As millions of dollars pour into negative TV ads in the final days of the 2012 presidential campaign, former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis recalled how his hopes for the White House in 1988 were destroyed by negative ads linking him to rapist and murderer Willie Horton. “It all started first with me,” said Dukakis, now 79 but still working full time. "If I had beaten the old man, we never would have heard of the kid [George W. Bush], and we wouldn't be in this mess.