1988 Elections Bush vs Dukakais

The 1988 U.S. presidential election saw Vice President George H. W. Bush competing against Senator Dole and Reverend Pat Robertson for the Republican nomination. Despite a disappointing third place finish in the Iowa caucus, Bush was able to secure a victory on Super Tuesday and went on to win the nomination at the Republican convention in New Orleans. One of the main controversies at the convention was Bush's selection of Senator Quayle as his running mate, which was met with widespread criticism. On the Democratic side, Governor Michael Dukakis emerged as the front-runner after Gary Hart withdrew due to sexual misconduct allegations and Mario Cuomo of New York declined to run. When the Democratic convention took place in Atlanta, only Jesse Jackson remained as a challenger to Dukakis, who ultimately won the nomination on the first ballot with 2,876 votes to Jackson's 1,218. Dukakis chose Senator Lloyd Benson of Texas as his vice-presidential candidate.

During the general election campaign, Dukakis held a significant lead over Bush, but the Republicans launched a series of effective attack ads against Dukakis, including one that focused on the furlough release of convicted murderer Willie Horton during Dukakis' tenure as governor. The ad, which featured images of Horton and the crime scene, accused Dukakis of allowing such releases to occur and criticized him for supporting the program. It should be noted that the furlough program was initiated by a Republican predecessor of Dukakis and had also been implemented in California while Reagan was governor. Despite these attacks, Dukakis' own poor performance as a campaigner, including his controversial response to a question about the death penalty for someone who had raped and murdered his wife, contributed to Bush's decisive victory in the election.