November 8, 1988: George H.W. Bush Is Elected President

November 8, 1988: My 1st election. I was 18 years old. At Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which I had attended (as Hammarskjöld Junior High School) from September 9, 1981 to June 26, 1984, I cast a vote for the straight Democratic ticket, including for Joseph V. Chagnon for Mayor (making him the 1st person I ever voted for) and the Presidential nominee, Governor Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts.

Chagnon lost to Councilman Jack Sinagra, who served as Mayor for 3 years, before winning a special election for a State Senate seat. In New Jersey, then as now, it is legal to serve as both a municipality's Mayor and in the State legislature. However, Sinagra had campaigned on the issue of eliminating such "double-dipping," and felt he would be a hypocrite if he didn't resign as Mayor. 

Dukakis lost to Vice President George H.W. Bush, 426 Electoral Votes to 111 (it should have been 112, but a "faithless elector" refused to vote for him), 53.4 percent of the popular vote to 45.6. He had blown it by inadequately responding to some truly filthy and (mostly) false attacks. Indeed, everybody that I voted for lost, with one exception.

The next day, I was in New Brunswick, job-hunting. I saw the Middlesex County Democratic Campaign Headquarters on George Street, and realized I'd never gotten a Dukakis button. I wanted one. So I went in, and there was the Mayor of New Brunswick at the time, John Lynch (another double-dipper in the State Senate), talking to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, the one person I voted for who won. He had defeated Pete Dawkins, a Heisman Trophy winner with the Army football team in 1958, and then a Vietnam War hero who rose to the rank of General. Not wanting to interrupt, I waited for them to finish talking. When Lautenberg came my way, I offered him my hand and congratulated him on his re-election. He walked right past me.

I met Lynch a few years later, after he'd resigned as Mayor because he'd become President of the State Senate, making him effectively (we didn't have the office until after the 2013 election) the Lieutenant Governor. He was a much nicer guy. Unfortunately, he later went to prison for corruption. But I'm still proud to have voted for Dukakis. I still don't have one of his buttons, though.

Unlike Reagan, Bush did not have "coattails," taking new Republicans with him: The Democrats gained 2 seats in the House of Representatives, and 1 in the Senate. Among the new Democratic Senators elected were Joe Lieberman of Connecticut (later the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2000), Chuck Robb of Virginia, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.

Robb and Kerrey had both been Governors, and Robb was a son-in-law of President Lyndon Johnson, having married his daughter Lynda. Lieberman became the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2000. Kohl was the owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks.

Among the new Republican Senators were Trent Lott of Mississippi, Connie Mack III of Florida, and Jim Jeffords of Vermont. All of these were "promoted" from the House of Representatives. Mack was the grandson of Connie Mack, the 50-year manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Lott, Jefferson, John Ashcroft of Missouri and Larry Craig of Idaho formed a vocal quartet, calling themselves "The Singing Senators." After winning the majority in the 1994 election, they changed their name to "The Vocal Majority." That came to an end in 2001, when Jefferson left the Republicans to become an Independent.

Bush had run for President in 1980, after having been a Congressman from Texas from 1965 to 1970, and had the unenviable job of Chairman of the Republican National Committee when President Richard Nixon died in 1974. He finished 2nd in Delegates to Ronald Reagan, who then asked him to serve as Vice President.

Bush ran in his own right in 1988, and the race came down to him and the Republicans' Senate Leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, who had preceded Bush as RNC Chairman, and was nominated for Vice President in 1976.

On February 16, after winning the New Hampshire Primary with 38 percent of the vote to Dole's 29, both men were interviewed on CNN's Larry King Live. When King asked Dole if he had a message for Bush, he said, "Yeah, stop lying about my record!"

At the time of the Democratic Convention in Atlanta, Dukakis led Bush by 17 percentage points. In his acceptance speech, Dukakis said, "This election isn't about ideology, it's about competence!" He then proceeded to run one of the most incompetent general-election campaigns ever.

At the Republican Convention in New Orleans, Bush told the delegates, "Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I'll say, 'No.' They'll push, and I'll say, 'No.' They'll push again, and I'll say to them, 'Read my lips: No new taxes!'" That gave the conservative wing of the Party the confidence that Bush's 1st term would be, essentially, Reagan's 3rd, and the party was united behind him.

He ran a very dirty campaign against Dukakis, calling him soft on crime, and dredging up ridiculous issues. Dukakis had the edge in the 1st debate between them, but an awkward answer on the death penalty -- which shouldn't even have been an issue in a Presidential election -- finished Dukakis off. Even a lopsided Vice Presidential debate, in which Republican Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana embarrassed himself, and was further embarrassed by Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, made no difference: Bush won in a landslide.

Bush's Presidential Library is on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. As he was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976 and '77, its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, outside Washington, is named the George Bush Center for Intelligence. Houston's main airport is named George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

There is a high school named for him in the Houston suburb of Richmond, Texas. The George Bush Turnpike forms a partial loop around Dallas. And the USS George H.W. Bush, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-77, has been in service since 2006. Like the plane in which Bush survived being shot down by the Japanese during World War II, it is nicknamed the Avenger.

Statue of the George Bushes,

at George W.'s Presidential Library

Bush remains the most recent President born in Massachusetts. He and his son are the only ones who have lived in Connecticut, not counting time spent attending Yale University, although both also did so. And they are the only ones who lived in Maine. Nevertheless, the State each represented in politics was Texas.

Dana Carvey played Bush on Saturday Night Live. By the time the 1992 election approached, a very tired-looking Bush was sounded more like Carvey's impersonation than like his old self. It was a sign that he was going to lose. Nevertheless, Bush accepted Carvey as a friend.

Bush was also played by Harry Shearer on The Golden Girls in 1990, John Roarke in The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear in 1991, Daniel T. Healy in Hot Shots! Part Deux in 1993, Michael Greene in The Day Reagan Was Shot in 2001, James Cromwell in Oliver Stone's W. (about his son) in 2008, and John Hillner in Vice (about his Secretary of Defense and his son's Vice President, Dick Cheney) in 2018.

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November 8, 1988, like all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls, 126-117 at Madison Square Garden. Johnny Newman of the Knicks led all scorers in the league that night with 35 points. Michael Jordan scored 31 for the Bulls.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 109-101 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 116-109 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The expansion Charlotte Hornets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 117-105 at the 2nd Charlotte Coliseum. Kelly Tripucka, a native of Bloomfield, New Jersey, led all scorers with 24 points.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Indiana Pacers, 112-107 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins scored 32 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 120-102 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the expansion Miami Heat, 92-88 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 114-102 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Sacramento Kings, 97-75. Dale Ellis of the Sonics scored 28 points. This was the 1st game played at the 2nd ARCO Arena in Sacramento. The Kings called the building, renamed Sleep Train Arena after a bedding company in 2012, home until 2016, when the Golden 1 Center opened. The old arena's future is uncertain. The 1st ARCO Arena, home of the Kings from 1985 to 1988, has been converted into an office building.

And there were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Rangers blew a lead of 2-0, and the Isles blew one of 3-2, but Greg Gilbert -- who turned out to be the 1st man ever to play for the Rangers, the Islanders and the Devils -- scored the winner for the Isles with 2:26 left in regulation. There were 2 fights.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Quebec Nordiques, 8-4 at the Colisee de Quebec.