political “lightweight” and who would later become
the butt of jokes that belittled his intellectual capaci-
ties. Committing himself to the continuation of Rea-
gan’s conservative agenda with the utterance of the
long-remembered phrase “Read my lips, no new
taxes,” Bush began to steadily erode Dukakis’s one-
time 17 percent edge in the polls.
The Campaign The Bush election team, directed
by James Baker, with Lee Atwater as the tactical
“point man,” went on the offensive from the begin-
ning and maintained an aggressive mode through-
out the campaign. A relentless barrage of negative
advertising, “press leaks,” and rumor-mongering
was leveled at Dukakis, in large part orchestrated by
the hard-nosed operative Atwater. Early innuendos
about Dukakis having had mental problems and
about his wife Katharine having burned an Ameri-
can flag were successfully countered. More serious
were the allegations (translated into “attack ads” in
the media) that Dukakis was a reckless, free-spend-
ing ultraliberal; that he was “soft” on crime and op-
posed the death penalty; that he had vetoed a mea-
sure that would have mandated that the Pledge of
Allegiance be recited in classrooms; and—the most
notorious and damaging of the ads—that the prison
furlough program in Massachusetts had allowed a
felon named William Horton, who had been con-
victed of murder, to escape to Maryland, where he
had committed assault and rape. Dukakis’s speaking
style hurt his cause. To much of the public he came
across as being cold, unsympathetic, and uninspir-
ing, never really mounting an effective counterat-
tack and making his opponent seem less standoffish
in comparison.
The televised debates, which have often turned
elections around, only strengthened the Republican
ticket. Dukakis was given an edge over Bush in the
first debate, and Bentsen embarrassed Quayle in the
vice presidential debate with a memorable put-down
over a putative comparison between the Indiana sen-
ator and the late president John F. Kennedy (“Sena-
tor, I served with Jack Kennedy... Jack Kennedy was
a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy”).
The second Bush-Dukakis debate spelled disaster
for the Democrats. Asked a rather impertinent hypo-
thetical question about how he would feel toward
criminals if his wife were raped, Dukakis answered in
a clinical, unemotional manner that reinforced his
characterization as aloof and unfeeling.
The final polling on November 8, 1988, revealed
a crushing victory for the Republican presidential
ticket: Bush and Quayle had prevailed by 426-111
votes in the electoral college, with a popular vote
margin of 48,886,597 to 41,809,476. The most sub-
stantial third-party totals were compiled by the Lib-
ertarian Party (Ron Paul) at 431,750 and the New Al-
liance (Leonora Fulani) with 217,221.Congressional Races Bush’s victory did not trans-
late into Republican gains on the congressional
level. In fact, in the races for seats in the House of
Representatives, the Republicans registered a loss
of two seats and the Democrats strengthened their
existing majority to 260-175. In the Senate, the Re-
publicans dropped one seat and the Democratic
edge went to 55-45. In a significant change, the long-
serving and highly influential conservative southern
Democrat John C. Stennis of Mississippi declined to
run for another term, and Republican Trent Lott
won the seat with 54.1 percent of the vote over Dem-
ocrat Wayne Dowdy. Lawton Chiles, Florida’s vet-
eran Democratic senator, resigned, and Republican
Connie Mack III defeated Democrat Buddy MacKay
for the vacated seat. Connecticut’s Lowell P. Weicker,
Jr., who had gained some note for his role in the
1973-1974 Watergate investigations, was bumped
from the Senate by Democratic candidate Joseph
Lieberman. Other incumbent Republicans who lost
their seats included Chris Hecht of Nevada and Da-332 Elections in the United States, 1988 The Eighties in America
In the following excerpt from George H. W. Bush’s
acceptance speech at the Republican National Con-
vention, in August, 1988, the presidential nominee
made a promise he would later come to regret:I’m the one who will not raise taxes. My oppo-
nent says he’ll raise them as a last resort, or a
third resort. But when a politician talks like
that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be check-
ing into. My opponent won’t rule out raising
taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me
to raise taxes and I’ll say no. And they’ll push,
and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again, and all I
can say to them is “Read my lips: No new taxes.”“Read My Lips”