1988 Bush VS. Dukakis

"Bay"

Transcript

Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Bay," Dukakis, 1988

[TEXT: Bush's False Advertising]

MALE NARRATOR: George Bush is complaining about Boston Harbor.

[TEXT: The Truth: Bush's Administrations Slashed Clean Water Funds By $1.5 Billion]

MALE NARRATOR But Bush's Administration cut funds to clean up Boston Harbor. Bush's administration cut funds to clean up California's coast...

[TEXT: Bush Record: Cut Funds to Clean Up California Coast, July 18, 1982]

MALE NARRATOR:...from San Diego Harbor to San Francisco Bay.

[TEXT: Bush Record: Opposed Crackdown on Toxic Waste, March 21, 1981]

MALE NARRATOR: Bush opposed a crackdown on corporations releasing toxic waste.

[TEXT: Bush Record: Favored Veto of Clean Water Act, Nov. 6, 1986]

MALE NARRATOR: Bush even favored a veto of the Clean Water Act, not once, but twice.

[TEXT: & Jan. 30, 1987]

[TEXT: League of Conservation Voters Endorses Mike Dukakis]

MALE NARRATOR: The nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Mike Dukakis. So when you hear George Bush talk about the environment...

[TEXT: Remember...]

MALE NARRATOR:...remember what he did to the environment.

Credits

"Bay," Democratic National Committee, 1988

Maker: Scott Miller

Original air date: 10/03/88

Video courtesy of Northeastern University Libraries, Michael Dukakis Presidential Campaign Records.

From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988/bay (accessed January 11, 2025).

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1988 Bush Dukakis Results

Ronald Reagan—the first president since Eisenhower to serve two full terms—had presided over a renewed national optimism, but there were dark clouds on the horizon as his presidency drew to a close. The federal deficit was soaring out of control. The revelation that profits from American sales of weapons to Iran were illegally routed to the Nicaraguan contras spawned a major scandal. Wall Street was in turmoil following several insider-trading scandals and the October 1987 stock market collapse. The stage was set for one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in recent history: Vice President George Bush, who portrayed himself as the rightful heir to the Reagan revolution, versus Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who offered a traditionally Democratic vision of increased government spending on health care, child care, education, and housing. The Bush campaign used brutal television advertising to portray Dukakis as an ineffective liberal who would gut the country’s defense system and let convicted murderers out of prison. Hoping voters would dismiss the attacks as unfair, Dukakis refused to counterattack until late in the campaign. By then it was too late.