the Republican Party has begun picking candidates for President in 2016...here's a look back at 1988, when notorious mind-weapon abuser George "New World Order" Bush ran a negative campaign against Massachusetts Democrat Michael Dukakis.
Hindsight is 20/20
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Defense Becomes Bush`s Offense
Then, closing in on the Massachusetts governor`s inexperience in defense matters and his past support for a unilateral nuclear freeze, Bush portrays a dark, threatening future in which, presumably, a Democratic president is unable to negotiate against Soviet demands.
The goal is to use the defense issue in an attempt to keep the support of Democrats who voted for President Reagan. The tactic also gives Bush a chance to take advantage of Dukakis`s biggest weakness: that he is not well known on the national scene.
``You have to give them a reason not to vote for that party,`` said Charles Black, adviser to the campaign and a partner of Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater.
Because Dukakis is relatively unknown, Black said, Bush is creating his own version of a political personality for the Massachusetts governor, telling audiences ``where this guy comes from: He`s out in left field, he doesn`t share their values.``
Black said large parts of the audiences that Bush targets are ``white conservative Southerners, blue-collar voters, many of them ethnics and Catholics in the Midwest and Northeast, and evangelicals-some of them are everywhere.``
``Defense is a big issue with conservative Democrats,`` said another Bush aide, Mark Goodin. He noted that the defense industry has provided hundreds of jobs in North Carolina, helping transform it from agrarian to high-tech status. Kentucky, a border state, also is considered essential because of swing voters.
Bush, who said he wants to point out ``the stark and compelling differences`` that separate him from Dukakis, used the defense theme again Tuesday.
``We will only deter war if the Soviets see us as strong,`` Bush told a rally of about 2,000 students and supporters at Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount. ``My plea to this country is . . . do not make unilateral cuts in the muscle and defense of the United States.``
Bush also claims that Dukakis thinks the Strategic Defense Initiative, or ``Star Wars,`` is a ``fantasy,`` while he believes it is essential.
The vice president says Dukakis wanted the United Nations, rather than the U.S., to protect ships in the Persian Gulf. Bush, a former ambassador to the UN, called Dukakis weak for wanting to rely on ``multilateral agencies.`` He hits Dukakis for opposing the extension of the Ground Wave Emergency Network into Massachusetts, saying the new communication system is necessary ``if the balloon goes up.``
It is a careful strategy, mingling fear of what Bush labels Dukakis`s
``left-wing liberalism`` with respect for the Reagan administration`s military exploits and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty it signed with the Soviets.
``The Soviet Union continues to modernize, they continue to spend, and the United States cannot, out of some naive hope that the Soviets have changed, cut down on our modernization,`` Bush says.
``(Dukakis) wants to make unilateral cuts in our strategic systems, the MX, Midgetman, no testing, throw in getting rid of two carrier battle groups as well, and I don`t want to do that.``
At the same time, Bush tries to share credit for a development that has been widely criticized by the Right: ``I`m pleased to have stood with the President who has hammered out, through strengths, the first arms controls agreement in the nuclear age that bans an entire generation of weapons.``
Bush is expected to concentrate on environmental issues for the remainder of this week, but defense has served him well as he punched his way out of the controversy over his running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle, that threatened to overshadow his own candidacy.
The simple message of ``we have to keep our guard up`` worked for some workers Tuesday at the Bendix Engine Controls Division plant, which makes control systems for F-18 fighters and SR-71 plane engines.
``That`s the man you want to vote for,`` said Joseph Freeman, a 29-year-old technician, in a novel explanation of his support for Bush. ``Who else can clean up the Reagan mess but his partner?``
``On defense issues,`` said the black Democrat, ``you got to go with Bush because he`s for a strong America. Dukakis doesn`t know what he wants.``
Bush tailored his defense theme in his address to an American Legion Post at Ft. Campbell, Ky., where he compared Dukakis` defense policies to the frugal governor`s attitude toward his 25-year-old snow blower.
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