Before we go and celebrate a potential Obama landslide, we need to remember 1988 when oldish George H.W. Bush was following in the footsteps of a scandal-plagued eight-year Republican president who promoted big business and the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class while running up outrageous deficits. To offset his age, Bush picked the young, but inexperienced and shallow Dan Quayle as his VP candidate.
Now, we have oldish John McCain following in the footsteps of a scandal-plagued eight-year Republican president who promoted big business and the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class while running up outrageous deficits. Will McCain follow Bush Sr and pick somebody young and shallow for his VP?
However, there is a major difference between 1988 and now. While Bush and Atwater certainly used the media to their advantage in 1988, the overall media was not nearly as friendly to Bush as they have been to McCain. Bush Sr. would certainly not call the media his “base” as McCain did that is for sure. For example, I don’t think a pick of 36 year old Bobby Jindal as VP will get nearly as harshly criticized as Bush’s pick of Quayle in 1988 did. In fact, the media would likely fall all over themselves and proclaim how great Republicans are to minorities and how it is a visionary pick for McCain.
On the plus side for Obama vs. McCain, though, is that Reagan was far more popular his last year in office than Bush Jr has been, despite Reagan’s White House being the most scandal-plagued of the 20th century. (another fallout of the deterioration of the media these last 20 years) However, since McSame was not officially in the Bush White House like George H.W. Bush, it might be easier for McSame to separate himself from Bush.
I just wanted to post this as a warning to the irrationally exuberant so we don’t forget to fight hard for our candidate. We cannot afford to have a disastrous August like Dukakis did in 1988 and like Kerry did in 2004. Things like Roe v Wade hang in the balance, as well as having troops in Iraq in four years.
And, I also want to cite some polls from 1988 – The first is from late July, where Dukakis increased his lead to 55-38 from 47-41 in early July. The other was from May where Dukakis held a 49-39 advantage over Bush. See the clips from the NY Times below:
Fifty-five percent of the 948 registered voters interviewed in the poll said they preferred to see Mr. Dukakis win the 1988 Presidential election, while 38 percent said they preferred to see Mr. Bush win. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.
This represented a shift in Mr. Dukakis's lead from the 47 percent to 41 percent advantage he held in the last pre-convention Gallup Poll, taken by telephone July 8-10. In that poll, 1,001 registered voters were interviewed.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...
And, the earlier polls:
Michael S. Dukakis is capitalizing on deep public doubts about Vice President Bush and the Reagan Administration's handling of key issues and has emerged as the early favorite for the Presidential election in November, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
Mr. Dukakis, the probable Democratic nominee, ran ahead of Mr. Bush, the almost certain Republican candidate, by 49 percent to 39 percent among 1,056 registered voters.
The survey, conducted May 9-12, represented a significant advance for Mr. Dukakis since a Times/CBS News Poll in March when Mr. Bush had 46 percent and Mr. Dukakis had 45 percent.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...
