The Mitt H.W. Bush Problem

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American Spectator:

 

 

The Mitt H.W. Bush Problem

 

By Jeffrey Lord on 4.12.12 @ 6:09AM

 

Arrogance, hostility to conservatives sank the moderate president elected as Reagan's heir.

 

"I want a kinder, and gentler nation." -- Vice President George H.W. Bush accepting the 1988 Republican presidential nomination

 

"Kinder and gentler than whom?" -- First Lady Nancy Reagan on learning of Bush's line

 

There was an uneasiness right from the start.

 

But with the help of a lot of people -- conservatives -- Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Herbert Walker Bush, successfully convinced Republicans that he was in fact Ronald Reagan's philosophical and political heir.

 

With ex-Reagan aide Lee Atwater running the Bush campaign, Bush tore into his liberal opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

 

The stunned liberal media was agog, then furious.

 

There was Bush visiting a flag factory to emphasize his support of the pledge of allegiance -- which his opponent opposed. There was Bush in the polluted Boston Harbor -- Dukakis's back yard! -- exposing the liberal "environmentalist" as having a poor environmental record. Then there was Willie Horton… the issue of a convicted murderer given a weekend furlough by Dukakis. Horton never returned, instead showing up in Maryland where he raped a woman, committing armed robbery and assault (of the woman's fiancé) in the bargain. No less than Dukakis primary opponent Senator Al Gore had tried to surface this issue, but it went nowhere among liberals. Bush jumped on it.

 

By the end of the campaign, stunned liberals watched Dukakis, once leading Bush by 17 points, lose 40 states