Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. In the fall of 1986 the white house is myered the scandal. Ronald reagans administration is accused of secretly selling weapons to americas most dangerous enemy, iran. With the profits to find the right wing gorilla group. Your credibility, what does it mean . I imagine i didnt have anything to do with damaging it. Iran could kill his own president ial plans. News of the widening investigation comes as Vice President george bush is trying to put distance between himself and the arms deal. I remember him coming back into his office in the west wing of the white house as though the wind had been knocked out of him. He knew this would be a large and evolving story that he would have a hard tile acceme separat himself from president region and was not something of his making. In february 1987, investigators relieved the secret arms trade was being run from inside the white house. A fuse months ago i told the American People i did not trade arms for american hostages. My heart tells me thats true but the facts and evidence tells me its not as the tower board reported. Regans address to the nation sticks a knife through george bushs dreams. That was probably one of the low moments in the four years i was with him. As the navy would say, this happened on my watch. Lets start with the part thats the most controversial. Like a lot of americans, i was appalled. Whats going on here . Are these people doing . And what is this doing to american democracy. There are reasons why it happened but no excuses. That was really the first time that i started thinking about maybe running for the presidency. Part of that time, i never had given it a second thought. Michael stanley decaucus is the son of first generation european immigrants and proud of it. There is excellence, michael governor. Midway through successful third term as governor of massachusetts, the caucus sees himself as a knight clad in armor made from the american dream. We thought that he was in a good place to be running, having served as governor for quite a few years. What he had done in massachusetts was something that would resonate across the country. If he were running for president a haircut with george the greek would mean this little barbershop would be filled with secret service agents. He says its not an easy decision. Ill never forget my older daughter saying to me, dad, very few people have this opportunity. Youve got a responsibility to do this. Thank youall very much. Thank you. Today a son of greek immigrants named mike dukakis announces his candidacy for the president of the United States. Anyone whose been within six counties of michael heard the story of massachusetts, how a rundown state with double digit unemployment became one of the hottest economies in the country. Dukakis campaign will be run by his chief of staff and harbor law professor. In dukakis you had somebody that was tenacious and driven and unbelievably hard working and disciplined. All my friends from politics were coming together to support a very smart man running for president. Great. So they went to austin and help the guy set up the campaign. I was just a kid in college. And i just went to boston and barged in there and volunteered. Governor dukakis had a rule nobody could be hired unless he personally interviewed them. And i thought to myself why are you talking to me . Im 21 and make photo copies, what are you doing . He said im going to run this campaign, you know, in a very ethical way and i want to make sure everybody that comes to work for me understands that. And i was hooked and i knew i wanted do this. Dukaki sets out to run this partys nomination. There was literally a short list of opponents. There were seven of us. Some of the press rather uncharitably referred to us as the seven dworfs. Joe biden is one of the front runners. I announce my candidacy for the president of the United States of america. Good solid progressive democrat and just an all around good guy. And a fine United States senator. I tell you today that america is a nation at risk. So he came to washington as one of the young senators and widely viewed as a very descent ma man. A very descent man who poses a threat to the president ial ambitions. As the candidates prepare for the First Campaign battle, the iowa caucus, biden finds himself under the microscope like a pinned buck. I was the chief Political Writer for the des moines register, the largest newspaper in iowa. A very respected democratic operative. I got something i want to show you off the record. I said okay. So we went out to his car, and he got in the trunk and handed me a copy of this video tape. I said just take a look at that. Well, i went back to my office. Popped it in the cart. Why is it that joe biden is the first oh, wow, was the kind of story that sucks all the oxygen out of you. My digestive system used to make me feel sluggish but now, i take metamucil every day. It traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. Try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. And if you get lost, just hit me on the old horn. Man toms my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house. Tom its a 10 cover . Oh, okay. Didnt see that on the website. Hes been acting more and more like his dad. Come on, guys jump in the waters fine tom pritchard. How we doin . Hi, there. Tom pritchard. Can we get a round of jalapeno poppers for me and the boys, please . Ive been saving a lot of money with progressive lately, so. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. But we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. But we can protect your home and auto my mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. Its not what champions do. Its what champions dont do. They dont back down. They dont settle. And they dont quit. Except for cable. Cable . Oh you can quit cable. Because we are cougars and we dont quit unless what . . . [team in unison] unless its cable quit cable and switch to directv and get the most live sports in4k more for your thing. Thats our thing. 1800directv hi, kids im carl and im a broker. Do you offer 4. 95 online equity trades . Great question. See, for a full Service Brokerage like ours, thats tough to do. Schwab does it. Next question. Do you offer a satisfaction guarantee . A what now . A satisfaction guarantee. Like schwab does. Man scoffing what are you teaching these kids . Ask your broker if they offer awardwinning full service and low costs, backed by a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. The chief political reporter of iowas leading newspaper has been given a videotape featuring joe biden. Its not a sex tape. Its worse than that. You know, here is joe biden giving a speech. Why is it that joe biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university . Its almost word for word what British Labor party leader neil kinnock said. A way of life, the first kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university. Heres a clip of kinnock and a clip of biden saying the same thing. Was it because they were weak . Those people who could work eight hours underground and then play football. My ancestors who worked in the coal mines in northeast pennsylvania came up after 12 hours and play football for four hours . Biden is stealing kinnocks words without attributing it. I wrote my story, and there were more and more examples of plagiarism, reporters were digging into his past. It was a sign of death by 1,000 cuts. Ive concluded that i will stop being a candidate for president of the United States. But who was behind the leaked tape . Michael dukakis is assessing the damage to his Campaign Following the disclosure that two of his top aides sabotaged the campaign of rival joseph biden. None other than dukakis supposedly squeaky Clean Campaign manager john sasso. I went to johns office and he was saying that dukakis was going to fire him tomorrow. I was like, what . I knocked on the governors door and i said this is crazy. What they did wasnt so wrong. Youre losing the heart and soul of your campaign. He said ive heard all the arguments, no. I spoke to joe biden a few minutes ago on the telephone, and i want to publicly apologize to him for the involvement of my campaign. I just thought it was very important that if i was going to win that nomination, i do so in a way that had democrats feeling good about my candidacy and good about my nomination. I am here today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States. While dukakis is dismantling his team, bush is assembling a gang of political hard men. Republican heavyweight james baker. Veteran strategist roger ailes. And his Campaign Manager, political bruiser, lee atwater. Lee was south carolina, lee was a rabblerousing visceral, loud, streetlevel politician. Bush is on the stump, dogged by questions about his role in the irancontra scandal. He can run for president. But he cant hide. It was by no means a certainty that george bush was going to be the nominee. Please go to the caucuses and vote. Let me get out of the way so you can make a buck here. He had the residual and the cancerous debilitating effect of the irancontra affair. What we decided to do is i would become the most knowledgeable person possible about his involvement, and i would be the only person to talk about it. The campaign wouldnt talk about it, only i would talk about it. And thats the way we operated. Just weeks before the iowa caucus, bush gets a phone call from cbs news anchor dan rather. George bush announced to us he agreed to do this interview. We begin to get calls that rathers operation has shut down everything except his preparation for the interview with george bush and that all the focus is on irancontra, all of it. George bush and craig fuller have been traveling out of town and now make their way back to washington. Were going to do the interview from the Vice President s office in the u. S. Capitol. With the exception of george bush, the rest of us were going into this with a great deal of trepidation. And i remember saying, you know, this is really unfair of rather. Its like judging his career on the time he walked off the set. Dan rather had walked off of the news set, in anger, like a couple of months earlier. But george bush said, you guys, you know, he looks at us like, you guys, you dont understand, this is going to be more thoughtful kind of a discussion. Mr. Vice president , thank you for being with us tonight. Hes listen in an earpiece to rather in new york. Im listening to a telephone hookup to the interview in another room. And as the program begins, the Vice President s hearing this assault, if you will, solely on irancontra. Onethird of the republicans and onefourth of the people who say that they rather like you believe youre hiding something. If you are i am hiding something. Heres a chance to get it out. You know what im hiding . What i call the president , thats the only thing. I thought it was going to be difficult. This is even worse than difficult. You said if you had known this was an arms for hostages swap, you would have opposed it. As im sitting there, i hear its not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on iran. How would you like it if i judged your career by the seven minutes when you walked off the set in new york . Would you like that . Mr. Vice president i respect for you but i dont have respect for what youre doing here tonight. I thought, oh, my god. It was, it was just delivered so perfectly and so appropriately. Id be happy to i want to judged on the whole record. And youre not giving me an opportunity. Im trying to set the record straight. You invited me to come here. Thank you very much for being with us, mr. Vice president. Well be back with more news in a moment. When he came back out, he was not happy. He was not really realizing how well he had done. And im saying, sir, you just knocked it out of the park. Are you kidding . This is one of the greatest interviews that ive ever seen. Bush arrives to campaign in iowa, happy as a clam. We thought we were probably going to win the iowa caucus. Wed just gotten the returns in from iowa, and i congratulate both mr. Dole and senator dole and Pat Robertson. Bush is hammered into third place behind Television Preacher Pat Robertson and Senate Majority leader bob dole. With iowa in his pocket and bush offbalance, dole thinks he stands a chance of upsetting the Vice President in New Hampshire. We were morose, we were shaken, we were rattled. Lee thought this could break us. That there could be no recovery from this. Eight days to go before the most important of the nomination polls, the New Hampshire primary. Having lost iowa, if bush doesnt win New Hampshire, hes not going to win the nomination. Hes dead. With the New Hampshire opportunity is everywhere. Like here. Where you can explore the world knowing you can always find your way home. Vof hundreds of families, hese hmost proud of the one the heads hes kept over his own. Brand vo get paid twice as fast with quickbooks smart invoicing. Quickbooks. Backing you. Missed out on this. Dont worry, the biggest deal is happening right now at tmobile. When you buy one of the latest sumsung phones you get a free 50 samsung 4k tv. Seriously, no [announcer]seriously tmobile is giving you a free 50 tv. You gotta be kidding me. This deal wont last long. So get your free samsung tv at tmobile store today. Woooo pop pop pop they see a bit of gray and think. [screams] luckily, theres magic root cover up from looreal. Three seconds to flawless roots 3 2 1. Done magic root cover up from loreal paris. Follow loreals roots famil ru. Xfinity mobile is a designed to save you money. Even when youve got serious binging to do. Wherever your phone takes you, your wireless bill is about to cost a whole lot less. Use less data with a network that automatically connects you to the most wifi hotspots in millions of places and the best 4g lte everywhere else. Saving you hundreds of dollars a year. And ask how you get Xfinity Mobile included with your internet. Plus, get 200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. Xfinity mobile. Its simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. Primary looming, lee atwater and the team have just over a week to turn bush from a pumpkin into a golden coach. My message to the Vice President and atwater was you have to understand that in New Hampshire, a campaign is what we call see me, touch me, feel me. You have to go and look the voters in the eye. Hey, how are you . What are you having . We had three breakfasts a day in three fast food places. He may not eat everything on his plate, but hes talking to everybody in the diner. You live right in just happen to be coming by. I live here. All were going to win. Were going to win. Bushs campaign is gaining momentum. But senator bob dole is still in the lead. Time to cry havoc and unleash atwater. All we want george. Lee was driven, but not a genius. A lot of his politics was instinctive. A little louder bush, george bush, a little louder lets go. Tacks on the road was one of lee atwaters sayings, how to diminish the other side. What can we do to three some tacks in the road in the way of the dole bus and cause some confusion. There were a number of positions that we found in which bob dole appeared to be on both sides of an issue. I said, well, maybe we refer to him as senator straddle. George bush and bob dole on leadership. Atwater falls on the line like a ravenous wolf. The team make an attack ad accusing dole of sitting on the fence over tacks. We had a meeting with myself, lee atwater, the Vice President , mrs. Bush. Bush was not totally convinced of the merits of the straddle ad. Bush was a gentleman. He didnt call someone names. He thought very well of senator dole. I think lee and others ganged up on bush. The Vice President sort of looked over at barbara and saw she wasnt objecting anymore and he agreed to have the ad run. Bush says he wont raise taxes, period. Dole straddles. Hes been on both sides. Thats why hes becoming known as senator straddle. George bush, president ial leadership. Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated. George bush takes New Hampshire with close to a tenpoint lead. Dole just got atwatered. I think that bush knew that lee gave him something that he didnt have on his own. Also taking New Hampshire is the new democratic frontrunner, governor Michael Dukakis. Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis had said he was going for the gold. And New Hampshire democrats went for him in a big way. He came out of there with a huge head of steam, and it really started to look like we were catching fire. A long race, a long race. Dukakis had sort of burst onto the scene. Im the strongest candidate against bush. I think i can take the fight to him. He had gone from nowhere to somewhere in a hurry, and that was worrying. With your help, the son of greek immigrants can seek and win the presidency of the United States. Thank you all very much. Every field office that i entered had pounds and pounds of greek food, spanakopita, moussaka. If i hadnt been 21 years old, i would have gained 40 pounds in that campaign, for sure. Tonight, the race to the finish line begins. With the memory in my heart of the young man who arrived at ellis island. And how i wish he was here tonight. He would be very proud of his son. I was very emotional. When he talked about his father and how, how proud he would have been of him. And it would have been great to have him there so i accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. Dukakis chooses senator lloyd bentsen, the workers friend as his running mate. That night, my dads path to the presidency was as clear as it had ever been. This was going to be a competitive race, no question about it. But it was imminently winnable. Governor dukakis leading Vice President bush, 50 to 40 . Two weeks ago this is the way it looked. Mr. Vice president lee atwater said we know hes got a big lead, but get his negatives up to about 48 and then well see how hes doing. He is for raising taxes, big spending, soft on crime. Were going to strip the bark off the little bastard. Coaching means making tough choices. Jim youre in but when you have high Blood Pressure and need Cold Medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. Coricidin hbp is the 1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your Blood Pressure. Coricidin hbp. That skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and Customer Service are critical to business success. Like the ones we teach here, every day. paying too much with verizon . E and Customer Service are critical to business success. paul no, they just dont know that sprints unlimited plan gives you 5 lines for just 24 dollars per month, per line. mom wow, that would save us. atlas . Nearly 1,000 dollars . mom what about the network . paul now sprint has lte advanced. atlas its up to two times faster than before. mom no way dad robots dont lie. atlas the man in the mom jeans is correct. avo get up to two times faster speeds and see how you can for people with hearing loss save nearly 1,000 dollars over verizon and at t with sprint. Visit sprintrelay. Com im 85 and i wanna lifego home savannah [ding] [boxing bell ding] [applause] ten points ahead, Michael Dukakis seems untouchable. News thats stupid, untrue, terrible rumor floating around that dukakis had suffered a serious depression after he lost his first Reelection Campaign for governor and had been treated by a psychiatrist. Vetoed the Defense Authorization bill in the oval office. And i think we tamped it down for at least a week or so. Do you feel that Michael Dukakis had made his medical record public . And then ronald reagan, president , in a News Conference was asked about something about dukakis policies or whatever. Do you think that American People deserve to know whether hes fit to govern by having his medical records made public . Look, im not going to pick on an invalid. Mr. President , mr. President every line i have on my desk is ringing. Everybodys phone is ringing. Hello. Well, i was pretty upset. I mean, an incumbent president is calling the democratic nominee an invalid. What did he mean by that . The president elevated this crazy rumor to something that made some people believe him. I was very, very angry. Ill be happy to provide the people of this country with a full report on my mental and physical condition from my position of 17 years, and i think thats appropriate, i think the American People have a right to know we quickly learned that the same trick had been used by lee atwater, the then Campaign Manager in a race in south carolina. No, we didnt do that. Everybody knows that that would have crossed a line and backfired on whoever was dispensing that information. But the target is hit. Anything that puts you at risk, it makes you seem like a riskier choice for the voter, is going to hurt you back. We went down seven points that night. My choice for the vice presidency is senator dan quayle of indiana. You can tell george bush one thing, go get em. For all quayles boasting, bush continues to drown in the polls. Lee atwater brings in ad man sig rogich. We just collaborated and came up with good scripts and good ideas. And then they would be tested. From unknown governor to candidate for president , how much do we really know about Michael Dukakis . Out of touch with our values and problems. I thought we captured the differences between us and Michael Dukakis. Congress has increased federal spending at an alarming rate, Michael Dukakis has increased state spending in massachusetts twice as fast. The natural throwaway line is its negative campaigning but its comparative campaigning, i mean, how are you going to get a contrast between two different philosophies and two different ways of running government if you dont compare . Michael dukakis promised not to raise taxes, but as governor he imposed the largest tax increase in massachusetts history. He promised jobs, but since 1984 massachusetts lost 90,000 blue collar jobs. And now he wants to do for america what hes done for massachusetts. America cant afford that risk. People will sit there until theyre blue in the face saying they hate negative ads, but theyre the only ones they remember. But dukakis loves the moral high ground so much, he wont let estridge play dirty. And we had various ones made. We had one in the can with the helicopter flying over bushs house in kennebunkport. The ocean and the golf courses and, you know, is this where you live . Ive heard all the arguments. Dukakis said i never want to see that ad ever go out on the air. I wasnt listening. I made a decision were not going to respond. It was perfectly clear. That they were playing hardball and we were playing softball and you cant win hardball with softball. I was doing some research on george bush, and wouldnt you know it, we found a piece of footage. George bush had been a pilot in world war ii, and he had been shot down in the pacific. A submarine emerged and saved him. Somebody on the submarine had a camera and filmed it. We used it everywhere, you know, as much as we could. I, George Herbert walker bush. I, George Herbert walker bush. Do solemnly swear. Perhaps it began the day in 1944 when he earned the distinguished flying cross for bravery under fire. I saw that footage and i was just sick because it was, it was phenomenal. I mean the guy was a war hero. That is hard in the Television Age to overcome. Atwater takes bush to flag factories. He puts him in f16s. And the democrats . They tanked. Literally. I was told to go to sterling heights, michigan, and report to the General Dynamics tank factory and proving ground up there, hes going to take a ride in a tank. We had an enormous World Historic campaign catastrophe. Two months to go until the election and president ial nominee Michael Dukakis hopes his visit to a tank factory will have the whole nation singing hail to the chief. It is a real personal privilege to introduce mike dukakis of massachusetts. To show hes a real man, dukakis is going to sit in a tank. What could possibly go wrong . There are a site advance person, theres press people and motorcade, and my job was to deal with the sites. They said, you should really get a sense of what this is like. Would you like to go for a ride yourself, however, when i looked at myself in a mirror, and i realized i have a bit of a nose the way dukakis does, i thought i will look terrible in the helmet and so will he. And i got incredibly nervous about putting mike dukakis in this tank. So i called the boss at headquarters and told him hes going to look terrible if he wears this helmet, and they said, well, bush was just sitting in an f16, now were going to sit in a tank, this is our thing, just do it. Dukakis prepares to flex his military muscles before the national press. And he was excited to ride in the tank because hes a redblooded american male, he wanted to ride in this tank too. So youre like, all right, terrific, lets go. I didnt give it a second thought. I was going to get into the thing and he told me to put the helmet on, i did so. So the doors open and the tank emerges. And i will never forget what happened, we have this giant riser full of press, at least 90 people. And they just burst out laughing. I mean, to a person theyre just guffawing. And i think, oh, my god. We are in so much trouble. Youre looking at a guy and you say to yourself, jesus christ, that guy doesnt belong in a tank, which is to say, that guy doesnt belong running the National Security of our country. Dukakis standing in the hatch of an abrams tank as it raced across the open field. We gather in lees office and there was much howling, much laughter, much celebration. He looked ridiculous, and i wrote a commercial that night. Michael dukakis has opposed virtually every Defense System we developed. He opposed antisatellite weapons. He added grinding gears, so those are gears grinding the tank, you know. Dukakis opposed the stealth bomber. It goes, eeh, eeh. And now he wants to be our commanderinchief. Then we frozeframed it and said america cant afford that risk. Dukakis had a tremendous knowledge and record on education. On health care. On job creation. But that wasnt what the election turned out to be about. They defined it as whos the risk here . By late september, dukakis lead is like mist in the sun. Can things get any worse for him . Of course, they can. Bush and dukakis on crime. Bush supports the Death Penalty for firstdegree murderers. Dukakis not only opposes the Death Penalty, he allowed firstdegree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. One was Willie Horton who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times. Despite a life sentence, horton received ten weekend passes from prison. Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. Weekend prison passes, dukakis on crime. The Willie Horton ad comes not from the official republican campaign, but from pro bush activists. Willie horton was a black american, and i think one of the reasons the campaign did not want to associate itself directly with the ad is that they felt that people might interpret it as being a racist ad. Weekend prison passes, dukakis on crime. But lee atwater smells fresh blood. Lee knew that it was powerful. Lee knew that it fit a liberal stereotype that would make a larger point about dukakis. Atwater wants to put Willie Horton front of stage, but he knows hes playing with fire. Lee also knew that it could be radioactive with bush. That if it werent handled right, bush wouldnt use it. Bush would declare it offlimits. Atwater and ailes take a different tack. Casting a shadow over dukakis prison weekend Furlough Program by making a spector of Willie Horton. We felt that the furlough policy in massachusetts was tooling in. And so did we push it . Yes, we did. As governor Michael Dukakis vetoed mandatory sentences for drug dealers we went to a prison site in utah, we created and built a set, the revolving prison door . His revolving door prison policy gave weekend furloughs to firstdegree murderers not eligible for parole and many are still at large. Now Michael Dukakis says he wants to do for america what hes done for massachusetts. The revolving door ad accomplished what lee atwater said was his goal, which was to make Willie Horton into dukakis running mate. We like mike. We like mike. The dukakis team arrive in california for the final debate. Willie horton looms over the agenda like the grim reaper. It was our last chance in front of a National Audience of that size. But if he gets the Willie Horton question, whats he going to say . You get a free 50 samsung 4k tv. Seriously, no [announcer]seriously tmobile is giving you a free 50 tv. You gotta be kidding me. This deal wont last long. So get your free samsung tv at tmobile store today. 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Plus, get 200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. Xfinity mobile. Its simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. If you would all please take your seats with just three weeks until voting day, the candidates prepare for a facetoface battle. Top of the agenda . Crime. Its what we had spent most of our debate prep doing. , was getting ready for the Willie Horton question. It was going to be a question coming, whose side are you on, the criminals or the victims . Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the debate commission, we welcome you to this historic event. She believes the answer is in Michael Dukakis own family. Both his father and brother had been victims of violent crime. This is what the answer has to be, however they frame the question. I know what its like to be the victim of crime. I found my brother was killed, the side of the road, left to die by a hit and run driver. My father in his 70s, in his medical office, and they came in, they tied him up, robbed him, took the medicines 75yearold man. So, believe me, i know what its like to feel that pain. Great answer, huh . Vicepresident george bush, the republican nominee and the lighting looks good, the color looks good. The vicepresident walks on stage very powerfully and strong. He looks president ial. [ applause ] there are no restrictions on the questions that my colleagues and i can ask this evening. I was watching in the senior staff room that i had set up in the basketball arena for ucla. The candidates have no prior knowledge of our questions. Susan estridge is there. The first question goes to governor dukakis. First question comes in. Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable Death Penalty for the killer . Oh, here it is. Its a layup, right . Its so easy for dukakis to react with genuine emotion and anger and righteous indignation at the idea that somebody would murder his wife. I know what its like. That was where the answer had to go. No, i dont, bernard. And i think you know that i opposed the Death Penalty during all of my life. I dont see any evidence its a deterrent i think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime. Weve done so in my own state. Its one of the reasons why and i thought, dead. When he answered the way he did, which was clinically and analytically, we just it just all the air went out of the room. Did we just lose the election . We have had the biggest drop that was a perfect answer. There was jumping. There was fist pumping. We knew that it was going bushs way in a dramatic fashion. People were looking for something a lot more emotional than what i gave them. I would like to thank all of you for joining us this evening. And ecstatic lee atwater meets the press. Dukakis was so squeamish tonight about being a liberal. That was the most interesting thing. He stayed on the defensive all evening long. They saw him coming off the stage, and he said, im sorry. I blew it, im sorry. I said, were all just doing the best we can. And, you know, we just cratered the bows. Three weeks later, george h. W. Bush thunders home with almost 80 of the Electoral College votes. The people have spoken. [ cheers and applause ] theres no question that the attacks hurt and my failure to anticipate them and be ready for them from the beginning was a huge mistake on my part. I, George Herbert walker bush, do solemnly swear that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States. My father went back to work the next morning. He walked to the subway, went back to the state house. To go do his job. And that was unsurprising to most of us. Congratulations. Thank you. Lee atwater used to say and he was right about this that theres a little boat, and on this little boat are the people, the American People can imagine being president. Theyre the kind of people who have the stature or experience. George bush was in the boat. Dukakis never made it in. For eight years, hed been a heartbeat away from the oval office. A loyal vicepresident. We will carry the fight and we shall win. Biding your time, waiting your turn. You know the path to power. And you think you know the rules
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