Race for the White House (2016) s01e03 Episode Script

So, you want to be the most powerful man in the world.
How far are you prepared to go? Will you turn friends into enemies? Will you break your own rules? If you want to be the most powerful man in the world do the ends ever justify the means? Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
In the fall of 1986, the White House is mired in scandal.
Ronald Reagan's administration is accused of secretly selling weapons to America's most dangerous enemy, Iran I have a few words here before I take your questions.
with the profits diverted illegally to fund a right-wing guerrilla group in Nicaragua, the Contras.
Your credibility has been severely damaged.
Can you repair it? What does it mean for the rest of your presidency? Well, I imagine I'm the only one around who wants to repair it, and I didn't have anything to do with damaging it.
Bad news for Reagan but worse for his loyal deputy, George Bush.
Iran-Contra could kill his own presidential plans.
News of the widening investigation comes as Vice President George Bush is trying to put some distance between himself and the arms deal.
I remember him kind of coming back into his office in the West Wing of the White House as though the wind had been knocked out of him.
He knew that this would become a very large and evolving story, that he would have a very hard time separating himself from President Reagan, and yet really was not something of his making.
In February, 1987, investigators revealed the secret arms trade was being run from inside the White House.
A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages.
My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true.
But the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.
As the Tower Board reported Reagan's address to the nation sticks a knife right through George Bush's dreams.
Politically, he recognised could be devastating to his campaign.
And I think that was probably one of the low moments in the four years I was with him.
And as the Navy would say, "This happened on my watch.
" Let's start with the part that is the most controversial.
Like a lot of Americans, I was appalled.
Iran-Contra really started me thinking.
What's going on here? What are these people doing? And what is this doing to American democracy? There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses.
And that was really the first time that I started thinking about maybe running for the presidency.
Prior to that time, I'd never given it a second thought.
Michael Stanley Dukakis is the son of first generation European immigrants and proud of it.
His Excellency, Michael S Dukakis Midway through a successful third term as Governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis sees himself as a knight clad in armour made from the American dream.
We thought that he was in a good place to be running, having served as governor for quite a few years.
What he had done in Massachusetts was something that would resonate across the country.
If he were running for President, a haircut with George the Greek would mean this little barbershop would be filled with Secret Service agents.
Dukakis says it's not an easy decision.
And I'll never forget my older daughter saying to me, "Dad, very few people have this opportunity.
You've got a responsibility to do this.
" Thank you all very much.
Thank you.
Today a son of Greek immigrants named Mike Dukakis announces his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
Anyone who's been within six counties of Michael Dukakis has heard the story of Massachusetts.
How a rundown state with double-digit unemployment became one of the hottest economies in the country.
Dukakis's campaign will be run by his Chief of Staff, John Sasso, and Harvard law professor Susan Estrich.
In Dukakis, you had somebody who was tenacious and driven and unbelievably hard-working and disciplined.
All my friends from politics were coming together to support a very smart man running for president.
Great.
So I went to Boston and helped the guys set up the campaign.
I was just a kid in college.
And then I just went to Boston and barged in there and volunteered.
Governor Dukakis had a rule that nobody could be hired unless he personally interviewed them.
Have a seat.
And I thought to myself, "Why are you talking to me? I am 21.
I make photocopies.
What are you doing?" He said, "I am gonna run this campaign, you know, in a very ethical way and I want to make sure that everybody that comes to work for me understands that.
" And I was hooked.
I knew I wanted to do this.
Dukakis sets out to win his party's nomination.
There is literally a short list of opponents.
There were seven of us.
Some of the press rather uncharitably referred to us as the "Seven Dwarves".
Of the seven, Joe Biden, a young senator from Delaware, is one of the front runners.
I announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.
A good solid progressive Democrat, and just an all-around good guy and a fine United States Senator.
I tell you today that America is a nation at risk.
So Biden came to Washington as one of the most sympathetic young senators, and was widely viewed as a very decent man.
A very decent man who now poses a threat to Dukakis's presidential ambition.
As the candidates prepare for their first campaign battle, the Iowa caucus, Biden finds himself under the microscope like a pinned bug.
I was the chief political writer for the Des Moines Register, which is the largest newspaper in Iowa.
A very respected Democratic political operative had called and he said, "I got something I want to show you off the record.
" I said, "OK.
" And so we went out to his car, he got in the trunk and he handed me a copy of this videotape.
He said, "Just take a look at that.
" Well, I went back to my office.
Popped it in the cart.
Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family Oh, wow.
It was the kind of story that sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
The chief political reporter of Iowa's leading newspaper has been given a videotape featuring Joe Biden.
It's not a sex tape.
It's worse than that.
You know, here is Joe Biden giving a speech.
Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? It's almost word for word what British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock had said.
Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Here's a clip of Kinnock and then here's a clip of Biden saying the same thing.
Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football? My ancestors who worked in the coal mines in Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours? Biden's stealing Neil Kinnock's words without attributing it.
I wrote my story.
Then there were more and more examples of plagiarism.
Reporters were digging into his past.
All right.
No comment.
It was a sign of a death by a thousand cuts.
I've concluded that I will stop being a candidate for President of the United States.
But who was behind the leaked tape? Michael Dukakis is assessing the damage to his campaign following the disclosure that two of his top aides sabotaged the campaign of rival Joseph Biden.
None other than Dukakis's supposedly squeaky clean campaign manager John Sasso.
I went to John's office and he was saying that Dukakis was gonna fire him today, tomorrow.
I was like, "What?" I knocked on the governor's door and I said, "This is crazy.
What they did wasn't so wrong.
You're losing the heart and soul of your campaign.
" He said, "I've heard all the arguments.
No.
" I spoke to Joe Biden a few minutes ago on the telephone.
And I want to publicly apologise to him for the involvement of my campaign.
I just thought it was very important that if I was gonna win that nomination, I'd do so in a way that had Democrats feeling good about my candidacy and good about my nomination.
I am here today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.
Whilst Dukakis is dismantling his team, Bush is assembling a gang of political hard men: Republican heavyweight James Baker, veteran strategist Roger Ailes and as campaign manager, political bruiser Lee Atwater.
Lee was South Carolina.
Lee was a rabble-rousing, visceral, loud, street-level politician.
Bush is on the stump, dogged by questions about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.
He can run for president, but he can't hide.
It was by no means a certainty that George Bush was gonna be the nominee.
Please go to those caucuses and vote.
Let me get out of the way so you can make a buck here.
He had the residual and the cancerous, debilitating effect of the Iran-Contra affair.
What we decided to do was I would become the most knowledgeable person possible about his involvement and I'd be the only person to talk about it.
The campaign wouldn't talk about it.
Only I'd talk about it.
And, and that's the way we operated.
Just weeks before the Iowa caucus, Bush gets a phone call from CBS news anchor Dan Rather.
George Bush announced to us he'd agreed to do this interview.
We began to get calls that Rather's operation has shut down everything except his preparation for the interview with George Bush, and that all the focus is on Iran-Contra, all of it.
George Bush and Craig Fuller have been travelling out of town and now make their way back to Washington.
We're gonna do the interview from the Vice President's office in the US capital.
With the exception of George Bush, the rest of us were going into this with a great deal of trepidation.
And I remember saying, "You know, this is really unfair of Rather.
It's like judging his career on the time he walked off the set.
" Dan Rather had walked off of the news set, uh, in anger like a couple of months earlier.
But George Bush said, "You guys" You know, he looks at us like, "You guys, you don't understand.
This is gonna be, you know, a more thoughtful kind of a discussion.
" Mr Vice President, thank you for being with us tonight.
Donald Gregg still serves as your trusted advisor.
He's listening in an earpiece to Rather who's in New York.
I'm listening to a telephone hook-up to the interview in another room.
And as the programme begins, the Vice President's hearing this assault, if you will, solely on Iran-Contra.
One third of the Republicans and one fourth of the people who say that, you know, they rather like you, believe you're hiding something.
I am hiding something.
You know what I'm hiding? What I told the President, that's the only thing.
I thought it was gonna be difficult.
This is even worse than difficult.
You said if you had known this was an arms for hostages swap that you would have opposed it.
And as I'm sitting there, I hear It's not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran.
How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York? Would you like that? I have respect for you, but I don't have respect for what you're doing here tonight.
And I thought, "Oh, my God.
" I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was just delivered so perfectly and so appropriately.
Well, I want to be judged on the whole record.
And you're not giving me an opportunity.
You invited me to come here to talk about, I thought, the whole record.
Thank you very much for being with us, Mr Vice President.
We'll be back with more news in a moment.
When he came back out, he was not happy.
He was not really realising how well he had done.
And I'm saying, "Sir, you just like knocked it out of the park.
Are you kidding? This is one of the greatest interviews I've ever seen.
" Bush arrives to campaign in Iowa happy as a clam.
We thought we were probably gonna win the Iowa caucus.
We've just gotten the returns in from Iowa, and I congratulate, uh, both Mr Dole, Senator Dole, and Pat Robertson.
Bush is hammered into third place behind television preacher Pat Robertson and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
With Iowa in his pocket and Bush off balance, Dole thinks he stands a chance of upsetting the Vice President in New Hampshire.
We were morose.
We were shaken.
We were rattled.
And a major setback for Bush.
Lee thought this could break us.
That there could be no recovery from this.
Eight days to go before the most important of the nomination polls, the New Hampshire Primary.
Having lost Iowa, if Bush doesn't win New Hampshire, he's not going to win the nomination.
He's dead.
With the New Hampshire Primary looming, Lee Atwater and the team have just over a week to turn Bush from a pumpkin into a golden coach.
And my message to the Vice President and Atwater was, "You have to understand that in New Hampshire a campaign is what we call 'See me, touch me, feel me.
' You have to go and look the voters in the eye.
" - How are you? - How are you? Hey! How are you? What are you having? I've already had so much coffee.
We had three breakfasts a day in three fast food places.
For me.
He may not eat everything on his plate, but he's talking to everybody in the diner.
You live in Nashua or you just happened to be coming by? No, I live in Nashua.
We're going to win! We're going to win! Bush's campaign is gaining momentum, but Senator Bob Dole is still in the lead.
Time to cry havoc and unleash Atwater.
We want George! Lee was driven but not a genius.
Yeah! A lot of his politics was instinctive.
A little louder! Bush, George Bush! A little louder! Let's go! Bush! George! "Tacks in the road" was one of Lee Atwater's sayings on how to diminish the other side.
What can we do to throw some tacks in the road in the way of the Dole bus and cause them confusion? Go Big D! Go Big D! Go Big D! There were a number of positions that we found in which Bob Dole appeared to be on both sides of an issue.
And I said, "Maybe we refer to him as Senator Straddle.
" George Bush and Bob Dole on leadership.
Atwater falls on the line like a ravenous wolf.
The team make an attack ad accusing Dole of sitting on the fence over tax.
We had a meeting with myself, Lee Atwater, the Vice President, Mrs Bush.
Bush was not totally convinced of the merits of the Straddle ad.
Bush was a gentleman.
You didn't call someone names.
He thought very well of Senator Dole.
I think Lee and others ganged up on Bush.
The Vice President sort of looked over at Barbara and saw she wasn't objecting any more, and he agreed to have the ad run.
Bush says he won't raise taxes, period.
Dole straddles.
He's been on both sides.
That's why he's becoming known as Senator Straddle.
George Bush, presidential leadership.
Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.
George Bush takes New Hampshire with close to a ten-point lead.
Dole just got Atwater-ed.
I think that Bush knew that Lee gave him something that he didn't have on his own.
Also taking New Hampshire is the new Democratic front runner Governor Michael Dukakis.
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis had said he was going for the gold, and New Hampshire Democrats went for him in a big way.
We came out of there with a huge head of steam and it really started to look like we were catching fire.
This is a long race.
A long race.
Dukakis had sort of burst onto the scene.
I'm the strongest candidate against Bush.
I think I can take the fight to him.
He had gone from nowhere to somewhere in a hurry, and that was worrying.
With your help, the son of Greek immigrants can seek and win the presidency of the United States.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you.
Every field office that I entered had pounds and pounds of Greek food: Spanakopita, moussaka, baklava.
If I hadn't been 21 years old, I would have gained 40 pounds on that campaign for sure.
Tonight the race to the finish line begins.
With the memory in my heart of the young man who arrived at Ellis Island, and how I wish he was here tonight, he'd be very proud of his son.
I was very emotional when he talked about his father, and, um, how, um, how proud he would have been of him.
And it would have been great to have him there.
So I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Dukakis chooses Senator Lloyd Bentsen, the worker's friend, as his running mate.
That night, my dad's path to the presidency was as clear as it had ever been.
This was gonna be a competitive race, no question about it.
But it was eminently winnable.
Governor Dukakis leading Vice President Bush 50 to 40%.
this is the way it looked.
The Vice President, 47% Lee Atwater said we know he's got a big lead, but get his negatives up to about 48% and then we'll see how he's doing.
He is, uh, for raising taxes, uh, big spending, soft on, uh, crime.
We're gonna strip the bark off the little bastard.
Ten points ahead, Michael Dukakis seems untouchable.
And there's a stupid, untrue, terrible rumour floating around that Dukakis had suffered a serious depression after he lost his first re-election campaign for governor and had been treated by a psychiatrist.
Just now vetoed the Defence Authorisation Bill in the Oval Office.
And I think we tamped it down for at least a week or so.
Do you feel that Michael Dukakis should make his medical records public? And then Ronald Reagan, President, in a news conference, was asked about something about Dukakis's policies or whatever.
Do you think that the American people deserve to know whether he's fit to govern by having his medical records made public? Look, I'm not gonna pick on an invalid.
Mr President! Why shouldn't we Every line I have on my desk is ringing.
Everybody's phone is ringing.
Hello.
Well, I was pretty upset.
An incumbent president is calling the Democratic nominee an invalid.
What did he mean by that? The President elevated this crazy rumour to something that made some people believe it.
I was very, very angry.
I'll be happy to provide the people of this country with a full report on my mental and physical condition from my physician of 17 years.
And I think that's appropriate.
The American people have a right to know We quickly learnt that the same trick had been used by Lee Atwater, the then campaign manager, in a race in South Carolina.
No, we didn't do that.
Everybody knows that that would have crossed a line and backfired on whoever was dispensing that information.
Thank you all very much.
But the target is hit.
Anything that puts you at risk, that makes you seem like a riskier choice for the voter, is gonna hurt you badly.
We went down seven points that night.
My choice for the Vice Presidency is Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana.
You tell George Bush one thing, go get 'em! For all Quayle's boasting, Bush continues to drown in the polls.
Lee Atwater brings in ad man Sig Rogich.
We just collaborated and came up with good scripts and good ideas, and then they would be tested.
From unknown governor to candidate for President, how much do we really know about Michael Dukakis? Out of touch with our values and problems.
I thought we captured the differences between us and Michael Dukakis.
Though Congress has increased federal spending at an alarming rate, Michael Dukakis has increased state spending in Massachusetts twice as fast.
The natural throwaway line is that it's negative campaigning but it's comparative.
How are you gonna get a contrast between two different philosophies and two different ways of running government if you don't compare? Michael Dukakis promised not to raise taxes.
But as governor, he imposed the largest tax increase in Massachusetts' history.
He promised jobs, but since 1984, Massachusetts lost 90,000 blue-collar jobs.
And now he wants to do for America what he's done for Massachusetts.
America can't afford that risk.
People will sit there until they're blue in the face, saying they hate negative ads, but they're the ones they remember.
But Dukakis loves the moral high ground so much, he won't let Estrich play dirty.
And we had various ones made.
We had one in the can with the helicopter flying over Bush's house in Kennebunkport, the ocean and the golf courses and, you know.
Is there where you live? I've heard all the arguments.
No.
Dukakis said, "I never want to see that ad ever go on the air.
" And I wasn't listening.
I mean, I'd made a decision we were not gonna respond.
It was perfectly clear that they were playing hardball and we were playing softball.
And you can't win hardball with a softball.
I was doing some research on George Bush.
And wouldn't you know it, we found a piece of footage.
George Bush had been a pilot in World War II and he'd been shot down in the Pacific.
A submarine emerged and and saved him.
Somebody on the submarine had a camera and filmed it.
We used it everywhere, you know, as much as we could.
- I, George Herbert Walker Bush.
- I, George Herbert Walker Bush.
Do solemnly swear How does a man get to this point in his life? How does one man come so far? Maybe for George Bush it began when he became the youngest pilot in the Navy.
Against all enemies Or perhaps it began this day in 1944 when he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery under fire.
I saw that footage and I was just sick.
Because it was, it was phenomenal.
I mean, the guy was a war hero.
That is hard in the television age to overcome.
Atwater takes Bush to flag factories.
He puts him in F-16s.
And the Democrats? They tanked, literally.
I was told to go to Sterling Heights, Michigan and report to the General Dynamics Tank Factory and Proving Ground up there.
He's gonna take a ride in a tank.
We had an enormous world historic campaign catastrophe.
Two months to go until the election, and presidential nominee Michael Dukakis hopes his visit to a tank factory will have the whole nation singing "Hail to the Chief.
" It is a real personal privilege to introduce Mike Dukakis of Massachusetts.
To show he's a real man, Dukakis is going to sit in a tank.
What could possibly go wrong? There's a site advance person, press people and the motorcade.
My job was to deal with the site.
They said, "You should get a sense of what this is like.
Would you like to go for a ride yourself?" However, when I looked at myself in the mirror and I realised, I have a bit of a nose the way Dukakis does, and I thought, "I look terrible in this helmet, so will he.
" And I got incredibly nervous about putting Mike Dukakis in this tank.
So I called the Boston headquarters and told them, "He is going to look terrible if he wears this helmet.
" And they said, "Well, Bush was just sitting in an F-16.
Now we're gonna sit in a tank.
This is our thing.
Just do it.
" Dukakis prepares to flex his military muscles before the national press.
And he was excited to ride in the tank because, you know, he, he's a red-blooded American male.
He wanted to ride in this tank, too.
So he "All right, terrific.
Let's go.
" And I didn't give it a second thought.
I was gonna get into the thing and they told me to put the helmet on and I did so.
So the doors open and the tank emerges.
And I, I will never forget what happened.
We have this giant riser full of press, at least 90 people.
And they just burst out laughing.
I mean, to a person, they're just guffawing.
And I think, "Oh, my God, we are in so much trouble.
" Put 'em up.
You're looking at a guy who you say to yourself, "Jesus Christ, that guy doesn't belong on a tank.
" Which is to say, "That guy doesn't belong running the national security of our country.
" Dukakis, complete with helmet, standing through the hatch of an M1 Abrams tank as it raced across an open field.
We gathered in Lee's office and there was much howling, much laughter, much celebration.
No, not at all.
That was just a presence.
He looked ridiculous.
And, um, I wrote a commercial that night.
Michael Dukakis has opposed virtually every defence system we've developed.
We added grinding gears.
So those are gears grinding the tank, you know.
Dukakis opposed the Stealth Bomber.
It goes And now he wants to be our Commander in Chief.
And then we froze-frame it and said Dukakis had a tremendous knowledge and record on education, on health care, on job creation.
But that wasn't what the election turned out to be about.
They defined it as "Who's the risk here?" By late September, Dukakis's lead is like mist in the sun.
Can things get any worse for him? Of course they can.
Bush and Dukakis on crime.
Bush supports the death penalty for first-degree murderers.
Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison.
One was Willie Horton, who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times.
Despite a life sentence, Horton received ten weekend passes from prison.
Horton fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping his girlfriend.
Weekend prison passes.
Dukakis on crime.
The Willie Horton ad comes not from the official Republican campaign but from pro-Bush activists.
Willie Horton was a black American.
And I think one of the reasons the campaign did not want to associate itself directly with the ad is that they felt that people might interpret it as being a racist ad.
Weekend prison passes.
Dukakis on crime.
But Lee Atwater smells fresh blood.
Lee knew that it was powerful.
Lee knew that it fit a liberal stereotype that would make a larger point about Dukakis.
Atwater wants to put Willie Horton front of stage but he knows he's playing with fire.
Lee also knew that it could be radioactive with Bush.
That if it weren't handled right, Bush wouldn't use it.
Bush would declare it off limits.
Atwater and Ailes take a different tack, casting a shadow over Dukakis's prison weekend furlough programme, by making a spectre of Willie Horton.
We felt that the furlough policy in Massachusetts was too lenient.
And so did we push it? Yes, we did.
As Governor, Michael Dukakis vetoed mandatory sentences for drug dealers.
We went to a prison site in Utah.
We created and built a set, the revolving prison door.
His revolving door prison policy gave weekend furloughs to first-degree murderers not eligible for parole.
And many are still at large.
Now Michael Dukakis says he wants to do for America what he's done for Massachusetts.
America The revolving door ad accomplished what Lee Atwater said was his goal, which was to make Willie Horton into Dukakis's running mate.
We like Mike! We like Mike! We like Mike! The Dukakis team arrive in California for the final debate.
Willie Horton looms over the agenda like the Grim Reaper.
It was our last chance in front of a national audience of that size.
What if he gets the Willie Horton question? What is he gonna say? If you would all please take your seats With just three weeks until voting day, the candidates prepare for a face-to-face battle.
Top of the agenda, crime.
What we had spent most of our debate prep doing was getting ready for the Willie Horton question.
There was gonna be a question coming, "Whose side are you on? The criminals' or the victims'?" Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the debate commission, we welcome you.
This historic event Estrich believes the answer is in Michael Dukakis's own family history.
Both his father and brother have been victims of violent crime.
This is what the answer has to be, however they frame the question.
"I know what it's like to be a victim of crime.
I found my brother who was killed at the side of the road, left to die by a hit-and-run driver.
My father in his 70s, in his medical office, and they came in and they tied him up, robbed him, took the medicines, a 75-year-old man.
So believe me, I know what it's like to feel that pain.
" Great answer, huh? Vice President George Bush, the Republican nominee and The lighting looks good, the colour looks good.
The Vice President walks on stage very powerfully and strong.
He looks presidential.
There are no restrictions in the questions that my colleagues and I can ask this evening.
I was watching in the senior staff room that I had set up in the basketball arena for UCLA.
The candidates have no prior knowledge of our questions.
Susan Estrich is there.
The first question goes to Governor Dukakis.
The first question comes in.
Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favour an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? Oh, here it is.
It's a lay-up, right? It's, it's so easy for, for Dukakis to react with genuine emotion and anger and righteous indignation at the idea that somebody would murder his wife.
I know what it's like.
That was where the answer had to go.
No, I don't, Bernard.
And I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life.
I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.
We've done so in my own state.
And I thought, "Dead.
" When he answered the way he did, which was clinically and analytically, we just it, it, it just all the air went out of the room.
Did we just lose the election? We have, have the biggest drop That was a perfect answer.
There was jumping.
There was fist-pumping.
We knew that it was going Bush's way in a dramatic fashion.
People were looking for something a lot more emotional than what I gave them.
So I would like to thank all of you for joining us this evening.
An ecstatic Lee Atwater meets the press.
Dukakis was so squeamish tonight about being a liberal.
I mean, I think that was the most interesting thing, that he stayed on the defensive all evening long.
I saw him coming off the stage and he said, "I'm sorry.
I blew it.
I'm sorry.
" I said, "We're all just doing the best we can.
" And, you know, we just cratered in the polls.
Three weeks later, George HW Bush thunders home with almost 80% of the electoral college votes.
The people have spoken.
And with There's no question that the attacks hurt and my failure to anticipate them and be ready for them from the beginning was a huge mistake on my part.
I, George Herbert Walker Bush, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.
My father went back to work the next morning.
He walked to the subway, went back to the State House uh, to go do his, his job.
And that was unsurprising to most of us.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Lee Atwater used to say, and he was right about this, that there's a little boat.
And on this little boat are the people, the American people can imagine being president.
They're the kind of people who have the stature or experience.
George Bush was in the boat.
Dukakis never made it in.