationally overnight. Other commentators thought the question itself was unfair, in that it injected an irrelevant emotional element into the discussion of a policy issue. Arguably the greatest issue of the campaign was that of race and crime, as articulated by the Bush camp in the prison furlough program issue.

Framed by Lee Atwater , the Bush camp ran ads that criticized Dukakis for a prison furlough program that resulted in the release of convicted murderer Willie Horton , an African American, who committed a rape and assault in Maryland after fleeing Massachusetts. While it was Al Gore during the Democratic primaries that was the first candidate to publicly raise the furlough issue and highlight the fact that a furloughed prisoner had broken into a house, raped a woman and beaten her husband, Gore never mentioned Horton by name or highlighted the fact that he black, as the TV ads did merely by running his picture. Despite the fact that the furlough program was started before Dukakis' gubernatorial administration and that the federal government under Ronald Reagan had a similar program that had resulted in similar outcomes, candidate Bush decided to play the race and crime card to boost his candidacy. Bush mentioned Horton by name in a speech in June 1988 and an "independent" political action committee (PAC) legally not affiliated with the Bush campaign, the National Security Political Action Committee, aired an ad entitled "Weekend Passes" which used a mug shot image of the African American Horton.

The Bush campaign refused to repudiate it, and indeed, followed it up with its own, official campaign ad, "Revolving Door," criticizing Dukakis over the furlough program without mentioning Horton. The first Bush to be president also hammered on the patriotism theme (and unlike his son, an errant National Guard pilot during the Vietnam War, George H.W. Bush was an authentic war hero, serving honorably during the Second World War) to undermine Dukakis by portraying him as soft on defense, in regards to the controversial "Star Wars" Space Defense Initiative program, which Dukakis promised to scale down. The response to this provocation lead to a public relations disaster when the Dukakis campaign engineered a photo-op at the General Dynamics plant in Michigan in September 1988, in which The Duke was photographed driving an M1 Abrams tank. Filmed wearing a safety helmet that seemed too large for his head, Dukakis looked awkward, out of place, and decidedly uncomfortable in such a military setting.

Footage of Dukakis was used by the Bush campaign as evidence he would not make a good commander-in-chief, and "Dukakis in the tank" is still shorthand among political operatives for disastrous public relations outings. The campaign arguably was the dirtiest since the 19th century until Bush's son ran for reelection against John Kerry in 2004. Dukakis lost the 1988 election and retired from active politics after his gubernatorial term expired in 1991. The "Massachusetts Miracle" expired during the lead up to the recession that gripped America in the Bush administration, and The Duke's popularity withered as he was forced to significantly raise taxes. He did not run for a fourth term in 1990; controversial Boston University President John Silber, a social reactionary who was dubbed by Ronald Reagan his "Favorite Demcorat" won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and narrowly lost the general election to William Weld , ushering in nearly two decades of Republican governors in the heavily Democratic Commonwealth of Massachusetts. After the end of his term, he served on the board of directors for Amtrak.

Splitting his time between Boston and Los Angeles, California, he became a professor of political science at Boston's Northeastern University and a visiting professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dukakis has recently developed a strong passion for grassroots campaigning and the appointment of precinct captains to coordinate local campaigning activities, two strategies he feels are essential for the Democratic Party to compete effectively in both local and national elections. His policies have become gospel to Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic Central Committee. He also has taken a strong role in advocating for effective public transportation and high speed rail as a solution to automobile congestion and the lack of space at airports. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood Spouse (1) ( 20 June 1963 - present) (3 children) Trivia (15) First cousin of Olympia Dukakis . Presidential candidate 1988.

Question: Who was the Democratic candidate defeated by George Bush Snr in 1988?
Answer: Michael Dukakis