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Elected President. George H. W. Bush. Republican. The incumbent in 1988, Ronald Reagan. His second term expired at noon on January 20, 1989. The 1988 United States presidential election was the 51st quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988.
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Iowa took...
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Wisconsin...
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Ohio took...
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Delaware...
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- The campaign
United States presidential election of 1988, American presidential election held on Nov. 8, 1988, in which Republican George Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis.
The 1988 campaign featured an open contest on both the Republican and Democratic sides, as Republican Pres. Ronald Reagan was entering the last year of his second term. Numerous contenders on the Democratic side entered the race. Commentators referred derisively to them as “The Seven Dwarfs.” They included former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon. Three candidates who were somewhat more inspiring had decided not to run: former senator Gary Hart of Colorado, who dropped out because of a sex scandal, reentered the race and then dropped out for good; New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley; and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who simply declined to run.
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The Republicans, seeking a candidate who could match the stature and electability of Reagan, were similarly at a loss. The nominal front-runner, George Bush, suffered from a reputation as a “wimp” who in 22 years of public life—as a former representative, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and, for more than seven years, Reagan’s vice president—had failed to distinguish himself as anything more than a docile instrument of someone else’s policy. There were three interesting Republican alternatives: Bob Dole of Kansas, the Senate minority leader, who was respected for his wit and intelligence though considered by some to be overly acerbic; former New York representative Jack Kemp, revered among many conservatives as Reagan’s true ideological heir; and the Rev. Pat Robertson, a popular televangelist. None of the three, however, made it through the primary season.
Biden retired from the race after he was caught quoting, without credit, from the speeches of Neil Kinnock, the British Labour Party leader. Among the other Democrats, Babbitt, Simon, and Gephardt all dropped out along the way after failing to string together enough primary victories—or raise enough money—to continue. Babbitt, though he gained attention with a courageous promise to raise taxes to help reduce the swollen U.S. budget deficit, did not come across well on television. Simon’s characteristic bow tie and old-fashioned big-government approach to domestic problems failed to attract enough support. Gephardt managed to win the crucial Iowa caucuses, but his basic theme—trade protectionism—did not play well outside the Midwest.
That left Gore, Jackson, and Dukakis. Young, attractive, and Southern, with a reputation as a centrist, Gore appeared to have momentum after he won five Southern primaries on a single day, "Super Tuesday," March 8. Yet his campaign fizzled in New York, where he had unwisely accepted the backing of New York City’s controversial mayor, Ed Koch. When the votes were counted for the April 19 New York primary, Dukakis had finished first, providing a major impetus to his campaign. Dukakis, who was born and raised in Brookline, Mass., the son of Greek immigrants, went on to become the first Greek American nominated for the presidency. Jackson, who by then had the second highest delegate count and was the first African American to mount a serious presidential campaign, decided to continue running through the final four primaries, California, Montana, New Jersey, and New Mexico, on June 7.
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The 1988 United States presidential election was the 51st quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988. Incumbent Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush defeated the Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
The 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis began when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party 's nomination for President of the United States on March 16, 1987, in a speech in Boston.
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November 8 – The United States Vice-president and Republican nominee George H. W. Bush defeats the Democratic nominee and Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, in the 1988 United States Presidential Election.
The 1988 United States presidential election happened on November 8, 1988. George H. W. Bush, the Republican candidate and Vice President of the United States, won the election. He defeated the Democratic candidate, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts.
Nov 10, 1988 · Advertisement. Politics. How Presidential Race Was Won-and Lost : Michael S. Dukakis. By BOB DROGIN. Nov. 10, 1988 12 AM PT. Times Staff Writer. BOSTON — When Michael S. Dukakis climbed into an...
