(TO BE READY) Ibid.
BUSH WHISPERED HIS CHOICE Quayle, Standing Firm, 5. See also Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes, 383, and GHWB diary, August 16, 1988. Writing Reagan after the incumbent president's Monday night speech to the convention, Richard Nixon said: "You have given George a great send off. It will be close, but if he can make ideology the issue it could mean 4 more years for the Reagan Revolution." (Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, August 16, 1988, Richard M. Nixon Library.) "ONE THING IN MY HEART" GHWB diary, August 16, 1988.
BUSH TOLD BAKER Ibid.
CHECKED OUT A LAST-MINUTE CONCERN Ibid.
BUSH THEN TOLD HIS TEAM Ibid.
THE NEW PICK AND HIS WIFE Author interview with Dan Quayle. See also Quayle, Standing Firm, 39.
DID NOT GO WELL Quayle, Standing Firm, 69; Naftali, GHWB, 5961; LSY, 34647.
"WE NOTIFIED QUAYLE" Author interview with GHWB.
"WAS A MOB SCENE" Quayle, Standing Firm, 7.
(SENT A STAFFER TO A LOCAL BOOKSTORE) James Pinkerton interview, George H. W. Bush Oral History Project, Miller Center.
THE FIRST CALL QUAYLE RECEIVED Author interview with Dan Quayle.
"VICE PRESIDENT BUSH" Ibid.
"THE SURPRISE PLAYED" GHWB diary, August 16, 1988.
THERE WERE QUESTIONS Quayle, Standing Firm, 3040. See also Goldman, Mathews, et al. Quest for the Presidency, 1988, 32028.
"I DID NOT KNOW IN 1969" Quayle, Standing Firm, 30; Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes, 388.
"I KNEW WHAT I HAD TO DO" GHWB diary, August 21, 1988.
BY REAGAN SPEECHWRITER PEGGY NOONAN Naftali, GHWB, 60.
"I MAY NOT BE THE MOST ELOQUENT" WP, August 19, 1988.
HE SPOKE OF AMERICA Ibid.
"READ MY LIPS" HAD BEEN A SOURCE Author interview with Roger Ailes; Peggy Noonan, What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (New York, 1990), 307; Naftali, GHWB, 6061; Darman, Who's in Control?, 19193. See also Bob Woodward, "Origin of the Tax Pledge: In '88, Bush Camp Was Split on 'Read My Lips' Vow," WP, October 4, 1992.
"WHY?" SHE RECALLED Noonan, What I Saw at the Revolution, 307.
"FOR SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS" NYT, August 19, 1988.
IT WAS A WONDERFUL Goldman, Mathews, et al., Quest, 316. Describing the expectations for the speech, Goldman and Mathews wrote: "His spirits seemed to his men to rise with his master's departure from the political and emotional airspace. He was his own man at last, ready, in his own mind, to define himself in words and deeds....His acceptance speech at the close would be the credo people had been demanding of him so long, his statement, eloquent, in its plainness, of who he was and where he meant to lead the nation. The speech, happily for Bush, would prove a brilliant success-so glittering as to mitigate, for a time, the damage he had done himself with his selection of an understudy." (Ibid.) "IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SPEECH" GHWB diary, August 21, 1988.
"I SAY IT" WP, August 19, 1988.
"I WILL KEEP AMERICA" Ibid.
"THAT IS MY MISSION" Ibid.
HE REVELED IN THE POST-SPEECH OVATIONS GHWB diary, August 21, 1988.
THIS HAD BEEN HIS FIRST Author interview with GHWB.
"SOMETIMES,"...BUSH RECALLED Ibid.
"THE WHOLE THING" GHWB diary, August 21, 1988.
THE SEVENTEEN-POINT DUKAKIS LEAD OF MIDSUMMER Goldman and Mathews, Quest, 420. See also Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes, 362; and Naftali, GHWB, 6162.
IT WAS A DAY NYT, September 2, 1988. My account of the Willie Horton matter owes much to Brady, Bad Boy, 200218; Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality (Princeton, NJ, 2001), 16990; Mendelberg, "Executing Hortons: Racial Crime in the 1988 Presidential Campaign," The Public Opinion Quarterly 61, no. 1, Special Issue on Race (Spring 1997), 13457; John G. Geer, In Defense of Negativity (Chicago, 2006); and the sources below.
CAMPAIGNING AS A "TEDDY ROOSEVELT" REPUBLICAN NYT, September 2, 1988.
THE DUKAKIS CAMPAIGN POINTED OUT Ibid.
WHICH WAS TO BE THE SUBJECT Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 12526.
"AS HIS BOAT" NYT, September 2, 1988.
"ONLY ONE, WILLIE HORTON" Ibid. Horton's name itself became an issue. Known as William Horton, Jr., in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune reporting, Horton later maintained in an interview with The Nation that Republicans had dubbed him "Willie" in order "to play on racial stereotypes: big, ugly, dumb, violent, black-'Willie.' I resent that." (Jeffrey M. Elliot, "The 'Willie' Horton Nobody Knows," The Nation, August 23/30, 1993, 2015; Adam Zachary Newton, Narrative Ethics [Cambridge, MA, 1995], 32425; Beth Schwartzapfel and Bill Keller, "Willie Horton Revisited," The Marshall Project, May 13, 2015. https://www.themarshallproject/2015/05/13/willie-horton-revisited. The name "Willie Horton" had apparently been in circulation since at least October 1987, when Horton's victims in the Maryland kidnapping and rape reportedly referred to him that way in a public hearing at the Massachusetts State House. An account of the hearing was published in a story about the furlough issue in the conservative Washington Times in March 1988; the Times piece was reprinted in the similarly conservative Human Events. (Human Events, March 12, 1988.) "Ask Dukakis if he wants a Willie Horton in his basement," Clifford Barnes reportedly said on October 15, 1987. "I'd like to ask him to watch how my wife carries a knife in her hand when I'm not home; how she won't enter the house without neighbors if I'm not home." (Ibid.) THE VICE PRESIDENT HAD SMILED NYT, September 2, 1988.
"A STEADY STREAM OF ONE-LINERS" Ibid.
HAD BECOME EVER MORE WIDELY KNOWN Brady, Bad Boy, 177, 18081.
"GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER" Ibid., 177.
AVAILABLE TO MANY READERS BY MID-TO-LATE JUNE Ibid., 18081. According to Brady, "On June 10 Reader's Digest shipped copies of the July issue to West Coast subscribers. Radio talk shows picked up on the prison-furlough issue immediately, and word doubled back eastward on the airwaves, just in time for the June 25 arrival of newsstand copies across the rest of the nation." (Ibid.) HAD BEEN ATTACKING "UNSUPERVISED WEEKEND FURLOUGHS" Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes, 162. This remark came from the June 9 speech in Texas. (Ibid.) USED HORTON'S NAME Brady, Bad Boy, 181. Brady noted that this was the "first time" Bush had explicitly used Horton's name. (Ibid., 181.) For the speech itself, see George Bush Vice Presidential Audiovisual Recordings, VPP8174A, Remarks of Vice President Bush During Address to the National Sheriffs Association, June 22, 1988, in Louisville, Kentucky. For coverage of the day, see David Hoffman, "Bush Hammers Dukakis on Crime," WP, June 23, 1988; David E. Rosenbaum, "Bush Talks Tough on Crime, Criticizing Prisoner Furlough Program," NYT, June 23, 1988.
"VICE PRESIDENT BUSH" Hoffman, "Bush Hammers Dukakis," WP, June 23, 1988.
AD FEATURING HORTON'S IMAGE For the controversy over the NSPAC Horton ad and the controversy in general, see Brady, Bad Boy, 2048; Gabriel Sherman, The Loudest Voice in the Room (New York, 2014), 12728, 130, 131, 132, 14344; Thomas Byrne Edsall with Mary D. Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics (New York, 1992), 19, 96, 114, 216, 22224; Martin Schram, "The Making of Willie Horton," New Republic, May 28, 1990; Joe Conason, "Roger & He," New Republic, May 28, 1990; Stefan Forbes' 2008 documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story; Sidney Blumenthal, Pledging Allegiance, 224, 22728, 26465, 29596, 3079; Sidney Blumenthal, "Willie Horton & the Making of an Election Issue: How the Furlough Factor Became a Stratagem of the Bush Forces," WP, October 28, 1988; Stephen Engelberg, Richard L. Berke, and Michael Wines, "Bush, His Disavowed Backers and a Very Potent Attack Ad," NYT, November 3, 1988; Naftali, GHWB, 6162; LSY, 33537, 350, 351, 352, 394, 490; Wicker, GHWB, 1012; Baker with Fiffer, Work Hard, 26971; Goldman, Mathews, et al., Quest, 305, 3067, 337, 339, 359, 397; Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 112, 116, 12627. See also Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy (New York, 1992). I also drew on my interviews with GHWB, James A. Baker III, Roger Ailes, Larry McCarthy, Jesse T. Raiford, Floyd Brown, and Roger Stone.
RAN FOR ONLY 28 DAYS ON CABLE NYT, November 3, 1988.
ENDING OCTOBER 4 Brady, Bad Boy, 207.
WAS WIDELY DISCUSSED Ibid., 18990.
THE GROUP, THE NATIONAL SECURITY POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE Ibid., 20410; author interviews with Larry McCarthy and Floyd Brown.
THE BUSH CAMPAIGN WROTE Brady, Bad Boy, 208.
JIM BAKER, THE CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN Baker with Fiffer, Work Hard, 270; WP, October 29, 1988; author interview with James A. Baker III.
"JUST THREE DAYS BEFORE" NYT, November 3, 1988.
"IF THEY WERE REALLY INTERESTED" Ibid.
BAKER RECALLED THAT HE HAD NO IDEA Author interview with James A. Baker III.
"WE WROTE THE LETTER" Ibid.
"IF I CAN MAKE" Brady, Bad Boy, 218. See also NYT, June 8, 1989.
IN A SPEECH TO SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS Thomas B. Edsall, "Race: Still a Force," WP, July 31, 1988.
"THERE IS A STORY" Ibid. See also Blumenthal, "Willie Horton & the Making of an Election Issue," WP, October 28, 1988.
ROGER AILES HAD BEEN QUOTED Richard Stengel with David Beckwith, "The Man Behind the Message," Time, August 22, 1988.
"THE ONLY QUESTION IS" Ibid.
"I MEANT IT AS A WISE-ASS COMMENT" Author interview with Roger Ailes.
(THE TIME CORRESPONDENT WHO) Author interview with David Beckwith. The "bravado" nature of the remark was confirmed in an author interview with Richard Stengel.
AILES AGREED TO PUT THE QUOTE Author interview with Roger Ailes.
AFTER ATWATER HANDED AILES A COPY Ibid.
HAD "HAD A 'FIRM POLICY'" NYT, November 3, 1988.
ASKED WHETHER THE NSPAC AD Ibid.
HAD BEEN MADE BY LARRY MCCARTHY Author interview with Larry McCarthy.
BOTH MEN SAID THAT Author interviews with Larry McCarthy and Jesse T. Raiford.
AILES, ATWATER, BAKER, AND BUSH HIMSELF ALSO SAID Author interviews with Roger Ailes, James A. Baker III, and GHWB. Atwater's denial can be found at NYT, November 3, 1988. The matter was the subject of a Federal Election Commission investigation, the details of which can be found in the record of MUR 3069, http://www.fec.gov/disclosure_data/mur/3069.pdf. It was also the subject of litigation brought by the Ohio Democratic Party: Branstool v. FEC, No. 920284 (D. D. C. Apr. 4, 1995.) "I DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO" Barbara Demick, "Suit Seeks Probe of '88 Horton Ad," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1992.
BAKER HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THAT "SKEPTICS" Baker with Fiffer, Work Hard, 270.
ACCORDING TO BAKER, HOWEVER Ibid.
"NOTHING TO DO" Ibid.
AN AD SHOWING GENERIC PRISONERS Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 126.
BY THE TIME ANY OF THESE ADS Goldman and Mathews, Quest, 42021; Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 11323.
FOOTAGE OF DUKAKIS RIDING IN A TANK Geer, In Defense of Negativity, 12728.
JESSE JACKSON CHARGED Mendelberg, Race Card, 34.
SOME MAINSTREAM OPINION-MAKERS DISAGREED Ibid., 3. In "Executing Hortons," Mendelberg wrote: "While many commentators now view the Willie Horton case as a clear racial appeal, in 1988 it was widely perceived as primarily a message about crime and misguided liberalism, not race." (Mendelberg, "Executing Hortons," The Public Opinion Quarterly 61, no. 1, 139.) THE WASHINGTON POST, FOR EXAMPLE, WROTE "A Racist Campaign?" WP, October 25, 1988.
(THE COLUMNIST MICHAEL KINSLEY) Michael Kinsley, "Yes, a Racist Campaign," WP, October 27, 1988.
"WAS THE USE OF WILLIE HORTON RACIST?" Author interview with Mike Dukakis.
BUSH HIMSELF SAID THAT Author interviews with GHWB.
"I WAS ACCUSED OF" Ibid.
"THE ISSUE WAS FIRST RAISED" Ibid.
HORTON AND THE FURLOUGH ISSUES Ibid.
SOME NFL PLAYERS HAD TOLD BUSH GHWB diary, September 27, 1988.
IN A TENSE EXCHANGE WP, September 26, 1988.
"YOU SEE, LAST YEAR" Ibid.
"WELL, I HOPE THIS IS" Ibid.
THE NUMBERS FOR BUSH E. J. Dionne, Jr., "Bush Leading Dukakis in Two Polls," NYT, September 23, 1988.
REAGAN, WHO HAD CALLED BUSH Presidential Handwriting File-Telephone Calls, File 211, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
"WELL, I KNOW WHO'S" "Remarks at a Republican Campaign Rally in Palos Hills, Illinois," November 4, 1988, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Ronald Reagan: 19881989, bk. 2, July 2, 1988January 19, 1989, 1447.
BUSH WATCHED FROM FORT WORTH GHWB diary, October 8, 1988.
"SENATOR, I SERVED" NYT, October 6, 1988.
"I CALLED HIM" GHWB diary, October 8, 1988.
BERNARD SHAW OF CNN Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes, 59.
"ROGER AILES GAVE ME" GHWB diary, October 13, 1988.
"NOW YOU KEEP READING" Ibid., October 18, 1988.
THE ADULTERY ALLEGATIONS Eleanor Randolph, "Bush Rumor Created Dilemma for Media," WP, October 22, 1988; "Dukakis Aide Quits; Remarks Are Disavowed," LAT, October 21, 1988; WSJ, October 20, 1988.
LED TO A BRIEF DROP "Bush Rumor Created Dilemma," WP, October 22, 1988. The average fell 43 points on Wednesday, October 19, 1988, based, it was believed, on word of the rumored Bush story. (Ibid.) POST EDITORS DENIED Ibid.
THE NEXT DAY, DONNA BRAZILE Ibid.
"I WASN'T ON THE STOCK MARKET" Ibid. See also "Dukakis Aide Quits; Remarks Are Disavowed," LAT, October 21, 1988.
"IT WAS THE UGLIEST" GHWB diary, October 23, 1988.
BRAZILE RESIGNED LAT, October 21, 1988.