People: Bush in '88! Bush in '88!
Bush: Thank you.
Thank you all very, very much.
Brokaw: When George Bush runs for president
to succeed Ronald Reagan,
there is no question about who will head up his campaign.
Baker: It was not something I was enamored with doing.
I mean, I enjoyed being Treasury Secretary,
but there was never any doubt in my mind
that I was going to do it.
Brokaw: Baker has led two previous campaigns for his friend,
and lost both.
This time he's determined to get it right.
Let's go over the top tomorrow for Michael Dukakis!
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
Brokaw: Bush's opponent is Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts,
who starts out with a significant lead.
The Bush team strategy is to portray Dukakis
as an out-of-touch Liberal soft on defense and crime.
TV Campaign Ad: Bush supports the death penalty for first-degree murderers.
Brokaw: A political action committee runs a controversial ad
claiming that Dukakis will release dangerous criminals.
TV Campaign Ad: One was Willie Horton,
who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times.
Stahl: It may be the greatest measure
that they thought they were in trouble,
that they did play the race card.
TV Campaign Ad: Dukakis on crime.
Stahl: What happened this week
when Mr. Bush said he was going to turn positive
and then the very next day he was out on his old negative?
Baker: I think it's a definitional problem.
turning positive doesn't mean that you're not...
Stahl: I interviewed him on Face the Nation about that ad,
and boy, his back went up.
I'm not sure the public would have seen the anger
because he had a great way of smoothing it over.
You did see him toughen up with me.
Baker: Congressman Dick Gephardt,
who himself ran for President of the United States
and is one of the major surrogates
of the Democratic ticket,
said the other day, about our campaign,
"Adolf Hitler would love these people."
Now that's an outrageous statement.
Politics ain't bean bag,
politics is a blood sport.
I damn well know that because I've done a lot of it
and I have the bruises to show for it.
Brokaw: Political commentators condemn the tone of the campaign.
Timothy Naftali: The '88 campaign was so different from the 1980 primary race,
one wondered whether the two men had decided to remake Bush,
or that Bush himself
had fundamentally changed in eight years,
or whether the two men had learned from Ronald Reagan
how you could win in a more conservative America.
Brokaw: Dukakis is ineffective in getting his message across.
On election night,
Bush wins an overwhelming majority of the electoral votes,
and a healthy 7% margin in the popular vote.
Bush: I want to thank my great friend, Houston's son, Jim Baker.
[CHEERS]
Meacham: It's hard to imagine that there would be
a President George H.W. Bush if there hadn't been a Jim Baker.
Baker: It was quite an emotional experience.
I had a lot of pride in the fact that we won it.