I was speaking about Willie Horton, Willie who speaks to what Kamala Harris did with bail funds letting killers out who killed again; Kamala Harris has massive deaths on her hands, innocent blood!
Harris said she is going to run her campaign as a prosecution of Trump, well ok, we will prosecute her in media, lay bare her record...so take this as prosecution 1, I introduce into evidence for the prosecution of Kamala Harris; if she wants to build a case against Trump in media, we will build one against her in media...we have enough evidence to mount a prosecution.
point is that Bush Sr. was able to link Horton to Dukakis and we must link Kamala Harris's illegals to her and Biden. The rapes and killings by the illegals...they let the illegals in and the illegals are raping and killing.
my mother, brother, and my sister and her family all have Trump Derangement Syndrome and get their news from MSNBC and CNN...unless Rachel Maddow etc reports it, they won't believe it...and my 19 yr old nephew now thinks he is really a girl...
The mainstream media liars and whores became a problem that was used to advantage by demoCRAP poltroons in USA and by every LIEberal politician worldwide to lie and influence sheeple to believe the lies they told. The biggest liars today are turdo, biDUMB and ovomit. The biggest lie taught in schools is DIEverSHITty is our strength.
Schumer and the other Dems are being as Machiavellian AF in urging Trump to replace Vance. It's the last thing they want. They are playing N-dimensional chess. If the Dems really wanted Vance replaced they would be urging Trump to keep him. They are gambling on Trump doing the opposite of what they recommend. They know he has only a small window of opportunity to replace Vance in and they want that window closed with Vance locked in. They think they can play Trump like a fiddle. Vance needs to announce that he is withdrawing because of e.g., the Dem attacks on his young daughter. Trump needs to reluctantly accept his decision, thank him for his service and announce Tulsi as the new VP pick. The Dems and RINOS heads will explode. They will go into full panic mode and collectively melt down.
The Deep State's Media has the bullhorn right now, so because so many people have bought into their deception, we have to change public perception by holding up the truth and what their past performance Really is.
Thank you for this, well-documented and laid out...
When I was a student at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, Dukakis was the Governor. His wife Kitty was like Betty Ford, not able to deal with the pressures of being a politician's wife, as well as all the lying, cheating, and corruption etc. that went along with it.
George HW Bush, and his hired hitmen who specialized in smearing people, used the Willie Horton story to ruin Dukakis; in the end, if I recall correctly, Dukakis had nothing to do with it. The main guy who orchestrated all of the dirty tricks, I can't remember his name, but as he lay dying from brain cancer, on his deathbed, he admitted what he did and asked for forgiveness.
On the other hand, Dukakis was a cold and calculating POS who mistreated his long-suffering wife, who tried to commit suicide by drinking Isopropyl Alcohol and was hospitalized for quite some time.
Around 1998, when I was living in Westwood Village next to UCLA with my husband, and was walking down Veterans Avenue, who was walking towards me but Dukakis. As he came near I said hello, Governor Dukakis and put out my hand which he reluctantly shook. I told him I was a student at Brandeis U when he was Governor. He couldn't care less. Over the years I have met many famous people and most of them were gracious and really nice. He was a little prick and in the end deserved to lose the election, even though GHWB was probably even worse.
When Jerry Brown became Governor of California again, he created a Board whose job was to help set-up a high-speed rail that was supposed to go most of the length of California. They all got paid very well and met loads of times, and nothing ever came of it. Dukakis was a member of that Board and spend at lot of time in Los Angeles, which is how I came to run into him. The whole thing was a load of BS.
Kitty Dukakis' father was the Concert Master of the Boston Pops Orchestra for many years and also the Boston Symphony. They were Jewish and Kitty grew up on the same street with Barbara Walters who was her childhood friend.
This article does a service in illuminating the harm of open borders as well as the history of Kamela Harris' background. Articles which demonize Kamela as opposed to revealing her rise to power not thru competency, but through her relationships is important. I also have little respect for Peter Butterige whom they are promoting as a VP. There are similarities between Kameka & Peter. Neither have had children which would be a first, but a reflection of the the current 2030 agenda of population decreases. Peter's failure as head of transportation. Is truly legendary. However, as I was reading, I got so cought up in the condemnation of Kamela, I lost the gist of her failures. Allowing the reader to form their own recognition of failure, or malfeasance is important. It is the job of journalists to provide information which supports awareness of and condemnation of advancement, not through hard work and achievements, but use of politics. In my opinion, both Kamela & Peter Buterige fall into this category. They are tools of the Woke Agenda, of 2030 goals and ultimately the destruction of Humans and Nations. Read Harari. Read 2030 goals
watching "Gutfeld" on Fox...it seems the Dems and their Hollywood etc mouthpieces are now calling J.D. Vance "Just Dumb" Vance and the memo is to call all of the Republicans "weird" and now there are "White Guys For Kamala Harris"..
so much for nuances...they are, as usual, not only playing dirty, but it's on a level with "I know you are, what am I" stupidity, just juvenile...
She spent money to bail Antifa and BLM Insurrectionist, Terrorist Hoodlums out of jail just as fast as they got arrested burning people's stores, stealing merchandise and killing innocent people, including that police officer who attempted to intervene to protect the victims of Kamal's crime gangs.
"Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release. While he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation. The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers. However, in 1973, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers because the law specifically did not exclude them.[10][11] The Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill, arguing it would "cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation."[12]
The program remained in effect through the intervening term of Governor Edward J. King, and was abolished during Dukakis's final term of office on April 28, 1988, after Dukakis had decided to run for president. This abolition occurred only after the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune had run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize.[13]
Horton in the 1988 presidential campaign
Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" ad
The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Democratic Senator Al Gore. During a debate before the New York primary, Gore took issue with the furlough program. However, he did not mention the Horton incident or even his name, instead asking a general question about the program.[14]
Republicans eagerly picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater said: "By the time we're finished, they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis's running mate."[15]
Campaign staffer James Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3-by-5-inch (8 cm × 13 cm) index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing: You can use both sides of the 3×5 card." Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate. On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey, holding a focus group of "Reagan Democrats" who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984.[16] These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis. Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff.[17]
Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia. Two couples talked about the Horton story featured in the July issue of Reader's Digest. Atwater joined them without mentioning who he was. Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented the information about Horton's furlough. Atwater used this occurrence to argue the necessity of pounding Dukakis about the furlough issue.[17]
Fall campaign
Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), under the auspices of Floyd Brown, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes," using the Horton case to attack Dukakis. The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy, who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy added a mug shot of Horton.[18] The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed not to have had any role in its production.[19] The ad referred to Horton as "Willie", although he later said he had always gone by William:[20]
The fact is, my name is not 'Willie.' It's part of the myth of the case. The name irks me. It was created to play on racial stereotypes: big, ugly, dumb, violent, black — 'Willie.' I resent that. They created a fictional character — who seemed believable but did not exist. They stripped me of my identity, distorted the facts, and robbed me of my constitutional rights.[2]
On October 5, 1988, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves and the day of the Bentsen–Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its ad, "Revolving Door," which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door.[21]
The controversy escalated when vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the "Revolving Door" ad racist,[22] a charge which was denied by Bush and campaign staff.[23][24]
Throughout most of the campaign, the Horton ad was seen as focusing on criminal justice issues, with neither the candidates nor journalists mentioning a racial component.[25] However, near the end of the presidential campaign—on October 21, 1988—Democratic primary runner-up Jesse Jackson accused the ad's creators of playing upon presumed fears of some voters, in particular those harboring stereotyped fears of blacks as criminals. From that point on, race was a substantial part of the media coverage of the ad itself and the campaign. Some candidates continued to deny it, and most commentators at the time felt it was not.[25] Academics have noted that the alleged racial overtone of the ad was a key aspect of the way the ad was remembered and later studied.[25]
On October 22, in an attempt to counter-attack, Dukakis's campaign ran an ad about a convicted heroin dealer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house.[23][26]
In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. The investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes) but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing. The investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws.[19]
Robin Toner of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that Republicans and Democrats, while disagreeing on the merits of the ad itself, agreed it was "devastating to Dukakis."[27] Dukakis said in 2012 that while he initially tried to ignore the ad during the 1988 campaign, two months later he "realized that I was getting killed with this stuff."[28]
In December 2018, after Bush's death, the ad was again highlighted by political commentators. Ann Coulter described his Willie Horton ad as "the greatest campaign commercial in political history," claiming that it "clearly and forcefully highlighted the two presidential candidates' diametrically opposed views" on crime.[29] Many other commentators have remarked that the Bush presidency, back to the campaign's Horton advertisement, stoked racial animosity, and suggested the ad itself was race-baiting, as Horton's race is still a key part of public awareness of the ad.[30][31][32][33]"
Lee Atwater was the guy who cooked up the smear campaigns...
"On March 5, 1990, Atwater suffered a seizure during a fundraising breakfast.[2] Doctors discovered a grade 3 astrocytoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in his right parietal lobe. He underwent interstitial implant radiation – then a new treatment – at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, followed by conventional radiation therapy at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The treatment left him paralyzed on his left side, disabled his tone discrimination, and made his face and body swollen.[33] In January 1991 he finally resigned from his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.[34]
In the months after the severity of his illness became apparent, Atwater said he had converted to Catholicism, with the aid of Fr. John Hardon.[35]
In an act of repentance, Atwater issued a number of public and written letters to individuals to whom he had been opposed during his political career.
In a June 28, 1990, letter to Tom Turnipseed, he stated, "It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called 'jumper cable' episode", adding, "My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood, and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything."[10] Turnipseed accepted Atwater's apology and later attended his funeral.
In a February 1991 article for Life, Atwater wrote:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The 1980s were about acquiring – acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.[36]
In the article Atwater apologized to Michael Dukakis for the "naked cruelty" of the 1988 presidential election campaign.[36][37]
In the 2008 documentary, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Ed Rollins stated: :
[Atwater] was telling this story about how a Living Bible was what was giving him faith and I said to Mary [Matalin], "I really, sincerely hope that he found peace". She said, "Ed, when we were cleaning up his things afterwards, the Bible was still wrapped in the cellophane and had never been taken out of the package", which just told you everything there was. He was spinning right to the end.[18]
Death
Atwater died on March 29, 1991. He was 40 years old."
Harris said she is going to run her campaign as a prosecution of Trump, well ok, we will prosecute her in media, lay bare her record...so take this as prosecution 1, I introduce into evidence for the prosecution of Kamala Harris; if she wants to build a case against Trump in media, we will build one against her in media...we have enough evidence to mount a prosecution.
Good. Kick her no good, rotten non-black a$$.
She’s evil.
Dumb evil.
point is that Bush Sr. was able to link Horton to Dukakis and we must link Kamala Harris's illegals to her and Biden. The rapes and killings by the illegals...they let the illegals in and the illegals are raping and killing.
Her policies as AG for California and then as VPOTUS with Biden and Obama, the deaths due to her actions as extensive and monstrous.
Let not forget her consistent stance of avoiding prosecution of Catholic church abuses...shes a complete degenerate!
All of these things about KM have been known for many, many years, and have been brought out in the Dem debates in 2020, especially by Tulsi Gabbard.
Unless MSNBC and CNN, etc., begin to report the real story of KM, the people who have Trump Derangement Syndrome will never listen to any of it.
this is where you and I, come in...even FOX is complicit is the failure. the media is fecal
and we are talking now about rapes and killings happening NOW...NOW...due to Harris for the last 4 years....so we must inform.
my mother, brother, and my sister and her family all have Trump Derangement Syndrome and get their news from MSNBC and CNN...unless Rachel Maddow etc reports it, they won't believe it...and my 19 yr old nephew now thinks he is really a girl...
we are sorry to learn of this.
The mainstream media liars and whores became a problem that was used to advantage by demoCRAP poltroons in USA and by every LIEberal politician worldwide to lie and influence sheeple to believe the lies they told. The biggest liars today are turdo, biDUMB and ovomit. The biggest lie taught in schools is DIEverSHITty is our strength.
yes, all the way
She is so lucky Trump didn't pick Tulsi Gabbard for VP. That is the pick the Dems and RINOS were dreading. They see Vance as Dan Quayle on steroids.
yes...this is an issue...I hope it does not play out so.
I would have really happy if Tulsi had bwen chosen. Thiel is behind Vance & to lesser degree, Trump.
we have to trust knew what he was doing here. but look at how many of his picks for administration 1 went up in flames.
we went from Pence being the best thing since sliced bread to you saw how it ended.
Schumer and the other Dems are being as Machiavellian AF in urging Trump to replace Vance. It's the last thing they want. They are playing N-dimensional chess. If the Dems really wanted Vance replaced they would be urging Trump to keep him. They are gambling on Trump doing the opposite of what they recommend. They know he has only a small window of opportunity to replace Vance in and they want that window closed with Vance locked in. They think they can play Trump like a fiddle. Vance needs to announce that he is withdrawing because of e.g., the Dem attacks on his young daughter. Trump needs to reluctantly accept his decision, thank him for his service and announce Tulsi as the new VP pick. The Dems and RINOS heads will explode. They will go into full panic mode and collectively melt down.
Good idea. We need another Pence type like we need a hole in our heads. I won't go into my rant about him.
Hank Kunneman PROPHETIC WORD🚨[THIS IS COMING: NEXT 3 MONTHS] I SAW TRUMP Prophecy July 10, 2024
(This is good)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rib3M3Zi0A
The Deep State's Media has the bullhorn right now, so because so many people have bought into their deception, we have to change public perception by holding up the truth and what their past performance Really is.
I agree, but it seems most of the time we are only talking with each other, with like-minded people...
Thank you for this, well-documented and laid out...
When I was a student at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, Dukakis was the Governor. His wife Kitty was like Betty Ford, not able to deal with the pressures of being a politician's wife, as well as all the lying, cheating, and corruption etc. that went along with it.
George HW Bush, and his hired hitmen who specialized in smearing people, used the Willie Horton story to ruin Dukakis; in the end, if I recall correctly, Dukakis had nothing to do with it. The main guy who orchestrated all of the dirty tricks, I can't remember his name, but as he lay dying from brain cancer, on his deathbed, he admitted what he did and asked for forgiveness.
On the other hand, Dukakis was a cold and calculating POS who mistreated his long-suffering wife, who tried to commit suicide by drinking Isopropyl Alcohol and was hospitalized for quite some time.
Around 1998, when I was living in Westwood Village next to UCLA with my husband, and was walking down Veterans Avenue, who was walking towards me but Dukakis. As he came near I said hello, Governor Dukakis and put out my hand which he reluctantly shook. I told him I was a student at Brandeis U when he was Governor. He couldn't care less. Over the years I have met many famous people and most of them were gracious and really nice. He was a little prick and in the end deserved to lose the election, even though GHWB was probably even worse.
When Jerry Brown became Governor of California again, he created a Board whose job was to help set-up a high-speed rail that was supposed to go most of the length of California. They all got paid very well and met loads of times, and nothing ever came of it. Dukakis was a member of that Board and spend at lot of time in Los Angeles, which is how I came to run into him. The whole thing was a load of BS.
Kitty Dukakis' father was the Concert Master of the Boston Pops Orchestra for many years and also the Boston Symphony. They were Jewish and Kitty grew up on the same street with Barbara Walters who was her childhood friend.
Well one thing for sure: She sure does not how to milk and play with Willies to her advantage.
https://rumble.com/v55qy6h-kharmela-harris-is-jamacian-born.-not-eligible.html
As I’ve said, we patriots will be required to do what the police refuse to do regarding illegals.
This article does a service in illuminating the harm of open borders as well as the history of Kamela Harris' background. Articles which demonize Kamela as opposed to revealing her rise to power not thru competency, but through her relationships is important. I also have little respect for Peter Butterige whom they are promoting as a VP. There are similarities between Kameka & Peter. Neither have had children which would be a first, but a reflection of the the current 2030 agenda of population decreases. Peter's failure as head of transportation. Is truly legendary. However, as I was reading, I got so cought up in the condemnation of Kamela, I lost the gist of her failures. Allowing the reader to form their own recognition of failure, or malfeasance is important. It is the job of journalists to provide information which supports awareness of and condemnation of advancement, not through hard work and achievements, but use of politics. In my opinion, both Kamela & Peter Buterige fall into this category. They are tools of the Woke Agenda, of 2030 goals and ultimately the destruction of Humans and Nations. Read Harari. Read 2030 goals
watching "Gutfeld" on Fox...it seems the Dems and their Hollywood etc mouthpieces are now calling J.D. Vance "Just Dumb" Vance and the memo is to call all of the Republicans "weird" and now there are "White Guys For Kamala Harris"..
so much for nuances...they are, as usual, not only playing dirty, but it's on a level with "I know you are, what am I" stupidity, just juvenile...
Camelthing needs to be charged with complicity to murder. Complete profligate and Zeke would not urinate on the best part of her,
She spent money to bail Antifa and BLM Insurrectionist, Terrorist Hoodlums out of jail just as fast as they got arrested burning people's stores, stealing merchandise and killing innocent people, including that police officer who attempted to intervene to protect the victims of Kamal's crime gangs.
"Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release. While he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation. The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers. However, in 1973, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers because the law specifically did not exclude them.[10][11] The Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill, arguing it would "cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation."[12]
The program remained in effect through the intervening term of Governor Edward J. King, and was abolished during Dukakis's final term of office on April 28, 1988, after Dukakis had decided to run for president. This abolition occurred only after the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune had run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize.[13]
Horton in the 1988 presidential campaign
Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" ad
The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Democratic Senator Al Gore. During a debate before the New York primary, Gore took issue with the furlough program. However, he did not mention the Horton incident or even his name, instead asking a general question about the program.[14]
Republicans eagerly picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater said: "By the time we're finished, they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis's running mate."[15]
Campaign staffer James Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3-by-5-inch (8 cm × 13 cm) index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing: You can use both sides of the 3×5 card." Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate. On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey, holding a focus group of "Reagan Democrats" who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984.[16] These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis. Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff.[17]
Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia. Two couples talked about the Horton story featured in the July issue of Reader's Digest. Atwater joined them without mentioning who he was. Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented the information about Horton's furlough. Atwater used this occurrence to argue the necessity of pounding Dukakis about the furlough issue.[17]
Fall campaign
Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), under the auspices of Floyd Brown, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes," using the Horton case to attack Dukakis. The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy, who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy added a mug shot of Horton.[18] The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed not to have had any role in its production.[19] The ad referred to Horton as "Willie", although he later said he had always gone by William:[20]
The fact is, my name is not 'Willie.' It's part of the myth of the case. The name irks me. It was created to play on racial stereotypes: big, ugly, dumb, violent, black — 'Willie.' I resent that. They created a fictional character — who seemed believable but did not exist. They stripped me of my identity, distorted the facts, and robbed me of my constitutional rights.[2]
On October 5, 1988, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves and the day of the Bentsen–Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its ad, "Revolving Door," which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door.[21]
The controversy escalated when vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the "Revolving Door" ad racist,[22] a charge which was denied by Bush and campaign staff.[23][24]
Throughout most of the campaign, the Horton ad was seen as focusing on criminal justice issues, with neither the candidates nor journalists mentioning a racial component.[25] However, near the end of the presidential campaign—on October 21, 1988—Democratic primary runner-up Jesse Jackson accused the ad's creators of playing upon presumed fears of some voters, in particular those harboring stereotyped fears of blacks as criminals. From that point on, race was a substantial part of the media coverage of the ad itself and the campaign. Some candidates continued to deny it, and most commentators at the time felt it was not.[25] Academics have noted that the alleged racial overtone of the ad was a key aspect of the way the ad was remembered and later studied.[25]
On October 22, in an attempt to counter-attack, Dukakis's campaign ran an ad about a convicted heroin dealer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house.[23][26]
In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. The investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes) but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing. The investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws.[19]
Robin Toner of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that Republicans and Democrats, while disagreeing on the merits of the ad itself, agreed it was "devastating to Dukakis."[27] Dukakis said in 2012 that while he initially tried to ignore the ad during the 1988 campaign, two months later he "realized that I was getting killed with this stuff."[28]
In December 2018, after Bush's death, the ad was again highlighted by political commentators. Ann Coulter described his Willie Horton ad as "the greatest campaign commercial in political history," claiming that it "clearly and forcefully highlighted the two presidential candidates' diametrically opposed views" on crime.[29] Many other commentators have remarked that the Bush presidency, back to the campaign's Horton advertisement, stoked racial animosity, and suggested the ad itself was race-baiting, as Horton's race is still a key part of public awareness of the ad.[30][31][32][33]"
Lee Atwater was the guy who cooked up the smear campaigns...
"On March 5, 1990, Atwater suffered a seizure during a fundraising breakfast.[2] Doctors discovered a grade 3 astrocytoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in his right parietal lobe. He underwent interstitial implant radiation – then a new treatment – at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, followed by conventional radiation therapy at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The treatment left him paralyzed on his left side, disabled his tone discrimination, and made his face and body swollen.[33] In January 1991 he finally resigned from his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.[34]
In the months after the severity of his illness became apparent, Atwater said he had converted to Catholicism, with the aid of Fr. John Hardon.[35]
In an act of repentance, Atwater issued a number of public and written letters to individuals to whom he had been opposed during his political career.
In a June 28, 1990, letter to Tom Turnipseed, he stated, "It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called 'jumper cable' episode", adding, "My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood, and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything."[10] Turnipseed accepted Atwater's apology and later attended his funeral.
In a February 1991 article for Life, Atwater wrote:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The 1980s were about acquiring – acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.[36]
In the article Atwater apologized to Michael Dukakis for the "naked cruelty" of the 1988 presidential election campaign.[36][37]
In the 2008 documentary, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Ed Rollins stated: :
[Atwater] was telling this story about how a Living Bible was what was giving him faith and I said to Mary [Matalin], "I really, sincerely hope that he found peace". She said, "Ed, when we were cleaning up his things afterwards, the Bible was still wrapped in the cellophane and had never been taken out of the package", which just told you everything there was. He was spinning right to the end.[18]
Death
Atwater died on March 29, 1991. He was 40 years old."