The voice in the now-infamous 30-second political ad, created by supporters of George H.W. Bush during his 1988 presidential campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis, sounds ominous as it tries to paint Dukakis as weak on crime
Ironically, the policy in question had been created years earlier, in 1972, by Massachusetts Gov. Francis Sargent, a Republican. He had implemented a program that allowed prisoners weekend time away from prison in exchange for good behavior.
During a 1988 debate against Dukakis, Al Gore brought up the case of Horton, asking Dukakis about “weekend passes for convicted criminals.” Dukakis explained “the Massachusetts furlough program for murderers sentenced to life imprisonment had been canceled”.
The issue did not take for Gore, but the exchange attracted the interest of the research director for the Bush campaign. After Dukakis won the Democratic nomination, Lee Atwater, a young but shrewd Republican political strategist who ran Bush’s presidential campaign, jumped on the issue.
The Willie Horton ad and Atwater’s political strategy would become a a symbol of the dark side and half truths of Republican politics. In his obituary, when he died in 1990, at the age of 40, critics, wrote “his success in elevating a black murderer-rapist named Willie Horton into a national figure used to crush the presidential bid of Michael S. Dukakis was a crude appeal to racism and the epitome of the negative campaign.”
Months before Atwater died a young man, he expressed regret for using divisive political tactics. Atwater wrote in a Life Magazine story: “In 1988, fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his running mate.’ I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound like a racist, which I am not.”
Republican campaigns and lies have only gotten worse since the Willie Horton ad.
Ironically, the policy in question had been created years earlier, in 1972, by Massachusetts Gov. Francis Sargent, a Republican. He had implemented a program that allowed prisoners weekend time away from prison in exchange for good behavior.
During a 1988 debate against Dukakis, Al Gore brought up the case of Horton, asking Dukakis about “weekend passes for convicted criminals.” Dukakis explained “the Massachusetts furlough program for murderers sentenced to life imprisonment had been canceled”.
The issue did not take for Gore, but the exchange attracted the interest of the research director for the Bush campaign. After Dukakis won the Democratic nomination, Lee Atwater, a young but shrewd Republican political strategist who ran Bush’s presidential campaign, jumped on the issue.
The Willie Horton ad and Atwater’s political strategy would become a a symbol of the dark side and half truths of Republican politics. In his obituary, when he died in 1990, at the age of 40, critics, wrote “his success in elevating a black murderer-rapist named Willie Horton into a national figure used to crush the presidential bid of Michael S. Dukakis was a crude appeal to racism and the epitome of the negative campaign.”
Months before Atwater died a young man, he expressed regret for using divisive political tactics. Atwater wrote in a Life Magazine story: “In 1988, fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his running mate.’ I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound like a racist, which I am not.”
Republican campaigns and lies have only gotten worse since the Willie Horton ad.
