On Sun, 22 Jun 2008, FACE wrote:
>...
> In late June before the 1988 election, Michael Dukakis had a 17 point
lead
> over George H W Bush.
>
> I'm not sure if that was before or after the Dukakis "tank"
> pictures..........
>
> FACE
It was before. And Reagan then was not as unpopular as is Bush Junior
now. People were annoyed at him over Iran-Contra and this and that,
but he was not as absolutely hated as Bush is, or for that matter as
Reagan was at various moments during his presidency, but not in the
fall of 1988. By then, people were pretty clear that he was not going
to blow up the world, and not going to get us into wars any more
serious than the farce in Grenada. And they figured Bush Sr. was
mostly more of the same, except brighter.
They didn't realize that Bush Sr. was really more of a warmonger than
Reagan ever was, he had the image of being a "wimp," and after 8 years
of Reagan, that seemed OK at first, at least until Dukakis overdid it.
The American economy was in some trouble then, but nothing like it is
now.
And Bush also had the advantage of appearing really often in public
with Gorbachev, who was extremely popular in America then.
-jh-
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