hart and vice president bush running neck and neck. hart and bush were shown significantly ahead of rivals for their 1988 party nominations. in a race between the two, hart leads bush, 47-46%. here s the ap that year. gary hart generally perceived as the early democratic front-runner for 1988. here is upi that year. hart, quote, the current front-runner for the nomination. here is the miami herald that year during a big profile on gary hart. quote, gary hart, the democratic front-runner for 1988. now you know how this story ends, right? the democrats didn t run gary hart against george bush in 1988. they ran michael dukakis instead. and dukakis lost, and george h.w. bush became president, and it s fun/maddening to play that mental game, right, to think what might have happened had that one election gone the other way. where would we be in american politics now had that one election changed that one time.