1988
“THEN you make an ad out of it and PUT IT ON TV.”
G.H.W. Bush vs Dukakis
Voted: Dukakis
My Conscience: um…
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: Gary Hart, then Paul Simon (loved the tie), then Jessie Jackson (got searched pretty damn good at one of his rallies)
Impressions Heading into Election Day
G.H.W. Bush: Exactly the kind of person I never want to meet. Sketchy, cold, eerily wearing privilege on his everything.
Dukakis: Reminded me of an economics professor who gets his lawn turfed every weekend. If Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Dukakis was born with a fluorescent “Kick me for free pizza” sign on his back.
G.H.W. Bush: 53% with 426 electoral
Dukakis: 46% with 111 electoral
Looking Back: So Democrats, you got creamed in 1984, winning 1 state out of 50. In response you ran a guy who looks like an economics professor whose yard you’d want to turf. Then you put an army helmet on him, put him in a slowly moving tank, and then FILMED IT. THEN you made an ad out of it and PUT IT ON TV.
During a debate, Bush calls this tank driving professor “liberal,” a common and respectable term up to that moment, and in response the dude just stammers like, um…, an economics professor would. Also note, Ron Paul runs as an Independent and gets less than 1% of the vote.
Election Map: Washington and Oregon make appearances for the first time in a very long time as blue states, and New York reemerges blue. These are certainly demographic shifts rather than any particular appeal owned by Dukakis in these regions. A couple other states go for the liberal tank-driving professor.
