 General election logo Primary campaign logo | |
| Campaign | 1988 Democratic primaries 1988 U.S. presidential election |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Michael Dukakis 65th and 67thGovernor of Massachusetts (1975–1979, 1983–1991) Lloyd Bentsen U.S. Senator fromTexas(1971–1993) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Status | Announced: March 16, 1987 Presumptive nominee June 7, 1988 Official nominee July 21, 1988 Lost election: November 8, 1988 |
| Headquarters | Boston |
| Key people | Susan Estrich (campaign manager) Paul Brountas (campaign chair)[1] John Sasso (campaign manager; resigned on October 1, 1987; returned as vice chairman on September 3, 1988)[2][3] Paul Tully (political director; resigned on October 1, 1987)[2] Donna Brazile (deputy field director; resigned on October 20, 1988) |
| Slogan(s) | We're on your side Good jobs at good wages Because the Best America has yet to Come |
| Theme song | "America" byNeil Diamond |
The 1988 presidential campaign ofMichael Dukakis began when he announced his candidacy for theDemocratic Party's nomination forPresident of the United States on March 16, 1987, in a speech inBoston. After winning the nomination, he was formally selected as the Democratic Party's nominee at the party's convention inAtlanta on July 21, 1988.[4][5] He lost the1988 election to his Republican opponentGeorge H. W. Bush, who was the sittingVice President at the time. Dukakis won 10 states and theDistrict of Columbia, receiving a total of 111electoral votes compared to Bush's 426 (Dukakis would have received 112, but onefaithless elector who was pledged to him voted forLloyd Bentsen for president and Dukakis for vice president instead out of protest). Dukakis received 45% of thepopular vote to Bush's 53%.[6] Many commentators blamed Dukakis' loss on the embarrassingphotograph of him in a tank taken on September 13, 1988, which subsequently formed the basis of a successful Republicanattack ad.[7][8] Much of the blame was also laid on Dukakis' campaign, which was criticized for being poorly managed despite being well funded.[9][10] Had Dukakis been elected, he would have been the firstGreek American president, the firstEastern Orthodox president, the firstEastern European American president, and the second governor of Massachusetts to accomplish this feat (afterCalvin Coolidge). Bentsen would have been the second senator from Texas to be elected vice president, afterLyndon B. Johnson.
Michael Dukakis was the 65th and 67thgovernor of Massachusetts, from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991. His running mate,Lloyd Bentsen, was aU.S. senator fromTexas, and a member of theUnited States Senate Committee on Finance who had previously run for the Democratic nomination in1976.
On March 16, 1987, Dukakis, then the Governor ofMassachusetts, gave what has become known as the "Marathon Speech" in Boston in which he hinted that he was running for president in next year's election. He formally announced that he would run in a speech given the following month.[4] Previously, he had been urged to consider running for president byMario Cuomo, who had dropped out the previous month.[11][12] This made him the third declared Democratic candidate for the 1988 election, afterRichard A. Gephardt andBruce Babbitt. Dukakis soon received an outpouring of support from voters throughout the country, which reportedly resulted in him receiving more attention than even he had expected.[13]
By May 1988, Dukakis had become the Democratic Party's front-runner for their nomination in that year's election, thanks to his victories in theNew York andPennsylvania primaries.[14] On June 7, 1988, Dukakis clinched the Democratic Party's nomination by winning all four of the party's last primaries againstJesse Jackson, the only other remaining Democratic candidate at the time. These victories gave Dukakis significantly more delegates than the 2,081 required to win the nomination.[15]
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Dukakis' campaign was focused on his experience as Governor of Massachusetts, during which time Massachusetts had emerged from an economic depression and had become a "bastion of prosperity and full employment".[18] Commentators had described this as the "Massachusetts Miracle", a term Bush dismissed as the "Massachusetts mirage".[19]
On July 12, 1988, Dukakis announced he had chosen Texas senatorLloyd Bentsen as his running mate, in the hopes of garnering more support in theSouth.[20] Dukakis compared his pick toJohn F. Kennedy's pick ofLyndon B. Johnson as his running mate in the1960 election.[21] As a result, his ticket became known as the "Boston-Austin axis", as Bentsen himself described it.[22][23] Shortly after Dukakis made the pick, aTime cover story dubbed Dukakis and Bentsen "the odd couple", andRichard Stengel noted in 1988 that Bentsen was "...more Bush's twin than Dukakis'".[24]James J. Kilpatrick called the pair "TheSominex Twins".[25]
After winning the primaries in 30 states againstJesse Jackson andAl Gore, Dukakis accepted the Democratic Party's nomination at the1988 Democratic National Convention on July 21, 1988, where Governor ofArkansasBill Clinton formally nominated Dukakis.[9]
During the campaign, Dukakis was the target of several now-infamousattack ads by individuals supporting the Bush campaign, most infamously the "Willie Horton" ad produced by the pro-BushNational Security Political Action Committee. Although the Bush campaign disavowed the ad,[26] it still played a major role in Dukakis' defeat.[27] The Dukakis campaign was mired in confusion during the general election, as exemplified by "the Handlers", a series of unintentionally confusing commercials that the campaign produced and aired at a cost of $3 million. Dukakis also erred in not responding to the Horton attack until late in the campaign.[28]
On October 20, 1988,Donna Brazile resigned from her role as deputy field director for the Dukakis campaign after saying that Bush needed to "fess up" about a rumor that he had had anextramarital affair. Her comments were also disavowed by the campaign, and Dukakis personally apologized to Bush for them at theAlfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner that year.[29]
A poll conducted on July 21 and 22 of 1988 found that Dukakis had expanded the size of his lead over Bush to 17 points, with 55% of voters surveyed saying they would prefer Dukakis to win, compared to 38% for Bush.[30] His lead soon began to shrink, however. For example, on July 30, Dukakis criticized the Reagan administration's handling of ethical issues,[31] to whichRonald Reagan himself responded by describing Dukakis as an "invalid", after which his poll numbers dropped by 5 points overnight.[7] By August 11, Dukakis' lead over Bush had shrunk to 7 points,[32] and by August 24, Bush had gained a 4-point lead over Dukakis. Of the dramatic shift in Dukakis' poll numbers,Mervin Field said, "I have never seen anything like this, this kind of swing in favorability ratings, ever since I have seen polls, going back to 1936."[33] Later that year, after the second Bush-Dukakis debate occurred on October 13, Dukakis' numbers dropped by 7 points that night, largely due to his response to a question about whether he would support thedeath penalty for someone if they raped and murdered his wife,Kitty Dukakis, being perceived as emotionless by voters (although others considered the question inherently unfair).[34][35]
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| Transitions | ||
Planned transitions | ||
| Related | ||
Apresidential transition was contingently planned from Reagan to Dukakis.
Dukakis' transition planning efforts' activities were largely undertaken in secrecy.[36] In September 1988, awareness arose of active transition planning when the campaign filed paperwork to establish a Massachusettsnonprofit corporation named "Dukakis Transition '88".[36]
The transition planning was formally chaired by campaign chairman Paul Brountas.[36] However, Marcia Hale was overseeing much of the effort out of an office inBoston.[36] One of the individuals involved in the transition planning was Harrison Wellford, who had been involved inthe pre-election transition planning ofJimmy Carter in 1976, and would later go on to play a role in thepresidential transition of Bill Clinton.[37]
In September, campaign spokesmanMark Gearan stated, "It's a very quiet operation housed separately from the campaign.[36]
Despite having a pre-election transition planning effort of their own, the Bush campaign took a shot at Dukakis for having a transition effort, with Bush spokesperson Mark Goodin remarking, "As usual, they have the cart before the horse. If they spend less time planning for transition and more time campaigning, they would not be behind in the polls. Our position is you need to win the election before you worry about the transition."[36]
If Dukakis had won, he would not only have participated in a presidential transition, but also a gubernatorial transition –as he would have transitioned out of the Massachusetts governorship and handed over that position to his lieutenant governorEvelyn Murphy.[36] Had he won, he would have been the first sitting governor to transition into the presidency sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt was elected in1932.[36]
...Horton...became a decisive part of George H.W. Bush's campaign against Democratic contender Michael Dukakis.
