Seventeen states held their primaries on Super Tuesday, March 8, 1988. The campaign’s impressive fund-raising, organization, and strategy paid off with a sixteen-state sweep. For the first time in his political career, George Bush won a statewide race in Texas. By the time all the delegates were counted, George Bush was about two-thirds of the way to the nomination. Super Tuesday turned out to be not a firewall but the effective end of the campaign.
As the presumptive nominee, Dad worked hard to unify the party. He met with Members of Congress, whether they supported him or not. He called Governors across the country and invited them to Walker’s Point. And in a gesture that was typical of George Bush, he and Mother hosted a dinner at the Naval Observatory for the candidates who had competed against him in the Republican primaries. Dad took the opportunity to mend any remaining wounds and enlist their support for November. He needed their help, because he was starting the general election in a deep hole.
If the presidential election had been held in the summer of 1988, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts would have won in a landslide. Dukakis had not started the Democratic primaries as a household name. He was the somewhat uncharismatic Governor of a midsized liberal state. But he ran a solid campaign and bested his rivals for the Democratic nomination
In mid-July, Dukakis and the Democrats took the stage at their convention in Atlanta. Two of the featured speakers would return to play a key role in our lives. The first was Ann Richards, the feisty Texas state Treasurer and future Governor, who made headlines with her quip that Dad had been “born with a silver foot in his mouth.” The other was Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who gave such a long speech that his biggest applause line was “In conclusion….”
One dramatic moment in the convention was the introduction of Dukakis’s running mate, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. Bentsen was a respected legislator from an influential state with valuable Washington experience. And he had one other quality that Michael Dukakis was seeking: He knew how to beat George Bush. Bentsen had defeated Dad in the 1970 Senate race, and his selection by Dukakis the week before the convention was hailed as a political masterstroke. The “Boston to Austin” connection not only added a skillful campaigner to the ticket, it also echoed the JFK-LBJ presidential ticket that had delivered a victory for the Democrats over a sitting Vice President a generation earlier. The new running mates sprinted out of the convention with a big lead.
Dad spent the week of the Democratic convention on a fishing trip in the Wyoming wilderness with Jim Baker. After serving as Chief of Staff to President Reagan in the first term, Baker had become Secretary of the Treasury in the second term. He left his post, one of the most powerful in the Cabinet, to lead Dad’s general election campaign.
As someone who saw the campaign up close, I can attest to the difference that Jim Baker made. Over a long presidential campaign, there is a tendency for lines of authority to blur and decision making to get sloppy. That did not happen under Jim Baker. He brought structure and clarity to the campaign. He listened carefully to advice, but there was no doubt that he was in command. He never allowed the aides on the plane to exercise outsized influence with the candidate or undermine the decisions that had been made at the headquarters (a common phenomenon on less disciplined campaigns). His closeness with Dad gave him credibility both inside and outside the organization, and it gave my father peace of mind to know that the campaign was in the hands of his trusted friend.
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AFTER A GRUELING summer for George Bush, the political world descended on New Orleans for the Republican National Convention in mid-August. For over a year, Dad had walked a delicate line between his roles as Vice President and presidential candidate. He had resisted pressure to break with or criticize President Reagan—a strategy that took discipline and restraint, especially as he fell further behind in the polls. He acted out of loyalty. He was wise enough to know that weakening the President would hurt his chances in the general election. Finally, Dad had a great sense of timing. The big stage of the convention served as an opportunity to emerge from the shadow of the President and define his vision for the country.
The convention in New Orleans felt like a family reunion. We all wanted to pitch in. When Dad’s name was formally placed into nomination, Jeb’s wife, Columba, seconded it—first in Spanish, and then in English. George P. Bush, Jeb and Columba’s son, led the Pledge of Allegiance. My siblings and I each announced the support of the delegations from our home states: Neil from Colorado, Jeb from Florida, Marvin from Virginia, and Doro from Maine. It fell to me to announce Texas’s support, which would officially put Dad over the top. I said that the Lone Star State proudly pledged its delegates “for a man we respect and a man we love…for her favorite son and the best father in America.”
Dad opened his acceptance speech by explaining the new phase that had begun. “Many of you have asked, ‘When will this campaign really begin?’ I have come to this hall to tell you, and to tell America: Tonight is the night.” He continued, “For seven and a half years I have helped a President conduct the most difficult job on earth…. But now you must see me for what I am: the Republican candidate for President of the United States.”
The crowd roared, and Dad kept them cheering for the next hour. A few days earlier, Dad had asked me to read a draft of the speech. The strong argument and crisp writing impressed me, but nothing prepared me for the impact of his delivery in the Superdome that night.
“I am a man who sees life in terms of missions,” he said, “missions defined and missions completed. When I was a torpedo bomber pilot they defined the mission for us. Before we took off we all understood that no matter what, you try to reach the target. There have been other missions for me—Congress, China, the CIA. But I am here tonight—and I am your candidate—
He delivered a forceful takedown of Dukakis’s record, portraying him as a pessimist who saw America in a “long slow decline” and a “technocrat who makes sure the gears mesh but doesn’t for a second understand the magic of the machine.” He proceeded to lay out his vision for the country: A foreign policy based on the “knowledge that strength and clarity lead to peace,” not the “weakness and ambivalence [that] lead to war.” New support for charities and volunteers that would produce a “kinder, gentler nation” lit up by “a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.” And an economic policy designed to create jobs without increasing taxes, culminating in his pledge “Read my lips: no new taxes.”
Finally, he described his character. Dad had always been reticent to talk about himself, but in a short and self-deprecating passage, he struck just the right tone. “I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence won’t draw oil from the ground. I may sometimes be a little awkward, but there’s nothing self-conscious in my love of country. I am a quiet man—but I hear the quiet people others don’t. The ones who raise the family, pay the taxes, meet the mortgage. I hear them and I am moved, and their concerns are mine.”