I guess it was H.W, because he was with Reagan. At least, that’s what we thought. The major thing I remember about him was his “Read My Lips - No New Taxes” pledge.
I think that this was the true realization for me that “Republican” could also mean RINO.
I remember supporting Phil Graham. For what it’s worth... ;-)
I don’t have any strong memories of the 1988 election. As I recall, the GOP primary was pretty much an academic exercise because it was understood that Bush — as the sitting VP — would get the nomination as long as he was running.
HWB was sort of running as the extension of Reagan - you know, four more years of RR. That wasn’t the case of course, but that’s why he won the primary and the general.
It’s tough to beat a sitting VP in a primary anyway. Robertson had his niche, Kemp had his niche, but what conservatives those two didn’t siphon off, stayed with Reagan’s VP.
There was nothing like the Internet or Freerepublic in 1988. Using just the media of the day it was impossible to determine the truth about any candidate. I voted for Bush because of his association with Reagan. But thinking back, when Reagan was running it was not possible for me to determine that he would be as conservative as he turned out to be. He had been a Democrat, recall. The press (newspapers, remember them?) was 100% against him. They still had great influence. It was Reagan’s Morning in America speech, that told me what I really needed to know.
Bush was the sitting Vice President for a popular two-term conservative president.
He was not only the “front-runner” for the nomination, he was all but “anointed”.
Quick story about H.W. I remember being in Kuwait and we were told that there was a ceasefire and we were halting our advance. I told the person next to me, well with this victory it looks like we just guaranteed Bush four more years. At the time, that looked like a pretty solid prediction as my fellow Marines agreed with me.
Bob Dole won Iowa and some other Midwest states. Bush won NH and most of the other states. Pat Robertson made a flash as the evangelical Christian candidate, fishing second in Iowa. Jack Kemp was the fiscal conservative candidate but never caught fire.
The only true conservative at the time was Paul Laxalt. Unfortunately H.W. was backed by Ronald Reagan and that pretty well sucked all the oxygen out of the room
I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet, but I will say that it has made me more aware of who I'm voting for. Back in the 80s and before, we were still relying on the networks for our news and information. Now it's difficult for a candidate to hide his bad points from all but the lo-fo idiot voters.
Yes, Bush ran as a third Reagan term. He definitely had the base fooled
Kemp was a favorite of Conservatives at the time, though Pat Robertson was drawing a lot of support from Evangelicals. (which was tailor-made for snarkmeisters on the left to attack Evangelicals, given Pat’s longstanding battle with foot-in-mouth disease, leaked photos of his solid gold bathroom fixtures, etc.)
As I recall Dukakis was leading handily in the polls until that ridiculous photo of him in the tank came out. Then he went into a free-fall collapse.
I was only 18 at the time, but I think my first choice was Kemp. Bush won largely because of the idea that he would just be an extension of the Reagan years.
Phil Gramm, Jack Kemp, Pete DuPont were all viable conservative candidates.
George H W Bush was suspect due to his characterization of Reaganomics as “voodoo economics” in 1980.