The media didn’t mention the polls? Even Granny must have realized Mondale would lose.
Chanting **** Dukakis in 1988 during the rat convention is my first political memory by far.
In 1992 I remember the class having a mock election, I wanted to pick Perot but didn’t know how to spell it.
I was 11 in 1994, I have no memories of the returns but “Jim Edgar” was stuck in my head (I told my grandma that the Governor of the Zoo was Jim Ed-grrrrrrr or something like that ;p) and Republicans taking Congress was discussed in some class where you supposed to bring in a newspaper article to discuss, it wasn’t graded so I never brought one. Some kid said it was good Congress could stop Clinton “from doing something too crazy”.
It was really 1996 before I began to pay attention.
It was hard to overstate how badly she suffered from RDS (Reagan or Republican Derangement Syndrome). It colored her sanity. She claimed it flowed from hearing some Republican pol either in the late ‘20s or early ‘30s joking about the Depression or jobless people and she hated them ever since.
It got so bad that when I pointed out her cousin (the Mayor of St. Louis and 1932 U.S. Senate nominee) Henry Kiel was a Republican, she denied it and said he was a Democrat. I mean bat$hit crazy stuff. I told her I’d swap my execrable Senators Gore and Sasser for Pete Domenici and she’d go on a wild rant. Unfortunately, her daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter all got the brainwashing treatment from her so all subscribe to the nonsense. Her daughter (my aunt) is a White supporter of La Raza.
Watching the election returns in 1988 was less dramatic for me, as I expected Bush to win, and he did with little problem (but let’s face it, it was Reagan’s 3rd term). Of course, that was also the last time the country voted sanely across the board in a Presidential race. It was also the last time the Republicans had a ruthless campaign manager in Lee Atwater. His death the party has never fully recovered from. Atwater would’ve obliterated the Clintons had he been around for the ‘92 race.