302 a short history of the united states
front-runner, Gary Hart, a former senator from Colorado, was obliged
to withdraw when newspapers reported alleged sexual misconduct.
Another candidate, Jesse Jackson, an African-American civil rights
leader, also campaigned for the nomination with the support of what
he called a “rainbow co ali tion” of minorities and the disadvantaged.
Senator Albert Gore was another contender. But Governor Michael
Dukakis of Massachusetts won enough primaries to bring him the
nomination on July 20 when the Democratic National Convention met
in Atlanta. He chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running
mate.
The Republicans, meeting in New Orleans, chose Vice President
George Herbert Walker Bush to head their ticket on August 17 , and
picked Senator J. Danforth Quayle of Indiana to complete the ticket.
In a particularly nasty but effective negative campaign by the
Republicans—in which Dukakis was accused of coddling criminals in
his state and laughed at when shown riding on a tank wearing a
helmet—Bush wiped out Dukakis’s early lead and went on to win
48 , 886 , 097 popular and 426 electoral votes from 40 states, as opposed
to Dukakis’s 41 , 809 , 074 popular and 111 electoral votes from 10 states.
But the Democrats continued to control Congress.
Prior to Reagan’s departure from office several notable measures
were enacted. A tax reform bill exempted a large number of low-income
Americans from paying federal income taxes, eliminated a number of
previously allowed deductions and tax shelters, designated capital gains
as income, reduced the corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent,
and combined a number of personal income brackets. In addition, the
Japanese-American Reparations Act of August 10 , 1988 , provided
$ 20 , 000 to each surviving Japanese-American who had been interned
in a relocation camp during World War II. And welfare reform re-
quired states to provide education and training programs for adult
welfare recipients.
Bush’s election in 1988 marked the first time that a sitting Vice
President moved to the White House, other than by the death or resig-
nation of the President, since Martin Van Buren in the election of 1836.
In his inaugural address Bush said he would attempt to bring about a