I have not forgotten nor forgiven George Herbert Walker Bush's antipathy and hostility to all of the 1960's civil rights legislation pushed by a real Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson taught and knew poor brown Mexican American kids. Johnson knew his black house keepers life.
At best Bush was MIA. At worst Bush was a white supremacist. Bush jumped on board fair housing legislation within the week of Dr. King's murder. Bush deserves nor gets any credit for Colin Powell nor Condoleezza Rice.
I have not forgotten nor forgiven George Herbert Walker Bush for Lee Atwater, Willie Horton, Clarence Thomas, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Saddam Hussein.
11
Why must everything in our politics be an either/or? Are we no longer capable of any pretense of nuance?
Must one either revere or detest Bush? Must we see Bush’s campaign as either the end of an era or the beginning of a new, racially charged era? Must we see him either as a hardworking, multifaceted statesman or as a privileged patrician?
Are we really incapable of considering these questions and saying “all of the above”? Of extolling the good and denouncing the bad? Of honoring Bush’s patriotic virtue in military and public service and never forgetting his utter insensitivity on crucial matters of race?
Bush’s death, as with his life, is a reminder that we are far too eager to pigeonhole our icons. It always mystified me that in his lifetime, this World War II fighter pilot had to dodge the charge of “wimp” as he stood alongside political comrades and rivals with lesser military accomplishments. Death has been “kinder” and “gentler” to him, but alas, now we have gone to the opppsite extreme as we consider 41’s legacy.
We are starved for role models, living in a scorched earth, polarized era. And, even in simpler times, we seem to be a culture who likes to lionize its heroes and villainize its demons. But really, if it’s true that we get the government we deserve, then I wonder if we would “deserve better” if we held our candidates and leaders to high standards, while recognizing that they are—for better or worse, warts and all—ineffably human.
20
Gore originally brought this up in the Democratic primary however facts are facts. The Willie Horton story is true. And Dukakis owns it.
1
Uh, Horton was a murderer and provides evidence of the ridiculous liberal policies that are being forced down the throats of AMERICANS! Do not coddle criminals!
4
@Nreb
Just for the record. The liberals you're railing against are also AMERICANS! -- And nothing is being "forced down" anyone's throat any more than what this president is now forcing down all of ours.
6
The Gore primary campaign in 1988 surfaced the Willie Horton story. Eat it.
1
That racist ad by the Bush campaign isn't the only dent in the current narrative about what a kind and gentle person he was. Let's not forget that he pardoned Casper Weinberger and 5 others for their actions related to the Iran-Contra Affair as Walsh was closing in on Bush himself. He did that on Christmas Eve as a lame-duck President and claimed it was about national healing. Here's a link to the Washington Post's story on Christmas Day of that year:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800858.html
5
When I first heard of his death late Friday night, my mind wandered back to Willie Horton and hence, the narrative that all black man wanted to rape white women. A legacy from enslavement and rebirthed by 41 and still a part of the American imagination. Just maybe, if he hadn't done/approved of this ad, some of the changes wrought from the civil rights legislation of the past two-three decades could have been given a legacy of wrongness in America and then an opportunity to die. But, he didn't do that. Just as he opposed civil rights legislation, nominated Clarence Thomas to the supreme court, and, oh, what are some of the things he might have done as CIA director. Maybe, this is just who he was and the legacy he leaves. Let us not forget.
Maybe, because 45 is just so awful, disgusting, repugnant (all the words can't fit), that we think that 41 was a good guy. True, 45 is all that and more, but 41 was cut of the same cloth.
This is not the character of a gentleman.
11
@OColeman. Rebirthed by 41? Nonsense. All this emotional talk does not make it true. The ad was to show that Dukakis was soft on crime. And he was as were and are most on the left. If a white man had been released and committed rape and assault, that’s who would have been in the ad. Who do you think was the victim in Ferguson? That is the recent day Willie Horton—just fake news from the left.
6
“Clean hands and a pure heart”? You must be kidding. “Clean hands and ambition - with conditional scruples,” is more like it.
3
Of course Bush meant to scare white people. The Horton did not go by Willie, he went by William, that's his name in all court documents.
William wasn't racial enough, so out came Willie. Continuing the "bucks buying steaks with food stamps" line Bush learned from Reagan, his mentor.
3
Inasmuch as Dukakais spoke at the same Ms. State Fair as Reagan did, and without mentioning the civil rights workers who were murdered, he too has much to answer for.
@Joe C.
It's also no surprise that Lee Atwater who was the evil mastermind behind that ad was also at the helm of Ronald Reagan's ship when the infamous "Welfare Queen" tagline was launched -- and we all know about Bush's relationship to "the Gipper".
5
For all his greatness Bush 41 allowed and approved his campaign to use race. Perhaps race is just a mainstay of the Republican Party and as such they will never have my vote. The Republican Party needs some soul searching. If this party’s best, Bush 41 for example are racist, then what hope do they have for survival.
2
Remember Bush's revolving door ad? It spoke as much truth as the Willie Horton ad. It seems that the Maryland judge was aware of the circumstances as he refused to return Horton to Massachusetts because he didn't want to take any chances that he'd be furloughed yet again.
1
I will never forget the Bush campaign in 1988 and how vicious the attacks on Michael Dukakis were. The purveyor of hate and the man who has led our politics down the path of racism and hatred was Lee Atwater. Although Mr. Bush may have been a fine man in his personal life, he hired Lee Atwater and may have sewn the seeds of hate politics and division based on race and socioeconomic class that we are experiencing today. He may have been a great leader if you were white and privileged but that is only a fraction of America. Time and a brilliant propaganda machine have scrubbed the Bush image to its current squeaky white.
3
The thing that gets me the most is that there are, to this day, people who insist the Willie Horton ad was about a guy who committed a felony while on furlough from a policy of an East coat liberal governor. Yes, that is true, and that is what makes the ad so Machiavellian; because anyone with half a brain knows the ad was about race.
4
@Oliver
Apparently "denial" isn't only a river in Egypt...
1
This is one the most balanced pieces I recall reading in the Times recently about a politically charged subject matter. It clarifies the complexity and nuance of the matter in a fair and balanced manner (who knew about Al Gore?) and the analysis illuminates the long term impact -- not so much that Bush or the GOP single-handedly enacted draconian law and order policies, but that they forced Democrats to triangulate on the issue.
1
What part of the Willie Horton ad wasn’t true? Telling the truth may not be convenient but it is still the truth.
7
@Larry
In journalism, there's something known as "framing a story". And make no mistake about it -- the way this Willie Horton ad was "framed" was a deliberately racist construct, because if it was "truth" that really mattered, they could've chosen a white murderer to make the same point....And THAT is the truth.
3
Yes, Bush Sr. did some bad things while running for office and after he was elected, not the least of which was pardoning all of the Iran contra criminals (Oliver North, John Poindexter, et al).
However, we should be grateful for that proclamation of truth from him when he nationally declared that President Reagan's economic plan was "Voodoo economics". We're still paying the price for not listening to him then. Of course, Bush Sr. later turned around and jumped on the Reagan bandwagon so he could have a place in the spotlight. But that's what politicians do--their morals are as changeable as the skin of a chameleon.
2
Does anyone remember the pardons which G.H.W. Bush issued for administration officials found to have engaged in the Iran-Contra ('Contragate') affair. The United States, at the highest levels of government, sought to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Nicaragua and basically declared war against it (without Congressional approval) by mining the waters of Nicaragua based on the fictitious account of Russian MIGs being delivered.
As we ponder Trump's behavior, let us recall that false proclamations of military hostility (think, e.g., "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and mining the harbors of Nicaragua), as well as misuse of the pardon power, have origins going back to G.H.W.Bush.
3
Look, Bush41 was not perfect, although all the tributes that are flying today paint a picture of someone who was a saint. No! he wasn't perfect. But look at it this way, the last perfect person was nailed to a cross some 2,000 plus years ago. And it took us 33 years to get him.
1
Thanks for writing about this. It's good for the younger generation to learn about and learn from the imperfections of presidents and political parties, so that they can understand how it all led to Trump.
1
I find absolutely nothing wrong with it. In the news again after Bush's death, it's been accused of opening the door for a new generation of awful advertising of every kind.
But it's all true. A murderer was given a weekend furlough, during which time he raped and tortured. It was a moronic idea from the administration of Dukakis. The fact that Horton was Black and ugly simply made the commercial more powerful. The fact that far worse commercials followed is not the fault of this one.
Think how much less repulsive and dangerous Trump would be if everything he said were true--even things we didn't want to hear.
6
If it's okay for Republicans to link Democratic pols to rapists because of a poorly-designed furlough programs, surely it's okay for Democrats pols to link Republican pols to mass shootings because of their Second Amendment zealotry.
Democratic ads should label Republican pols enablers of American terrorists, and run footage from the school massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Stoneman Douglas, Red Lake, Umpaqua, Oikos and Parkland.
For good measure, they could run ads with footage of the Mandalay Bay parking lot, the Borderline Bar, and the Pulse nightclub. Not to mention Sutherland Springs, Aurora, San Bernadino and Fort Hood.
The voice-over, or captions, could say, "My Republican opponent would rather your children be shot to pieces than limit gun ownership. My Republican opponent is an accomplice to slaughter. He walks in blood & loves it."
If Michael Dukakis was responsible for Willie Horton, then Rick Scott is responsible for Nikolas Cruz (Parkland).
If it
9
Bush 41 and 43 share a history of race-baiting campaigns. For the elder, it was the Willie Horton ad. For the younger, it was the push poll in South Carolina that insinuated John McCain had fathered a black child. At the center of both efforts was Lee Atwater. Bush 41 can talk all he wants about rough campaigning being the price to get into office; but the wreckage and damage from that effort must always be part of his reckoning with history.
6
Because he wasn’t as awful as his son or Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush has been absurdly overrated, and the very real damage he inflicted on the nation has been callously downplayed. Let’s hope this article starts the process of the Times’s setting the record straight.
7
@bergfan Agreed. He gave us Clarence Thomas on the SCOTUS. Basically, Bush41 gave the finger to Ted Kennedy and the Democrats. OK, it was a moment of weakness on the part of Bush41.
1
No, G.H.W. Bush was not racist, and this ad while a serious mistake in judgement neither marks a start in racially charging American politics nor does it in any material way detract from President Bush's legacy of decency and class. Just stop looking at 1988 through the lens of 2018.
1
@John
You do realize that when it comes to racism in this country, the lens of 1988 is not too different from the lens of 2018, don't you?
4
To all of the commenters who claimed that the ad was not racist, I recall visiting my white grandmother in Louisiana at the time of the George H. W. Bush campaign, and she and all of her neighbors were commenting about how horrible it was that that terrible Mister Dukakis let that "colored" (they may have used a much more derogatory term) criminal out to kill people. The portrayal in the Willie Horton ad played strongly to the prejudice of this group of Southerners. I tried to argue with them about it, but got nowhere.
6
The ad was not shown in La. Only the media brought it there, for their own purposes- which we know, don’t we?
5
During the run-up to the New Hampshire primary in 1992, Bill Clinton rushed back to Arkansas to sign the death warrant for a severely mentally retarded African-American so that no one could accuse him of being soft on crime. So he had a man killed simply for politically expediency, no doubt in large part to protect himself from Willie Horton type ads.
As to Lee Atwater, he had a long history of being in the gutter in political campaigns. That Bush chose him for an important place in his campaign says a great deal about the morality of the latter. Atwater did seek redemption by apologizing for all his dirty deeds on his deathbed but Bush never seems to have apologized for his association with him.
Finally, just a comment on a separate thing for which Bush is being lauded: his going back on his "Read my lips." He lied regarding the need to raise taxes in order to be elected and then admitted the truth after he was in office. Admitting you lied is not the same as not lying in the first place.
3
In 2008 Barack Obama campaigned against gay marriage. It was cold cynical politics. Plain and simple.
Should that be an “anti-gay” stain that follows him all the way into his obituary?
1
@Luciano
And your point is exactly what?
1
It's a shame that Trump has set the bar so low as to who constitutes a great president. If Trump didn't exist then Bush would have been remembered as a one-term president who didn't do anything extraordinary but happened to be president at a time of great upheaval.
I have no doubt that Bush was a nice and kind man but the the overheaping praise has more to do with the fact that we currently have a craven, crazy, corrupt moron in the White House.
3
Well done. A good reminder.
I understand the use of the Willie Horton ad. Shame on Al Gore: that is a little known exploitation by someone who should have known better. Piety is certainly bi-partisan.
What bothers me most about 41 was his insistence that Clarence Thomas was THE most qualified person to serve on the Supreme Court AND his choice had nothing to do with race.
I trace my dwindling faith in government. especially the Executive Branch, to that moment. Bush not only lied, but insulted everyone. Justice Thomas is nothing more than a bench-warmer. Maybe it was his guilty conscience about Mr. Norton that promoted the blinding selection and the gross overstatement of his qualifications.
This is all prelude to 2020. Sad, indeed.
3
It's misleading to put "Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue" in the headline when in fact, as the body of the article states, Al Gore made Willie Horton an issue, and then the Bush campaign picked it up.
This article also assumes that the issue was about race while citing very little evidence in support of that view. Such a serious crime would of course have raised concerns about the MA furlough program if the criminal involved had been of a different race. I'd like to hear more about why the author believes it's valid to call racism a significant factor here.
The fallacy of asserting race as a factor without citing evidence is one I've noticed in many New York Times articles. When reporting on a crime, journalists commonly state that the perpetrator was black and the victim white, or the perpetrator was white and the victim black, as if that alone is evidence that race played a role in what happened. It's important to note that in a conflict between people of different races, racism is often involved but should not be assumed. In this dangerous era of fact-denying and conclusion-jumping, let's be careful to cite the data that support our positions.
5
Thank you, Peter Baker. While it is always gracious to speak well of the dead, it is a shame not to use this moment as one for reflection--both on American politics and on the presidency of George HW Bush. Bush was not the representative of virtue that he is being portrayed as. Not only was there Willie Horton--yes, a racist dog whistle--but Bush never answered for his role in the savings and loan fraud or, for that matter, Iran-Contra. At times, he represented the worst in American political culture--as when Loretta Lynn said she couldn't even pronounce Dukakis and Bush did not call her out on it, as John McCain did when a similar comment was made about Barack Obama. Yes, Bush oversaw the end of the Cold War. But aren't we measuring him by Trumpian standards when we overrate someone whose immediate reaction to the attempted coup against Boris Yeltsin was to throw in the towel?
10
"To many African-American people, the scars from that campaign attack remain fresh."
Shame on the NYT for this shallow offering! The Willie Horton ad was an appallingly self-serving attack on our entire society!
It did incalculable damage to our civil balance of power, laying the groundwork for Rush Limbaugh who came on national radio that year, & justifying white claims to dominance.
No wonder the Bush family is welcoming Trump to Blair House today; the Bushes made his power possible.
I'm white. I will never forget my horror, recoiling & resisting the relentless visual & auditory drumbeat of that Horton ad.
And to the Bush family, I repeat the principle from law: "Silence gives consent"!
13
@LEFisher
"No wonder the Bush family is welcoming Trump to Blair House today; the Bushes made his power possible."
I would amend that to say that they made Trump "inevitable."
Remember that Dubya's gang (Rove, inheritor of Atwater's loathsome drek) put forth the racist attack on McCain's young adopted daughter in the 2000 primaries. Remember too that Atwater, on his deathbed, repented, apologized, and said the ad he created made him "look like a racist."
6
@LEFisher
While you make several laudible points there's still no ignoring the fact that using the imagery of Willie Horton was more of an attack on African-Americans in particular, than on American society at large.
And if releasing serial criminals out of jail only so that they could wreak havoc on the population was indeed the point -- why didn't they choose a white criminal?
Sorry. But get real.
2
We do have to remember that Bush was part of the Republican roll-up to Trump.
9
As a citizen of your neighbouring country to the north it is heartening to learn that your press and citizens are both expressing the "dark side" of your 41st President. To the citizenry of other countries in the world your constant adulation of a president once he has died is confounding. Your 41st President although somewhat of a war hero, was first and foremost head of a wealthy white family with all its privilege, then a mere politician (with all the warts associated with that group of people)
etc.
Only in the United States does a dead politician become God.
8
People understand or they should that is wasn't about race. It was about bad judgement, which Dukakis used. When you let bad people out of prison bad things happen. That is a constant and will not change no matter how much rhetoric is used around it.
George Bush was a good man who was a true American patriot and it is disgusting to see people who have never served their country or others besmirch him.
5
Willie Horton was a factual matter that hit at the human cost of liberal decision making, which was why Al Gore used it first and then Bush followed. The outcome today is a censorship of factual matters if they don't fit into the political correctness of the Left and its media allies.
9
@Chris
If censorship of factual matters is what's ruling the day, it isn't only restricted to the "Left and its media allies".
Case and point: FOX news.
1
@N. Smith In this realm, no. There is a reason why home security ads can only show single robbers as white; there is a reason why using a real illegal immigrant murderer in a campaign ad is considered racist; there is a reason why certain outlets won't reveal a criminal is an illegal - heck they even write "illegal immigrant" out of their style guides. Fox, CNN and others all have a bias in their reporting - but the concept of censoring is pretty ingrained on the left-oriented media that believes in things like micro-aggressions.
4
The Willie Horton ad was peanuts compared to the nomination of Thomas to the SCOTUS. it's hard to name a repub POTUS of the last 50 years who has not played to racist dog whistles. From Goldwater to Nixon, Reagan in Mississippi and his love for state's rights not far from where three Civil Rights workers and untold number of blacks were killed for wanting to vote. Still to me his promotion of Thomas has had the most real time and chilling effect on American life, especially now that most agree that Anita Hill was telling the truth and the court is now enriched with sexual predators times two with Kavanaugh. Trump is no trailblazer or abberation when it comes to repub politicians exploiting race as a campaign issue, he's following a path cut out for him over the last half century or more by people considered far above his pay grade intellectually or morally.
5
I remember articles by African-American men who felt stigmatized by the image of Willie Horton. When a taxi driver passed them by was it because they looked like Willie Horton? By contrast, no white male would feel the actions of the Colorado father who killed his family reflects on anyone but him. That is one difference between being a member of the majority race and being a minority.
5
@BB
It's thinking in terms of "majority race" and "minority" that not only made the Willie Horton ad possible, but also resulted in the eventual election of Donald J. Trump.
1
No one in their right mind would ever defend Willie Horton. The question was; and remains to this day; is there were probably many such cases in the U.S. involving such horrible crimes. The fact that Horton became the poster child for leniency by Dukakis was no accident. The fact that it is still so devisive 30 years later proves the point that as usual Republicans never can resist race baiting and fear to scare folks into voting for the big bad G.O.P. to protect them. Demonize an entire race for one bad apple. No accident.
6
It is no surprise how many people here claim it's racist to think Bush wouldn't have used a white man's image if it had been a white man who committed the same crime.
They knew exactly what they were doing. And the same thing goes on today. Why else would Trump spend so much more time talking about a murder by an MS-13 gang member and barely mention the vastly larger problem of white radical men involved in killing sprees?
8
Who really cares about this anymore other than the NYT? Politics is a rough business and you see things like this or worse in both sides on an ongoing basis. Bush was without a doubt the classiest president in living memory and I mourn his passing.
3
By that standard, if a politician made an ad featuring the crimes of Bernie Madoff, and showed him as a white con man who preyed on innocent victims, would that too be a racist and sexist ad since most white collar crimes are committed by white men?
3
Kinder, gentler Racism. The good old days.
Sad.
6
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Oh. And here I thought it was a Thousand Points of Racism...
2
"The tributes to former President George Bush in recent days have focused on his essential decency and civility."
More American Eulogy as Mythology.
Willie Horton is the least of it. The Bush family ("Shrubs"--Molly Ivins would say--sizing up their morality)--rode a flying carpet of lies.
Iraq gassed Kurds (1988) with the blessing of Reagan/Bush.
It later entered W's call for invasion. Ties between Bushes and Saudis go well beyond W.
See CBC doc on Bush family ties and lies--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1auNexrio
8
The fact that Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have specifically prohibited first-degree murderers from being furloughed is an outrage.
The fact that most people on the left couldn’t care less that Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have specifically prohibited first-degree murderers from being furloughed is an outrage.
The fact that articles like this one never bother to mention that Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have specifically prohibited first-degree murderers from being furloughed is an outrage.
The fact that the Bush campaign made an ad about the fact that Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have specifically prohibited first-degree murderers from being furloughed is not an outrage.
Ask yourself something: if everything about that ad had been precisely the same, but Willie Horton had been white instead of black, would the ad have still made perfect sense, and would it have still been brutally effective? If your answer is no, you’re a fool. If your answer is yes, you have no grounds on which to consider the ad racist. It was not racist — it was completely truthful. When we hear the name “Willie Horton,” we should think of two things (other than Horton himself): Dukakis’s utterly horrifying disregard for the safety of innocent people, and the left’s mendacity.
10
@Ashley
"The fact that most people on the left couldn’t care less that Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have specifically prohibited first-degree murderers from being furloughed is an outrage. "
Of course, to know what "most people on the left" care about means that you have personal knowledge of the feelings of over half of that vast group of people.
With that kind of expertise, you should go into prognostication of some kind. You could make a killing in Vegas.
By the way...Atwater, the creator of the Horton ad, said on his deathbed that he was sorry for it, and that it made him "look like a racist."
4
@Jojojo The standard left-wing position on the Willie Horton story is that the ad was racist, and that Dukakis’s role in allowing Horton to re-offend is neither here nor there. There are people on the left who disagree with that position (I’m one of them), but it is, nonetheless, the standard left-wing position. The notion that one needs some kind of special knowledge to know the standard left-wing position on a topic (or the standard right-wing position on a topic) is silly.
I don’t much care what Lee Atwater said on his deathbed. I have no doubt that he spent his career trying to win at all costs. That doesn’t change the fact that there was nothing racist in the Willie Horton ad.
2
@Jojojo
It made him "look like a racist" because he was a racist -- and anyone familiar with Atwater's commitment to the Southern Strategy can tell you that.
2
The Willie Horton campaign attacks surely helped paved the way for the voters acceptance of Trump '16 expertly mining white racial grievance.
7
The ad originated with Al Gore who ran against Dukakis in the primary. This is not a race issue but a judgement issue.
It is why Dukakis lost, people questioned his judgement and rightfully so
8
After reading all these comments, it's no wonder that America has devolved into what it is today, and how someone like Donald Trump could be elected. SAD.
2
He opposed Civil Rights Act of 1964 and supported Willie Horton Ad and made Justice Clarence Thomas. Time rounds the edges but could Trump have happened without HW? Maybe nostalgia about HW is actually amnesia.
6
So 41 essentially admitted that winning is everything, even if it denigrates your opponents and maligns a race of people. Is that where Trump got the idea from?
The Willie Horton ads certainly caused President Clinton to sign that terrible 3 strikes law which caused so many people (mostly blacks) to languish in jail.
3
I was a childhood friend of the boy that Willie Horton stabbed 19 times and left in a trash can. Dukakis let Horton out, unsupervised less than 12 years after he committed this horrible crime.
While the ad did fire up racial tensions, Dukakis' poor judgement in letting Horton out was certainly legitimate information for the electorate to process.
56
@Neighbor2 That point could have been made without identifying his race.
4
@Neighbor2"Dukakis' poor judgement in letting Horton out was certainly legitimate information for the electorate to process."
That could be said of every governor who ever signed a parole or probation letter. They only vouch for what the person did in jail, not for his future doings.
5
@Carlton I don't think it's equivalent at all.
Parole and probation are usually given after there is ample evidence of rehabilitation and acknowledgment by the offer of their crimes balanced with the nature and severity of the crime. In addition, there is some level of supervision by parole officers and a threat to send the offender back to prison if the terms of parole are violated.
In this case, Horton was let out for a weekend unsupervised as long he promised to come back to prison. How do you motivate a person who stabbed a stranger 19 times to return to prison?
I seriously do not know what Dukakis was thinking. There must have been more deserving candidates for furlough or early release that Horton.
10
Thank you for reminding everyone of this, which opened the door for others, particularly because of Bush's reputation. Other less civil politicians later undoubtedly reasoned "If he can do it, so can I." Of course, we now see just how awful the result is of the "permission" Bush gave to others. While one can try to argue he kept his distance, Atwater's later regret as he prepared to meet his maker on his deathbed, shows that it was something Bush could have controlled had he chosen to do so. Moreover, on election night Bush proclaiming that a campaign is a "disagreement" but an election "brings harmony and peace." This too is a (subtle) acknowledgement that things went too far. The genie was clearly out of the bottle, and neither he, nor anyone else, has been able to put it back in. this raises the difficult question of how do we get out of the toxic mess we are in now?
2
When I see the ad, I don't care what color the murderer is. All I see is that some evil human being committed murder, was given a weekend prison break (what kind of moron would think that was a good idea?!), and then proceeded to rape and murder. It really says something about you personally if all you take away from that is what color the evil, murdering rapist is. Call me crazy, but I think we should judge a man by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.
15
@Anthony
Lee Atwater, on his deathbed, said what he did with the ad--and his many other political dirty tricks--was wrong. He repented. He apologized. He said the ad surely made him seem like a racist.
2
You have to be kidding me?
The NY Times has stooped to a new low.
What's next - George H.W. Bush stole ice cream from three year olds?
Peter Baker - get some class. Maybe take a week off and think about what you are doing...
12
Agreed. A cheap shot hack job during a mourning and memorial period. Trump isn’t the only one that has forgone common decency. The NYT is right up there.
2
This article is overdue. It should have been published days ago, and not just as an addendum to all the praise. Also, Mr. Baker and other journalists: please stop softening racism with the term "racially charged politics." Just say "racist politics." This is your own version of the dog whistle.
6
@James Lester The ad wasn't about race. It was about a murdering rapist and the politician who thought it would be a good idea to let murderers take breaks from prison. I don't care what race the murderer was. Judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
2
@Anthony
You're in denial. if the ad wasn't meant to be racist, it would've featured a white criminal guilty of the same crimes.
3
Speaking of Mr. Bush's errors, does anyone still remember the real story about the Iraq invasion and how it started? Apparently, at a diplomatic get-together, our former ambassador (who I believe was a woman but can't remember her name), when discussing with Saddam Hussein his opinion that Kuwait was actually Iraq's "19th province", didn't respond forcefully enough to dissuade him from even thinking about changing the status quo. He took that as a go-ahead to invade and the war became a reality. That's the beginning of the real mid- east problems that followed in subsequent years. (However, in actual fact, a previous mid east issue that showed America was a paper tiger was the Beirut bombings under Reagan when afterward we failed to do anything about it, ducked and ran. That message was taken to mean that we were full of hot air and all hell broke loose from then on. Nice job, you two!
5
I'm not an African-American, but the racial scars are still fresh for me, too. It was the most racist, ruthless and heartless presidential campaign I've ever seen. Lee Atwater apologized on his deathbed, realizing what a slimy thing he had done. But did Bush? Of course not. All his blather about a "kinder, gentler America" after a campaign like that was thoroughly phony. Bush disgusted me then, and he disgusts me now. Goodbye is too good a word, so I'll just say fare thee well.
9
Of course Bush had made no mention of Ted Bundy, a white man from very white Vermont. Bundy had slaughtered dozens of young women over many years and was executed the year Bush took office.
1
@Bob in NM Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Bush was running against the governor of Massachusetts, not the governor of Vermont. Also, that governor of Massachusetts had a role in the crimes of Horton, but not in the crimes of Bundy. The whole point of the ad was that Dukakis thought it was a good idea to let 1st degree murderers have breaks from prison. It wouldn't have made very much sense to mention a murderer from a state that wasn't under his purview.
5
I'll bet there were plenty of white Willie Hortons in Massachusetts. There is no doubt he was playing the race card more than the crime card.
2
@Bob in NM
Finally a bit of clarity about the real intention behind that ad. Thank you.
1
I never understood the uproar about this
Everything in the ad was 100 percent correct
Should we only allow campaigns to air 'crime ads' if they feature white criminals?
15
What a mess.
First off, how was the furlough program, in the words of one critic, "misrepresented?" Horton had a history of violence. He was furloughed from prison and raped a woman and stabbed her boyfriend. Those are facts, and fair game for political discourse and debate.
At the same time, the ads were a crude appeal to racism, proof that you can take the truth and stretch it into something that is not.
Disgusting. Both sides talking past each other. And it's getting worse.
4
While all the left seems to care about is the race of the murderer, I'm wondering how anyone can be stupid enough to let murderers have breaks from prison. That's the point of the ad. The murdering rapist could have been white, black, Hispanic, a Martian, it's irrelevant. I don't care about the killer's color, all I need to know is that some of his crimes wouldn't have happened if not for the idiocy of a politician. Leave it to leftists to be more concerned with perceptions than with actual rape and murder.
9
@Anthony"I'm wondering how anyone can be stupid enough to let murderers have breaks from prison."
Your world is getting smaller if everyone thinks all murderers stay in prison forever.
@Carlton I know they don't, but they should. If you intentionally take another human life in the manner that Horton did, life in prison should be the lightest sentence you could face. The death penalty would be more appropriate.
I can understand the idea of furloughs for some smaller crimes, but for first-degree murder? How can anyone approve of that?
I guess the unwritten rule regarding deceased presidents is that you can’t tell the truth about them for several days after their death.
5
Seems that the NYT can't give it up. Dissed Bush an honorable man who was doing a very good job as President to promote a Governor of Arkansas who who already had a record of political scandal and inappropriate behavior in 1992. Now gets one more dig. If the NYT had published what it knew or should have known Clinton would not have won in 1992.
6
The “scars” of the success of Willie Horton and attack style political campaigns go far beyond racial issues. The same republican strategists who guided Ronald Reagan to electoral victory were quietly at work in both Bush campaigns. As a direct result we have state legislatures that serve the narrow economic interests of millionaires - we have a “gig” economy instead of real jobs. We have enabled robber barrons to make billions by manipulating the cost of medicines so that they have become the most expensive in the world. We have allowed public savants to systematically fleece and rob our elderly, our economically vulnerable and our young through the outrageous cost of education loans. Let’s be inspired by the yellow vests and begin to take back our country.
1
As my liberal mother in law likes to say, "Bill Clinton is the only Republican I've ever voted for."
2
“If I can make Willie Horton a household name, we’ll win the election,” said Lee Atwater, the campaign strategist.
So said Lee Atwater, once a senior partner in the political consulting firm of of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly.
That's right, the very same Paul Manafort and Roger Stone we know today as the associates and true blue supporters of Mr. Trump. Such great company.
Lee Atwater also devised the Christian Coalition of evangelicals who found a home in the party that was formerly known as the Republican Party, but have graduated to the Party of Trump. Another great triumph.
While 41 may not have been directly involved or responsible for the despicable shenanigans of this illustrious group, they none-the-less seem to have become barnacles on the ship of political Conservatives who seem entirely disinterested in cleaning the hull.
3
I am not seeing the "racial" issue here. If Willie Horton was a Martian it would not negate the fact that he was furloughed - and he is serving a FIRST DEGREE murder sentence! - and then commits another heinous crime.
Why shouldn't Bush have called out Dukakis on his part in allowing Horton to be free? Horton's race had nothing to do with the issue, which was a Democratic Governor's decision to give a murderer his freedom, putting innocent people at risk.
12
“In some ways, the Willie Horton ad is the 1.0 version of Trump’s relentless tweets and comments about African-Americans.” The politicization of race relations did not begin during the ‘88 campaign. Historical shortsightedness in service of the pull-quote-sized anecdote only bolsters the apocalyptic hysteria of the navel-gazer.
Here we go again! The Willie Horton ad was a) not created by George Bush’s campaign; and b) being tough on crime is not racist nor a dog whistle, unless you want to imagine it to be.
So shame on The NY Times for playing partisan politics as usual, particularly at a time like this when the man is dead and should be honored for his decency, kindness, morals and high integrity.
12
The one with Horton's picture was not directly produced by his campaign (but by allies), but the campaign didn't condemn it, and followed it up with the "revolving door" ad. Months before the Horton ad aired, Bush himself already made repeated references to Horton.
3
It is racist when the criminal is black and the victims are white.
2
Amid all this discussion I fail to see highlighted what is likely its most important thread: The ongoing and terrible impact on African-Americans of the race hatred this kind of demonizing stirs up. All African-Americans, everywhere, every day, pay a little bit of the price - and sometimes a very big price - for exactly these kinds of demonization.
And to say that the facts of the Horton case made it newsworthy regardless of race misses the point; the ads emphasized, in a very visceral way, Willie Horton's blackness in a way cynically calculated to ignite the negative sentiments of a slice of the electorate.
It's hard to put an innocent gloss on that.
2
@Steve Tripoli The ad wasn't about race. It was about a murdering rapist and the politician who thought it would be a good idea to let murderers take breaks from prison. I don't care what race the murderer was. Judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
2
The fact is Horton did what he did while out on furlough that was the result of Dukakis' policies as governor.
9
H W Bush begat Lee Atwater, the creator of the sleazy Horton ad, and the progenitor of a new wave of sleazy politics. Atwater begat Karl Rove, who brought us the racist onslaught against McCain in South Carolina in the 2000 primaries.
Together, these 3 started 30 years of GOP sermons of hate and fear that led us inevitably to Trump.
5
While I'm amazed at the amount of denial in the majority of comments posted here when it comes to the subject of Willie Horton, I can't say I'm surprised.
America, and white America in particular has a long history of not being able to come to terms with its racist past, and through the ages has preferred to either downplay its relevance, or forget it altogether.
Of course, had Willie Horton had been Jewish, or Italian, or Irish or a member of any other ethnic group once pilloried in America and then chosen to represent an entire race, the response probably would have been different.
But since African-Americans have always been characterized as being criminals and savages that are somehow less than human, it seems to be totally acceptable, which is why it's hard for white people to recognize just how hurtful and distasteful the use of this stereotype was, and continues to be today.
But America won't be great again until it deals with its own racist history -- and denying it isn't a start.
9
I’ve never understood the backlash against the Bush campaign for using the Willie Horton case against Dukakis. As governor, Dukakis vetoed a bill which would have excluded convicted first-degree murderers from participating in the state’s prison furlough system. Then Horton, who was serving a life sentence for a particularly heinous first-degree murder, was furloughed. He failed to return, and subsequently kidnapped a couple, raping the woman and knifing the man.
Does anyone think that the Bush campaign wouldn’t have used this case had Horton been white? It seems to me that the Democrats are the racists here. Do they think that a failed justice policy shouldn’t be raised in campaigns if the perpetrators are black?
71
@Rick If Horton was White No!
6
@Rick
In your mind does accusing Democrats of being racist make racism any less offensive?
You clearly miss the point.
11
@Rick from NYC Thank you. I agree with you.
15
I remember watching the Horton ad in our media studies class in high school. A roomfull of teens in 2008 couldn't fathom how something, as mentioned in the article, so blatantly an example of dog-whistle racism that it's just a whistle, was allowed in a presidential campaign ad. Again, as mentioned in the piece, our teacher explained the impact beyond the '88 election, how it shaped political ads for years to come, then said brushes of which are still visible in modern campaigns.
That was in 2008. A decade later, now a taxpaying mid-twentysomething, the president's twitter and the amount of content created by political opponents through a campaign season leaves me flabbergasted. Hearing friends from south of the border talk of how it couldn't get any worse, I ask, "Couldn't it?"
22
@Hunter So if someone commits rape and murder, we can only talk about it if the murdering rapist was white? When I see the ad I'm outraged that some idiot in government thought it would be a good idea to give a murderer a break from prison. I get outraged by rape and murder, you get outraged by imaginary "dog-whistles". That's the difference between the right and the left.
7
@Hunter The ad wasn't about race. It was about a murdering rapist and the politician who thought it would be a good idea to let murderers take breaks from prison. I don't care what race the murderer was. Judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin.
4
@Hunter
Every single thing in the ad was 100 percent true.
Should campaigns only be allowed to air 'crime ads' if that feature white criminals?
6
Not just African Americans! And the exaggerated hagiography of Mr. Bush is making me sick also. Even in memorial, it’s way over the top.
For me Mr. Bush will always be the Vice President and candidate for President who repeatedly declared that people like me were not real Americans.
When politicians paint African Americans as criminals and thugs, they rarely stop there. They have a little list... and we all may get put on the list. That’s one very practical reason, apart from sentiment or sense of fairness, why an insult to African Americans is an insult to us all.
I remember most strongly the debate with Clinton whom Mr. Bush had also sneered at as unpatriotic. Clinton responded by reminding him that when the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy was making similar accusations in the 1950s, he was opposed by a courageous senator named Prescott Bush - the father of George H. W. Mr. Bush had the decency to look chastened and ashamed. I think I honor him more for that sense of shame - shame at what he had become- than for any achievements once he finally clawed his way to the Presidency.
45
@Mark Sillman
Bush's mother was the head of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut. That her son and grandsons subsequently sought to demonize the organization for political purposes and therefore paint her as part of an evil organization tells us a great deal about who they are.
5
@Mark Sillman Thank you. Perfectly said. I am not watching any of the tributes to Bush. He was no gentleman, for sure. And I could not stand Barbara or 43. So, I am closing my eyes and ears to this travesty.
3
I'm in my mid-50's & I was in college & graduate school during the Regan/Bush era. I had just moved from college in Massachusetts to law school in NY. I never forgot & vividly recall to this day how hatefully painful both Regan & Bush were in their politics towards minorities, particularly African Americans. Regardless of your gender, social or economic attainment, as an African American during this time (& still), you had to defend yourself against the insidiousness of their blatant racist whistles. Very much the way Trump's comments have stirred increasing anti-semiticism & other racial hatred, Bush 41 (& Regan) seeded that odious bed of hatred during the 80's. For those of us coming of age after the civil rights era & Pres. Jimmy Carter, it was ice water to our aspirations & dreams based on our hope for equal citizenship & economic participation in this country. But in the face of it all, we stand & rise & continue our progression. We, in turn, teach our children the same. This country is ours & we are entitled to it, no less than any other, 2nd only to the Native peoples.
67
@cheryl267 don't forget that George HW introduced Jebby's children as "the little brown ones."
6
I think this is a case of a willing candidate led astray by a vile consultant. Lee Atwater was a bum. He knew it himself and admitted so near the end of his life.
Atwater (as much as anyone and more than most) was the ground in which Gingrich, Army, Boehner, King, Ryan, Trump (and many others) grew up.
I think Bush was a more decent man than the Horton episode would lead one to believe (but weak for allowing it to happen). However, his weakness gave rise to the political clap-trap that presaged the Tea Party and all the garbage we've had to live with since. Like John McCain in picking Palin and giving her ilk a much bigger stage on which to play, Bush succumbed to the brashness (and the electoral chicanery) of 21st Century "real American," thuggery that has since possessed the body of the Grand Old Party.
46
RDAM60, so your excuse for Bush was that he was weak minded? What a endorsement.
4
@RDAM60
I entirely disagree. Bush was no innocent. He deliberately chose to foster the economic interests of his millionaire and billionaire family, friends and associates at the expense of the average American. In fact it is quite easy to argue the point that he actually had three terms the reality is that Bush Junior was continuing what his father started. It ended with an economic calamity that almost eclipsed the Great Depression. Bear in mind that it was the economic miseries that resulted from the Great Depression that went a long way to the rise of fascism in Europe and the US.
3
@Paulie Not endorsing. Not my species of politician. I was more concerned with the overall corruption of the GOP and less GHWB's weak mindedness (which was more than likely a weak moment -- in a "mostly" honorable life though a less honorable political career) -- compounded by a conman, Atwater, selling him a poisonous idea about how to get elected. An idea that then permeated the GOP right up to this day and the much more pernicious Trump-style of racial division. Atwater was a product of the Southern Strategy...once a likely Democrat drawn off by Nixon's law and order siren song...hence the Willie Horton ad that could have been run by a Democrat pre-1964ish.
"The ad, called “Weekend Passes,” singled out Horton, showing a picture of his scowling face as the narrator described his torture and rape of the Maryland couple. In the end, it was shown only briefly on cable television, but its impact was magnified by repeated coverage on television newscasts."
The national media is much too often complicit with distorted and falsified campaign garbage. The relentless reporting on "birther" allegations, alleged Hillary misdeeds and other incendiary but biased or untrue comments gives them a credibility they don't deserve. As one commenter points out, every state had an early release program and there were other incidents of releasee crimes. These stupid, racist, misogynist and otherwise false ads get too much play in the media, with no actual facts as context. The media must share the shame for these "whistles," its lips are still pursed to this day.
2
The left-wing NY Times continues its campaign to attack George H.W. Bush as he is lowered into his grave. It reveals the typical characteristic of leftists to destroy anyone who disagrees with them, even in death. They are not good people. They are ideologues with an agenda to take no prisoners and seize power.
9
Oh baloney. The Times and every other major outlet has run rosy obits and editorials for a man who committed criminal acts like the rest of his family.
1
So true. Read Ted Cohen's remarks below here.
"Mr. Bush was unfailingly gracious and friendly with everyone, black or white, and gave no indication that it mattered to him."
That WHAT mattered to him?
If you mean skin color, say so. "It" has no anticedent in your sloppy version.
This is sophomoric writing - if you call it writing - and not what the allegedly greatest paper should allow.
Stunningly incompetent writing and - worse - editing or lack thereof.
2
Some random thoughts in the scowling shadow of D. Trump:
• In tomorrow's funeral we grasp for an excuse to celebrate how great we are, how exceptional; that we still produce exceptional people. They are us; HW Bush is the real us. Everything else is a temporary glitch.
• No mail tomorrow. Is that normal procedure? It forces us to acknowledge the event, to participate in it if only in a passive way, even if we don’t want to.
• Tomorrow we say goodbye to the dignified man who reigned with grace during the birth of conservative extremism (“He was willing to employ campaign aides who would use the barest of knuckles in pursuit of the goal of humiliating and destroying the opposing candidate”) and the plot to take over the US court system and the gutting of the middle class.
• How much “decency” and “civility” does it take to fool us?
• We now get to hear once again the grating voice of “W” – the son who is dramatically interviewed by the media to praise the father, and who will deliver the eulogy. The son whose tenure was so disastrous (the birth of alternative reality and facts, lies, and permanent war) that it set the tone and paved the way for D. Trump.
• And during the son’s catastrophic tenure the father stood by in deafening silence.
• Tomorrow we celebrate a life and mourn a death. And in doing so we put aside the behavior of the father and the son. It's our imprimatur, our implied approval and acceptance.
• Tomorrow we mourn. But for whom? George HW Bush or ourselves?
5
I agree with bits of the previous comments:
1) Willy Horton, to me, even back then, was a crime issue. I did not see it as a race issue. It was way over-emphasized, obviously.
2) The poor choice of Clarence Thomas nomination /confirmation had to do with a) his sexual harassment of Anita Hill and b) his , what I consider, radical judicial decisions. Not conservative, but radical.
But what is telling of this article is the news that Barrack Obama retained an apparent close relationship with his fellow POTUS and the Bush family, while the current office holder is barely wanted/allowed to even attend the funeral of his Republican predecessor.
2
“The racially charged politics of crime” should more accurately read, “The racially charged crime of politics.”
George Bush's personal courage was undeniable and admirable. Politically, however, he was a coward. When he first ran for office in Texas, he knew in his heart that attacking Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement was wrong, but he did it anyway. He knew that supply-side economics was ridiculous--and said so during his 1980 primary campaign--but when Ronald Reagan offered him the vice-presidential slot, his criticisms became "inoperative." He could have explicitly denounced the Willie Horton ad, regardless of where it originated; but hey, when you're 17 points behind in the polls, what are you going to do?
This famously "decent" man put decency in a lockbox when he sought political office, for a simple reason: He wanted power. He could not admit this to himself--for men of his class and background, raw ambition was considered unseemly--so he insisted that it was all about "public service" and "giving back" to the country that had so amply rewarded him and his family. I somehow doubt that history will buy that explanation.
8
I recall Bill Clinton making a similar comment, "They're not going to Willie Horton me", when he was a candidate (regarding Arkansas execution of a retarded convict). Some Democrats are so selectively forgetful.
Thank you, NY Times. It's about time someone brought up the subject. Some of GHB, former aides are trying to deflect the issue by saying, it was, "outside, third party, Republican activists," who were responsible for the infamous Willie Horton ad, that shook the nation in 1988. Because of his unbridled ambition to become President, the country has remained racially scarred ever since. And we now have candidates who are willing to openly use racially charged language, to verbally assault an opponent.
3
Thank you, NYT for adding this important perspective to the context of Mr. Bush's history that has somehow been lost.
1
This article’s timing is in poor taste NYTs. I’m no culture warrior, rather I’m an Independent. Let his family bury the man, please.
5
Well said. Of all times to be insensitive and fail to recognize that forgiveness is alive and well this is clearly not the time.
3
The issue was not one of race but one of judgement. Letting a convicted violent criminal out of jail to cause harm to innocent people, and then not taking ownership of it - that was the problem.
12
If you are scarred today from a television ad that aired 40 years ago, then you have problems far worse than Willie Horton and George Bush.
11
He was also the head of the CIA during their horrific campaigns throughout Latin America in the 1970s.
11
The New York Times should remove this article immediately. Its purpose obviously was to promote the "Republicans = racists" line of attack, until you realize that (a) Democratic candidate (later Vice President) Al Gore used Willie Horton against Dukakis months before Bush Sr., and (b) Democratic candidate (later President) Bill Clinton rushed back to Arkansas to execute (!) a mentally impaired (!) black man (Rickie Ray Rector) to show he was 'tough' on violent crimes committed by black men. So this article utterly fails in its intended purpose. Safer to stick to Trump bashing.
13
@RichardAl Gore did not use Willie Horton against Dukakis. That is a conservative lie. He mentioned the furlough program. He did not mention Horton or any other person.
4
No they don't remain fresh. This is conjured up race-baiting.
8
@David
There is nothing to "conjure up" about race-baiting.
It's already clear and present on the American landscape.
Just listen to Donald Trump.
1
@N. Smith we’re talking 20 years ago.
There's no doubt that when images of Willie Horton flashed across the TV screen during the 1988 campaign, they were a cause of dismay and even anger for many, simply because it harkened back to the old racist stereotypes of the savage Black man thirsting after the white woman.
And while many white people simply brush this all off as something inconsequential, the fact remains that it hit a painful nerve in a community that has historically been seen as not only un-American -- but inhuman as well.
In all fairness to Mr. Bush, the use of this concept was the result of the evil genius of Lee Atwater, who as a true son of Dixie he made no attempt to disguise how bigoted he was in his strategy to create a solid Republican base in the South.
A strategy that to a certain extent has been usurped and retrofitted by the current president.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Atwater may both be gone now, but Willie Horton will never be forgotten.
7
I lived through the 1988 elections, and remember the Willie Horton issue. But I never knew Horton was black until recently. I couldn't tell from that tiny, grainy, black and white photo on a 1980s TV set.
4
@Jason Walker
It's hard to believe you never knew Horton was Black when the entire function of those TV commercials was built around it -- Was the audio off too?
5
what was great about Bush is that Willie Horton happenend to be black and not chosen because he was black. Bush saw all men as equal. His son didn't want teachers pushing along minority students just for the sake of getting them out only to have them fail in life when an employer doesn't want to lower their bar in hiring. No one wants to admit that their ethnic or sexual group has bad apples but they do. Willie Horton could have just as well been a white, hetersexual, male in his 30's or 40's.
5
Remember that one definition of 'gentleman' is a man who never insults anyone by accident.
6
What is "racist" about the Willie Horton ad? Just because a black man was featured in the ad? I'm sure that if Horton had been a white man, the ad would still have been run, and might have been even more effective.
The ad was an attack on Dukakis for being soft on crime. Horton was just an example of how Dukakis' policies of furloughs for criminals backfired. It had nothing to do with race - unless your world view is that everything has to do with race.
18
No question, running the Willie Horton ad was a below-the-belt assault on the entire nation.
What I want to know is to what extent the Willie Horton ad influenced the election, the way Russia and Facebook and the Anti-Mexican propaganda did in 2016.
Politicians have to get people to feel like victims or they won't vote. Now, with Willie Horton a household name, Blacks, feeling victimized by the ad, ought to vote in greater numbers.
3
Both Bushes wanted to have it both ways. Many forget the smear that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. Sound not too far off of Willie Horton? John McCain, to his enduring credit, never reciprocated in kind and perhaps it cost him the nomination. You could say that the Bushes paid a rather poetic price for their slander: mediocrity in 41's one term presidency and complete disaster in 43's. Perhaps this should be a wake-up call to all of us. The chickens always come home to roost.
7
Say what? Who can even remember 1988?
1
@Ryan Judge Kavanaugh. He has his calendar to help.
1
Once again, Peter Baker soft-pedals racism. It's not about "overt plays to race," or "a pretty clear whistle," or "hardball tactics" or "an appeal to racial fears" or "racially inflected language". It's about blatant, centuries-old racism. And George HW Bush employed that racism to the hilt to get himself elected and remain in office.
And it wasn't just African-Americans who were angered by the Clarence Thomas nomination, and it wasn't because he was "conservative." Thomas was a judicial disgrace who opposed virtually every remedy for racism that had oppressed Black people for so long.
Our corporate press corps needs to stop shilling for Bush and conservatives. George HW Bush was a dirty politician who reveled in using racist tactics coordinated by racist tacticians.
No number of polite notes or gracious meetings can cover up the stench of Bush's racism and how he dragged American democracy down.
10
The Willie Horton political ad was not racist. As a few here have pointed out, it was about law and order, about the real world consequences of being soft on crime. Dukakis was soft on crime and his decision to allow Willie Horton to be freed to murder someone, along with his wimpy response to a question concerning how he would respond if his wife was assaulted, and his poor decision to put a big helmet on his little head while sitting in a tank is what lost him that election. Willie Horton is really a picture of the left’s first very public playing of the race card—something they now do regularly and without shame.
4
You just showed how effective the ad was. In reality this was an existing furlough program that had long been in place in Massachusetts and had actually been quite successful in reducing recidivism by granting weekend furloughs for prisoners whose release date was approaching. The Horton episode was an aberration.
1
I’m guessing that the people that benefited the most from tougher sentencing were inner city blacks. These laws were not racist, they were common sense. But then again, common sense has never been a strong point for the Leftist/Democrats.
4
Bush went to war to help protect his way of life..the good life..
Many blacks were just as courageous, came back to racism and poverty. So who were the biggest heroes? wasn't Marion Morrison stage name John Wayne, didn't serve a day.
7
How about the thousands of Nicaraguans killed as Bush "arrested" Noriega when he stopped playing ball? Are we to believe that Bush as head of the CIA during the 70s had no idea of what was going on there? And the first Iraqui War falsely influenced by the lies of "babies being murdered in a hospital nursery" likely led to the death of 100,000+ as well as displacement of millions...the disregard of law by pardoning those involved in Iran Contra.....this revisionist history....
5
Close your eyes. Imagine Horton was white. Would the add be OK then?
4
@greatnfi
In that case it never would have been an ad. Has there ever been such an ad? I'd be surprised if there was.
2
The article omits what did in Michael Dukakis as a result of the Willie Horton ad.
It's not that he stood up for the Massachusetts furlough program; or that he called Bush and his campaign racists; or that he railed against the racism of the GOP.
When asked if he supported the death penalty for a "Willie Horton" if his wife Kitty Dukakis had been the woman who was raped, he hesitated and said he would not.
As a result, millions of Americans said "no" to Dukakis and the Democratic party.
Which explains Clinton's stand on the death penalty in the 1992 campaign - and the Democratic Presidential candidate, who as Arkansas Governor, refused to issue an order of executive clemency to halt the execution of Rickey Ray Rector. Tough on Crime - remember that?
6
@Mimi A great deal of Americans don’t agree with the death penalty. That moment was one of honesty and integrity on Dukakis’s part. Politicians caving on their convictions doesn’t generally ingratiate them to voters.
3
@Linda M
Whether the death penalty is right or wrong or should be legal or not is not the point.
The point is that because of the Horton ad, Dukakis was put on the spot by the question and it turned the tables on him.
It was not just the death penalty that put him on the spot - millions of Americans didn't like his answer because it was his wife who was the one supposedly raped.
Lee Atwater, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Karl Rove, Roger Ailes have debased our political discourse for the last 3 decades
They all profited mightily and spawned the next generation of hate and conspiracy celebrities
When I read the term ‘dirty tricksters’ it seems too dismissive for what they have done to our country
14
@Gina - what about the gullible folks who eat this stuff up every day? Who is really to blame for all our present trouble?
It is not offensive to portray a violent criminal of a certain race, as a violent criminal. Obvious facts are not supposed to be suppressed, at least among honest people.
8
Okay, in many ways he was a model for what we think leaders should be. But there were flaws, serious flaws.
Willie Horton is brought up, but I have not seen any mention of the Iran-Contra fiasco. Is my memory playing tricks, or was this a serious breach of the Constitution?
39
@John
Thank you for reminding us of the impeachment that never was but should have been. Or one could wistfully believe that the release of the 52 hostages in Iran on January 20, 1981 was simply coincidence. Sounds eerily familiar to today's goings on. Someone please cue George Santayana.
5
@John
Add another fiasco to your list: Clarence Thomas: the anti-Black, black judge.
3
Crazy idea: you don't actually have to be African-American to be disgusted by this. Nor do you have to have "scars" or feel "wounds"--whatever you are. I don't get "hurt" when some politician goes racist to win; I get angry and disgusted. I don't expect to be "loved" or even "respected" by politicians, with a few exceptions that aren't resolvable down to 100% PR.
Meanwhile, the endless Byzantine funeral rites now apparently a permanent feature of the political-media system, are a very telling sign of dying democracy. I say, don't join in. Stop consuming this faux-togetherness and you'll stop seeing it in the media.
Newsflash, which is fit to print: the powers that be want you to be passive, easily led consumers of their PR and consent-manufacturing. It's comfy and fun and surface-moving, like a Spielberg movie. And, like most Spielberg movies, it's designed for children.
Meanwhile, the carbon's building up and nukes are still on a hair-trigger. Let's attend to that, rather than to postmodern funeral-games-deifications of Dead Emperors.
30
@Doug Tarnopol You said everything I wanted to say, except better. Thanks.
3
@Doug Tarnopol
Here's another newsflash for you.
While you don't have to be African-American to be disgusted by the use of Willie Horton, the stereotype is far more painful and destructive than people who aren't Black can understand.
Your comment is proof of this.
And not only that, but this same kind of racist mentality still exists today and to a great extent is primary to the present administration.
3
There is only one reason that Dukakis lost...his campaign! Up until Hillary’s 2016 campaign, the ‘88 was the worst in my lifetime.
We kept waiting for Dukakis to show up! Except for his lame answer to Bernard Shaw’s question about capital punishment & the tank ride, we barely saw him! We kept waiting...right till Election Day. If you don’t define yourself, someone else will define you.
9
@Gailmd
"There is only one reason that Dukakis lost...his campaign!"
Right! I remember his campaign manager, Susan Estrich, a Harvard grad., explaining his platform, etc and thought, "we're doomed" because it was a cold, intellectual, faculty lounge, power-point presentation: all laudable and FDR-ish in approach, but dull and dry.
Meanwhile, Bush was flying flags, showing films of him being pulled from the Pacific, talking about crime, the Pledge of Allegiance and SF Democrats.
And then there was "The Tank" ride, MD swiveling around in the turret with the oversized helmet (countered with more ads of the dashing airman Bush in Navy Whites) and, to top it off, "the Kitty question" during the debate.
In short: Estrich v. Atwater and Ailes.
Dukakis - a fine public servant and veteran - was up by 17 for a moment and then was pummeled. It was tough to watch.
2
The article is exactly why so many people have such disdain for the main stream media (MSM.) The Horton ad was a law and order issue pure and simple. Dukakis let Horton out of prison for a weekend of rape and murder. Because the ad was so devastating for Dukakis the MSM decided to play the race card. For decades now the media labels voters racists if they don't fall in line and support the Democrats. This is the same media that calls government sanctioned racial, gender, and ethnic discrimination "affirmative action." The same media that calls illegals aliens "undocumented immigrants." The same media that writes about "gun violence" as if inanimate objects commit crimes.
26
“Pure and simple” ... except the guy that actually created the ad said on his deathbed that it was intended as a dog whistle to scare white voters. But what does he know.
15
It's all relative. While the incident you point out and probably others show Bush 1 not to be another Lincoln, to say the least, compared to the ego maniac, bigot, demagogue Trump, Bush 1 looks like another Lincoln.
4
Yes HW Bush was a respected President with the ability to lead the country in times of war and unlike the current occupant, he was respected world wide. The willie Horton stain and his association with Reagan, clearly showed racial bias.That bias left us with the cruel joke of Clarence Thomas as a model Black jurist on SCOTUS.
President HW Bush left many unanswered questions that stained his legacy. Who was the George Bush with the CIA who reported to J. Edgar Hoover from Dallas after Kennedy's assassination?Did he really have no idea where he was on November 22, 1963? What was his involvement with the Bay of Pigs?
Was he really unaware of Iran Contra? Did his policy towards Saddam Hussein encourage the invasion of Kuwait? Why was he in business with Ben Laden's brother and meeting with him before 9-11? Was he responsible for the rush to get Saudis out of the US immediately after 9-11?
Hopefully after his death we will get some answers to the above.
20
@LVG: thank you for reminding us of these issues.
i suppose, we should not raise our hopes too high
as to getting answers soon. maybe our grandkids will?
as to your remark regarding
"... with the ability to lead the country in times of war"
i am highly tempted to slightly edit it
"... with the ability to lead the country into war"
every single murder victim is one too many,
whether due to the hortons of this world or wars.
are we doing the right things to prevent them?
3
@LVG
Unanswered questions also include the deaths of Hale Boggs, who questioned the Warren Commission findings, and Nick Begich, and also of Paul Wellstone and Mel Carnahan (and son), Democrats running in opposition to Bush-backed Republican candidates.
This was a prelude to trump’s “Mexican rapists” fearmongering.
The Bush hagiography must stop... and that goes for W too.
14
@Chris It is not fear-'Mongering" when there is something real to fear, like rape and assault.
2
Whatever it takes to get elected will determine the strategy politicians take when running for office. Unfortunately for the United States, the strategies that involve race are most potent in attracting people to the polls. The current hysteria over immigrants is nothing less than this same old blueprint. Will we ever be able to move beyond this?
11
Bush was, as all humans are, a complex person. He had his merits. He had his fallacies. At the time of death, society naturally leans to positive recollections, if at minimum to give a person a graceful exit, as it ought to be for any human, not just a president. That he was president makes the positive gestures more public. The one-sided nature of all the positive pronouncements can seem like society has gotten amnesia. Even Trump the narcissist has gotten into the swing of things. It lasts for a couple days, allows time for family to mourn and for a person to have his or her graceful exit. It does not, however, change how Bush is recorded in history. It does not change how Trump feels about the Bushes, or vice versa. We will be back to normal in about 2 days.
10
And Willie Horton ain't all. How about his racist behavior toward the bumbling Michael Dukakis? How about his actively empowering reactionary landowners and military throughout Central America with consequences playing out now at our southern border? How about his invasion of Panama? Why is this patrician who, yes, did play by the rules (set up in his favor) as opposed to the barbarian in the White House at present, but who nevertheless was responsible for so much suffering around the world in pursuit of America first -- why is he worshipped now? The same could be asked of Reagan. Apparently we need reassurance at all costs that the system in place here is fair and good and works for the benefit of all despite overwhelming evidence to the opposite. His pedigree, no matter how high his nose was lifted, was stained in blood.
18
@free range
From Panama here. The majority of Panamanians welcomed the invasion as it liberated the country from bloody Noriega. Panama started growing pretty much after that. True, the US was behind most of the bloody dictatorships in Latin America; true that we had the unfamous School of the Americas, where the dictators and torturers were trained (in now hosts the Melia Hotel - talk about creepy); but this particular invasion brought progress and relative peace.
1
@Anan I didn't know most Panamanians welcomed the invasin. That still doesn't neutralize America's long history of invading (physically or otherwise) any country seen as weaker to further "our" interests, meaning the interests of those in power. And thanks for reminding me about the School of the Americas -- training ground for dictators and torturers as you say, the graduates of which lead in a straight line to the thousands of Central American refugees rushing "our" border out of the desperate hope for a decent life.
An inconvenient truth that doesn’t fit the liberal narrative is still the truth. Horton did the violent crime on a furlough that was simply bad policy by politicians soft on crime. I don’t see anything wrong with bringing it up in a campaign.
19
Did or did not Willie Horton kill a boy while on furlough from a life sentence to prison?
What are you all telling the family of that dead boy killed over 30 years ago? “Just get over it!”?
Amazing the lack of compassion for crime victims.
28
@Frank Actually, while on furlough, he stabbed, but did not kill, a man (fiancee of woman he raped.) Horton did, previously, stab to death a 17 year old gas station attendant -- after the attendant handed over all the case.That's what led to Horton's imprisonment in the first place.
6
One thing that hasn't changed.....Republicans know how to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I don't remember thinking President Bush was a God when he was in office. Neither Bush for that matter.
10
'Gentleman' though he may have been, by bringing Lee Atwater into his campaign circle and (if only by omission) condoning this vile, racist, misleading ad, Bush Senior put the nation on a direct path to the take-no-prisoners mentality of today's politics. Until the Horton campaign I had been a frequent split-ticket voter although mostly for Democratics; the memory of Watergate was still fresh. Phoned the national Republican headquarters to voice my disappointment and disgust, swore to never, ever again vote for any Republican for any office. I have not done so and never will.
8
Ailes? Atwater? That’s all you really need to know.. with slime- meisters, like these, who appealed to the basest instincts in people, it was only a matter of time before the basic decency of Mr. Bush would be assaulted, and overwhelmed. I didn’t like or agree with his politics and this episode left me cold.. as it should have. Somewhere in the recesses of his heart my belief is that he regretted it.
14
Willie Horton was furloughed and raped a woman and then murdered. Talking about is not racism, but telling the truth..
Baltimore is in murderous chaos right now, with a young black 5 yr old shot by the stray bullet of black men who are career criminals, still on the street. Did I mention her 7 year old cousin died the same way last summer?
Politicians should not only call out black murderers, they need to reinstate the death penalty for such heinous and cavalier killers.
Black lives must be made to matter to black people. And yes, Virginia, I am African American saying this.
29
It does not matter whether GHWB personally approved the odious ad or not. The responsibility ultimately rested with him. He failed miserably, and never expressed regret. No need to whitewash this episode simply because the man is dead. Willie Horton is indeed his legacy.
21
@Max duPont
Go talk to Dukakis. He let a criminal out of jail for a weekend of rape and murder. Bush wanted to protect law abiding citizens from the criminals.
12
I see no mention of Mr. Horton's initial crime: the robbery and stabbing (19 stab wounds) of a 17-year old store clerk. He was then stuffed into a garbage can where he bled to death.
His life sentence without parole was not enforced.
Then the subsequent crimes occurred.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
22
@g
Letting readings know about Horton criminal past undercuts the media's agenda to sow racial discord.
5
I'm a white American. The racism that George H.W. Bush allowed to be purveyed in his name in order to win the presidency remains in my mind to this day. For all of Mr. Bush's good qualities, that stain is indelible.
14
All this stuff about how kind and gentle he was is a slap in the face to anyone who suffered because of the Willie Horton ad and systemically racist policies of Reagan/Bush and Bush/who ever that was.
Also the blood of an entire generation of gay men and others impacted by the ignorant denial of the AIDS situation is all over his hands and is dripping down his arms to his neck, torso and lower extremities. His silence equalled too many deaths.
10
Whether Mr. Bush was "unfailingly gracious and friendly with everyone, black or white" or not, the Willie Horton matter showed that when it came to politics, he was as Machiavellian as they come.
26
41 is now being hailed as great servant to the public & nation, the infatiguable note and letter writer, the civility in person. Wished he'd left a note that the Willie Horton racism for his campaign was racist wrong wrong wrong. For me at that time it blew out all the thousand points of light . . .
16
Bush had the best resume for the White House, former congressman, former chair of his party, former ambassador to China, former spy master, former US representative to the UN, former Vice President, etc. However, other than the ADA, he left no legacy to his name. He was, in a manner of speaking, the classic empty suit, of his generation. Then his son used his name to get the old man’s seat and commit the greatest strategic blunder of our times by handing Iraq to to Tehran on a silver platter...
10
First Gulf War? Managing the collapse of the Soviet Union and he integration of the newly-independent countries into the world order? China's entry into the WTO?
1
@Abdul Abdi even worse he wanted Jeb! to be president too. talk about selfish, at least Barbara said enough.
1
End justifies the means, huh? Win by any means necessary, right? Reading the effusive and hyperbolic Bush obits I thought the subject was Lincoln or FDR, not the guy who screamed "No new taxes!" as red meat to his easily duped GOP base, then--never mind--raised them anyway. Outside of 41's rallying call and multi-lateral military campaign to turn back Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, this man did almost nothing to qualify as a great president. We also should "credit" him for giving us W. Bush, whose fatuous loyalty to his mighty father gave us the Iraq War Disaster. Thanks, Dad!
16
Thanks for this article. Can we get a story on Iran-Contra? Wasn’t Bush in charge of that?
11
Do not forget that Ronald Reagan went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, the cite of the murder of 3 civil rights workers in 1980 and invoked "states rights". This was the rallying cry of earlier racists like Strom Thurmond, a man who was shunned by the Democratic party eventually and welcomed by the Republicans. George H.W. Bush could have turned his back on this racist strain in his party but instead chose to embrace it, to his everlasting shame.
98
The Bushes were nothing but ruthless opportunists.
Bush rightly derided Reagan’s economic proposals as “voodoo economics” during the 1980 primaries, only to embrace them when he joined the ticket.
12
The Willie Horton incident is a stain on President Bushes career, but if you take the sum of all his actions before, during and after his presidency he did much more good then bad. Not like our current president. In addition, the Willie Horton issue may have damaged Dukakis somewhat, but the photo of Dukakis in the tank with an oversize helmet I believe is what really did him in. I can remember that photo clearly today. He looked like a little kid playing in a tank compared to a real war hero. Dukakis didn't have a chance.
20
@VMG This article about Horton doesn't conform with the truth. First the Democrats not the Republicans made Horton an issue. The Massachusetts furlough problem had been in the news when Dukakis & Al Gore sparred over it in a primary debate in 1988. Gore didn’t mention Horton by name, but he didn't need to. The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune had been running what would eventually amount to almost 200 stories over the next year, criticizing the Department of Corrections, Governor Dukakis,& the furlough program. The paper would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting. After the Horton story broke, Dukakis stood by the furloughs-for-lifers policy. He faced overwhelming opposition from the state legislature, a citizen petition drive & a blizzard of news stories. Only after the governor had been "persuaded,'' that the policy was`at odds with state's longstanding effort to ensure tough sentencing practices did he quietly sign a bill that abolished furloughs for murderers. It was fair to ask why Dukakis let a first-degree murderer out of prison on a 48-hour pass...one who had drug & discipline problems in prison. Horton, sentenced to life without parole for a brutal 1974 killing, took off from an unsupervised furlough - his 10th - in 1986. The following year he was recaptured after holding a Maryland couple hostage, during which time he raped the woman & stabbed the man. The Bush ad wasn't a despicable stunt, it was fair game given the facts.
11
Bill, finally some true words. I was wondering where the posters on this thread were living for the past 30 years. Gore brought this up in the Democratic primary against Dukakis. Facts are facts. It’s a true story. Dukakis and Gore own it.@Bill Brown
2
When Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he said he was giving the South to the GOP for a generation.
So starting in 1968 we had the "Southern Strategy." Reagan started his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi (if you don't know what happened there, look it up!). Willie Horton was the next step.
But these were done by "traditional" Republicans, such as George H.W. Bush, to get elected … not to be the basis for their policies as they governed. However, it was only a matter of time until the "base" of the party took over from the "elite", and so in 2016 we got the Don.
Note that none of the following could be nominated by the GOP today: Nixon, Ford, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, or even Goldwater.
14
It turns out that LBJ was too optimistic.
Those old southerners passed their beliefs onto their kids and grandkids
1
Let's not forget also how Bush set up a Black high school student from Anacostia, Keith Jackson, to be a prop in a political stunt by having a DEA undercover agent lure him to Lafayette Park to sell crack cocaine, just so the president could go on TV and talk about how you could buy crack right outside the White House. I lived in DC at the time - you could not actually buy crack cocaine at Lafayette Park, and in fact this kid didn't even know where the White House was until he was directed there by the agent. Bush went on TV with his prop bundle of drugs and his fake story, and and thus set in motion decades of mass incarceration of Black folks, primarily young men. Jackson was arrested and spent 10 years in jail. Now, agreed Jackson was a drug dealer, and he did sell crack, but there is something craven, unseemly and wrong about the president of the United States being complicit in setting up a drug deal and ensnaring an 18-year-old just to make a (false) political point. Bush might have been a more genteel kind of racist, but racist he was. How nice he might have been to individual Black people directly in his presence means nothing.
74
@HumplePi I am glad you brought up crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is defined differently than cocaine. Why you ask would this be. Because crack is used primarily by poor people who live in cities. While cocaine is the cream of the crop for wall street types mainly because it will go through your system quickly and can be concealed easily. If they still have stop and frisk in NY city half of the elite would be arrested. Coke is the choice drug for the upper class by far.
6
@HumplePi So, he talked the the teen into selling drugs or talked him into plying his trade in a different location? BTW, teens are major participants in the drug trade
2
@Observer I guess you went through your teens without breaking any law - a paragon
1
White people remember too. It was a vile and deliberate act in a long history of racism in this country.
27
I’m not black but this gauzy view of the Bush family turns my stomach.
30
@John Who flew the Saudi's out after 9/11?
5
I recommend that you read up on the Bush family. Bush Sr. and the Carlyle Group, Neil and financial criminal activity, Jeb and the rigged Florida presidential election in 2000, George's disastrous Irag war based on lies. The family should get what they deserve. Scorn and jail time.
2
Racism is the default stance for conservative politicians everywhere. We’ve seen it in Europe as often as in the USA. Although Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” brought it to national attention, there’s a long history of the Democratic Party using exactly the same language and tactics when it dominated Southern politics, going all the way back to Reconstruction. It’s merely US politics doing business as usual, shamelessly playing to the endogenous white supremacist and race-based nationalism that lurk in the dark corners of the American psyche.
37
@Norman McDougall Agreed, but here's the thing: in all fairness decent people outnumber white supremacists. Why is it that those tactics and campaigns of fear always work? Those tactics by politicians say more about voters than they do about the politicians themselves. It’s the same thing time and time again: there’s Bush-41 and the Willie Horton ad of 1988; there’s Bush-43 and the Swift Boat thing of 2004, who knows what else?! As long as voters are so gullible, the wrong candidates will keep getting elected.
4
False. Gore brought this up in the Democratic primary against Dukakis. Facts are facts. It’s a true story. Dukakis and Gore own it.@Norman McDougall
1
The New York Times will never stop reminding us of a single thing that will divide the country racially. I expect that to continue for another thousand years. So what else is newsworthy today?
15
@Confused
Confused by the facts? It is a fact Mr Bush did this and yes it is unmistakably an appeal to the dark angels of racial fear. Reporting facts is what newspapers and proper news organizations do. That is not confusing at all.
15
@jimc
Fact is that Al Gore "used" Horton first.
5
People change; forgiveness is a reality. Give it up!
Does anyone remember Reagan’s role in using racism? The “welfare queens driving cadillacs” i.e., black women, gaming the social safety net system? I don’t want to minimize the use of Horton, but the GOP has been racist going back a long way.
24
The GOP suddenly became popular with confederate flag-waving white southerners when it nominated Goldwater just 2 months after he voted against the 1964 CRA. It was a calculated move to benefit from the backlash against the Civil Rights movement. It worked: Goldwater became the 1st republican to carry the South since the Civil War... and it’s been red ever since.
Black voters saw it too and went the other way: From 32% for Nixon in 1960 to just 5% for Goldwater in 1964... and it’s been in single digits ever since.
5
The Willie Horton ad was a perfectly legitimate issue: Mike Dukakis' ridiculous policy as governor of Massachusetts of granting weekend furloughs to convicted murderers. Had Willie Horton had been white or a woman or anything else would have made zero difference. No matter how the issue was raised, The New York Times and others would have screamed "racism." But you are like the boy who cried wolf. You cry racism so much that nobody takes you seriously when you use the word. Willie Horton was a black man. That is an unfortunate fact. Mike Dukakis' policy was dumb. That too is a fact, though an inconvenient one for those who can't open their eyes without seeing racism somewhere. (Even Santa in the "Rudolph" cartoon is under attack by liberals who have nothing better to do than invent injustices.)
22
@peter
Racism is a perfectly legitimate problem. The fact you disagree explains everything.
15
@Peter
If it was dumb and put so many people at risk there MUST have been other examples of murderers killing on furlough. Well then why did Mr. Bush choose this one? If in fact Willie Horton was the only example, well then your premise is wrong, it was not as misguided a policy as you say. Can't have it both ways.
8
@jimc. Find us the "must" then before you assert that as a fact....
2
GHW Bush is responsible for 1000s of deaths in Iraq & Panama, as well as playing to the same racists as Nixon, Reagan & the rest of former southern Dems, having changed the "Party of Lincoln" to the party of Strom Thurmond.
Lest we forget, he was also the CIA chief.
As with bomber of civilians McCain, our political class is always anxious to praise their model criminals.
17
The mainstream media and the resistance have made Donald Trump such a pariah (and I’m not saying he’s not entirely deserving) and labeled him an authoritarian, a fascist, etc., that it has effectively ‘normalized’ the Bushes, the Republican Party of everyone from the operatives like Lee Atwater to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Armey, Tom Delay and on.
The saving grace of the Trump presidency is that it doesn’t really know what it’s doing. They don’t know what the office is capable of.
These previous Republican administrations however knew the power of the presidency and two devastating and unnecessary wars should be examples forever of just how awful the results of having nefarious but also cunning and skilled individuals in the seats of power can be.
It would have been hard watching Bush I memorialized as he has been these past few days, but fortunately there’s been a lot of great sports on the TV.
8
The mainstream media has reported on Trump's actions. He has always behaved like this. It's not terribly new to those of us from the New York City area where the tabloids and some TV stations have long responded to his need to be in the media.
1
I have always believed that it was fellow Greek-american, liberal Democrat, Paul Tsongas who first raised the Horton case against Dukakis in a MA primary race. Gore and G.H.W. Bush later picked it up.
13
So, the country may be racially polarized, but you don't want to hear about it.
3
Same people who called MLK a “race hustling agitator” in the 1960s.
White America has never confronted race willingly, it’s always been forced to by “agitators playing the race card”
1
Bush senior had many good qualities, but he was no saint. He could have stopped Willie Horton and he did not. He could have refused to pardon the Iran-Contra participants, he did not. He could have stood fast with his belief in a woman's right to choose, he did not.
18
This article about Horton doesn't conform with the truth. First the Democrats not the Republicans made Horton an issue. The Massachusetts furlough problem had been in the news when Dukakis & Al Gore sparred over it in a primary debate in 1988. Gore didn’t mention Horton by name, but he didn't need to. The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune had been running what would eventually amount to almost 200 stories over the next year, criticizing the Department of Corrections, Governor Dukakis,& the furlough program. The paper would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting. After the Horton story broke, Dukakis stood by the furloughs-for-lifers policy. He faced overwhelming opposition from the state legislature, a citizen petition drive & a blizzard of news stories. Only after the governor had been "persuaded,'' that the policy was`at odds with state's longstanding effort to ensure tough sentencing practices did he quietly sign a bill that abolished furloughs for murderers. It was fair to ask why Dukakis let a first-degree murderer out of prison on a 48-hour pass...one who had drug & discipline problems in prison. Horton, sentenced to life without parole for a brutal 1974 killing, took off from an unsupervised furlough - his 10th - in 1986. The following year he was recaptured after holding a Maryland couple hostage, during which time he raped the woman & stabbed the man. The Bush ad wasn't a despicable stunt, it was fair game given the facts.
16
Thank you, Peter Baker, for offering a course correction during this time of overly effusive praise of the Bushes.
Lee Atwater was the architect of the filthy political tricks we witness up until this very day. They have shattered our country.
Yes, when a human being passes on, we seek to give him the dignity of praise. But when he is a powerful public figure, we must temper it with a realistic assessment of what he did with the power the electorate entrusted to him. We have that right as a nation, as well as an obligation not to revise history in the process.
I shudder to think what this spirit of hagiography will result in when G.W. Bush passes on. Will we get a white-washing of the crimes that he committed in taking us into a disastrous war under bogus circumstances, a war with consequences we will feel for decades to come?
Please, in attempting to be humane, also give some attention to the lives these people have destroyed with their enormous power.
12
The current hagiography of Bush senior is leaving me a bit cold. Let us not forget his employment of Lee Atwater’s use of racist, poisonous politics to help get him elected. The ugliness of the era we find ourselves in can be traced directly back to this.
54
The Bush Family has historically displayed a great deal of troubling behaviors.
I’m as skeptical as the next person when it comes to conspiracy material. However, just scratching the surface with this clan gives me the willys.
All these rose-colored tributes run in the Times and elsewhere are equqlly creepy.
27
Not to be outdone, four years later while campaigning for president, Bill Clinton raced back to Arkansas to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector. Rector had been brain damaged. He didn't even know he was about to be killed when he was pulled out of his cell. He asked that his dessert—part of his last supper-- be saved so he could eat it later. Clinton thought killing Rector who was black would show that he was tough on crime and would help get himself elected. Of the many horrible things both Clinton and Bush are responsible for, these are among the most defining.
36
Finally! I’ve been quite amazed at the St. George coverage the Times has been using. There is a very nasty streak in the Bush family. Jeb, George and Neal are pretty loathsome and at times criminal. The Horton nightmare is a dark time in American politics and Lee Atwater was a truly horrible part of it. How was this possible if Bush was so “nice” as the coverage keeps telling us?
62
Dog whistle? 13% of the population makes up the majority of crime in this country.
4
@T.F Wilton Majority of arrests, perhaps. The real crimes, in number & horror, are by the likes of Bush.
9
Amazing that Baker could claim Bill Clinton was "forced" into racially charged campaigning by George HW Bush.
But astounding that - while making reference to Clinton - Baker omits the infamous Ricky Ray Rector case. To refresh memories: Bill Clinton turned the execution of Rector - a mentally-incompetent black man - INTO A CAMPAIGN STOP during the 1992 Presidential Campaign.
Willie Horton and Ricky Ray Rector are not equivalents. In one case we're talking about a single campaign ad about a man already imprisoned for his crime, In the other, we're talking about a campaign rally celebrating the taking of a life.
There we have it from the NEW New York Times that no longer even tries to honor Abe Rosenthal's epitaph: "He kept the paper straight"
3
Poor timing. Something Trump would do. Surprised, thought the Times had more class.
4
The NY Times should be ashamed recycling this decades old drivel on a day of national mourning. Al Gore's campaign was the first to use Willie Horton as a cudgel against Dukakis. Willie Horton did exactly what the ad said he did. The ad was true. Dukakis was weak on crime. Bush won. Game, set, match. Get over it.
7
The point of the article is that many Americans have no reason to mourn.
8
A dirty business that he and lee atwater took quantum leap forward.
6
Finally, a look at the other side of George Bush, the precursor of the GOP of today.
19
It was and remains the whole apparatus that was built to support the Bush family. The people like Lee Atwater, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and many more who he brought to influence.
I think Bush was motivated by duty to country and saw the unpleasant machinations of power as necessary means to getting good things done. Unfortunately power and money distort everything, and only a few Presidents have the vision to steer through that. Roosevelt and Lincoln come to mind.
F. Scott Fitzgerald knew something about the wealthy in America.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
90
@Roper
It sounds a lot like Democratic presidents cleaning up the mess the Republicans made. Take a look at the economic statistics and wars they started.
3
Clarence Thomas is the result of the Bush Administration. He should have never been confirmed. Thomas and the Willie Horton ads will always be a black mark on Bush's record as President.
85
Not to mention Biden, who showed true colors during Thomas' confirmation hearing. My God. Can't the Democrats do better? Or the GOP, for that matter.
@Debbie What's wrong with the Willie Horton ad? Are there falsehoods in it?
Not just African Americans! People of all races who who care about racial justice are still deeply upset by this racist and cynical act that was an important step towards the even more overt racial hatred represented by today’s Republican Party.
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@GreatDoubt The Democratic party should stop flogging that dead horse.
The Republican party incepted and passed most if not all of the civil rights legislation.
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@Dean Koslofsky What history book are you reading? Law and Order Moral Majority and such?
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To him, American history stopped in the summer of 1964.
He doesn’t wonder why the so-called “party of Lincoln” suddenly became popular with confederate flag-waving racists.
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For victims of violent crimes perpetrated by unwisely paroled or furloughed violent felons, the scars also remain fresh.
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@Richard Scars are there for sure. But to darken the picture of Willie Horton what do you call that?
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@Richard Thanks for getting back to the real issue.
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At the time all fifty states had furlough programs. The Massachusetts program was signed into law in 1972 by Republican Governor Francis Sargeant. A 1973 state court decision extended its reach to include 1st-degree murderers. In the early 60s, California Governor Ronald Reagan defended his state's furlough policy when two inmates on work leave were charged with murder.
To raise this as a campaign issue is one thing. To imply that it was a unique result of your opponent's governance by using a blurred photo of an African-American inmate just released from solitary confinement is another. The latter is naked race-baiting, plain and simple. It cynically exploited victims and their families in the bargain.
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