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The 1988 United States presidential election was the 51st quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988. In what was the third consecutive landslide election for the Republican Party, their ticket of incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush and Indiana senator Dan Quayle defeated the Democratic ticket of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Texas senator Lloyd ...
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United States presidential election of 1988, American presidential election held on Nov. 8, 1988, in which Republican George Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis.
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.
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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.
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.
The 1988 presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush, the 43rd vice president of the United States under President Ronald Reagan, began when he announced he was running for the Republican Party 's nomination in the 1988 U.S. presidential election on October 13, 1987. [1] Bush won the 1988 election against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis on ...
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) made mistakes in at least four areas during his presidency (1989–1993). His first mistake was his choice of Clarence Thomas to serve as a justice on the US ...
Campaign of 1988: On October 13, 1987, George H. W. Bush announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. He faced three main opponents for the nomination—Senator Robert Dole of Kansas; Pat Robertson, an evangelical leader; and Representative Jack Kemp from New York. Bush stressed his service as vice president in the ...
Nov 10, 1988 · Nov. 10, 1988 12 AM PT. Times Political Writer. Afloat in the cold North Atlantic last summer in his beloved ocean racing boat Fidelity, George Bush took stock. The coming autumn looked forbidding ...
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Dec 4, 2018 · Rarely have six words meant so much, and so many different things, to so many. They rang out in the Superdome in New Orleans in August 1988 as the vice president of the United States, George H.W ...
