Latest / BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback / Episode 454 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There Part 35 Bush Vs Dole 1988 Campaign (B) The New Hampshire Primary

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Episode 454 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There Part 35 Bush Vs Dole 1988 Campaign (B) The New Hampshire Primary · BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

0:30
That's right.
0:31
And obviously put those plans on the shelf to become uh chief of staff.
0:38
And then you have this very unusual situation where the vice president is clearly running and your FedEx leader is running.
0:46
How did the president handle that?
0:50
Somewhat awkward.
0:54
My recollection, Richard, is that he didn't hand it at all.
0:58
He just let the chips fall where they would.
1:01
He showed no preference.
1:03
He showed no pre uh priority between them.
1:07
I admired that.
1:07
He you know it was a delicate situation and an unusual one.
1:11
But I don't like uh I don't think uh he ever did anything about it.
1:17
Certainly never talked to me about it.
1:19
But just they had a very good relationship with Dole.
1:22
Oh yeah.
1:22
Had a great relationship with Dole.
1:24
But I do remember the first time that uh Noel came to a leadership meeting that before it started, I went down early, which he invited me to do.
1:33
He asked about Dole.
1:36
He did.
1:37
I don't remember what I said except it was favorable.
1:40
But uh he was curious about Dole.
1:42
And as I recall, he's the only one he asked about.
1:47
That's that's doubly interesting because of course the story that's 76 was that one of the reasons Dole wound up being on the ticket was you know, the the people on board at least had been led to believe that he had Reagan's informator.
2:03
Uh whether that was in fact true or not.
2:06
But uh I have an old friend in Tennessee who has a philosophical statement that I've come to admire.
2:14
He called me the other day and said, Howard, we've reached the age where most of the things we remember never happen.
2:23
It is more often true than not.
2:29
Tonight, I want to express my deep appreciation to Senator Dole for the indispensable role that he has played in all of this.
2:38
His leadership in the Senate, his strong hand, and his responsible voice have made a difference.
2:44
He's forged a tough working alliance between the Senate and the executive branch.
2:49
And Bob from the heart, I thank you.
2:52
A tested man, a proven leader for President Bob Dole.
3:26
Well, I came here tonight, tonight to be nice and polite, but he's just getting here, you know.
3:34
This debate's starting to liven up a little.
3:36
I thought I was gonna dive on the volume, but many of them.
3:44
These are all nice problems.
3:46
I know them.
3:46
I can get, you know, they're all I know them all, and they all made mistakes, and so did I.
3:50
But we're not here to talk about our mistakes.
3:53
I want to commend Penn Robertson.
3:55
I want to build a Republican Party.
3:57
I want to be a majority party in America for the right reasons.
4:01
People care about their jobs, they care about no taxes, they care about their country.
4:05
They want us to make a difference.
4:07
And if Penn Robertson can deliver some people to the double campaign a little later on, I'd appreciate it very much.
4:22
I'm hopeless when the majority leader is you might consider serving as vice president, but it is political representative.
4:31
Hi, everybody, this is Randall Wallace, and this is uh the Republican 1988 primary in New Hampshire.
4:39
Um the Bush versus Dole 1988 campaign.
4:43
And this is our second show.
4:44
We've gone through Iowa.
4:45
Dole has all the momentum coming in here after this big win that he had in New Ham in Iowa.
4:50
And granted, you've got to remember that Iowa is next door to Kansas, so he he's always done very well in Iowa.
4:56
And he has always struggled in New Hampshire.
4:57
You're gonna see him see that happen again as this primary unfolds.
5:02
As I said, Dole has the the uh momentum.
5:05
And I've said this and I've been criticized for saying it.
5:09
People don't like to hear it, but the truth is that George H.W.
5:13
Bush, George W.
5:14
Bush, and Mitt Romney have no room to talk about running negative campaigns when they are lecturing and attacking Donald Trump because uh they've run some of the worst uh campaigns, negative lies of anybody in my time in politics.
5:30
And I'm a fan of all three of them, but let's not be uh you know, two-faced about uh these attacks when it comes to to being very critical of of Donald Trump and the kind of campaigns he's run, because uh this is textbook right here in 1988.
5:45
Dole's got all the momentum and we get to election day and it will be gone, and it will be gone because they ran an extremely negative campaign on Bob Dole in New Hampshire and because there was a snowstorm that came in and Bob Dole couldn't get out and do the things that George Bush did.
6:02
Shoveling snow, running those ice trucks, uh, you know, being out there uh dealing with the elements.
6:08
Bob Dole with his handicap couldn't do that.
6:10
And so we're gonna we're gonna unpack this primary for you and and you'll see what happened in 1988 uh and how uh this uh undid the Dole campaign.
6:23
And then George H.
6:24
W.
6:24
Bush, of course, with the help of South Carolina's Lee Atwater, would move on to the presidency.
6:30
What was your observation of the uh Dole Bush relationship?
6:34
When when the uh clearly they're they're both aiming to win eighty eight.
6:38
Yeah.
6:39
I mean, that must have uh colored the relationship.
6:42
And then, of course, at the height of the eighty eight campaign, there was a that confrontation that took place on the Senate floor.
6:49
Were you were you around?
6:50
I don't remember.
6:51
Refresh my memory.
6:52
Well, at the height of the before the New Hampshire primary.
6:57
Well, that was the the night of the New Hampshire primary on TV.
7:00
All right.
7:00
And but but I think actually before that, just a few days before that, there had been stories in the press about uh that the Bush campaign apparently was flogging about some kind of questions being raised about Elizabeth's trust fund and investments and and all this kind of thing.
7:16
And and he confronted the vice president on the floor.
7:20
Um I mean, you mean to confront him personally that the vice president was on the floor?
7:24
Yeah, on the floor.
7:25
I I must have missed that part.
7:26
But inevitably, you're start you're starting to see it now on the Democratic side.
7:33
Inevitably, races lead to this kind of you start out, you can almost have an agreed gentleman's agreement.
7:40
We're not gonna have any negative campaigning.
7:42
Won't hold.
7:43
Because your opponent will do something they don't think it's negative, and you go, son of a bitch.
7:48
My God, if that's where you're gonna drag this.
7:50
Then they say, he's dragging me through the gutter.
7:52
And then the opponent says, I didn't drag him through the gutter, I said he voted for that bill.
7:56
And it it degenerates.
7:59
I'm almost wondered uh uh whether there was any maybe this is too easy, but whether there was actually a kind of a cultural clash.
8:08
I mean Dole coming from his background, totally self-made, having overcome a number of obstacles in his life, looking at George Bush as a as a kind of privileged you know character, whether there was uh Because I think w would you agree that there's a bit of the populist in Dole?
8:27
There were in many of those people from the South and from rural states, there is a lot of populism in them.
8:33
Uh all of these Southerners were conservative, were conservative on race.
8:38
But if you mean if you think people like Huey Long, let alone his son Russell, were conservatives, or Herman Talmud, my God, they would spend money on agriculture and they would spend money on social programs, or they would outdo they would outdo Jack Javits and those kind of things.
8:53
Bob uh comes uh from a bit of that tendency.
8:56
There was a bit of populism in him.
8:58
But this was also almost anybody that comes from a heavy agricultural state will have a bit of populism in them.
9:05
It's sort of the William Jennings Bryan background.
9:08
I I just often wondered whether everyone knows about the impact of the war.
9:11
I've often thought that people underestimate the impact of growing up in the Dust Bowl, you know, and the scars that it must have left.
9:20
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
9:20
You bet because he was ten years older than I am, so he grew up.
9:23
I was born at the start, but he grew up in the Depression and the Dust Bowl.
9:29
And you know, I just assume that everybody that had any connection or anything to do in Kansas in the 30s had a hell of a time.
9:36
Remember that line, I think he he's credited with it, uh, outside with the with the line of well-heeled lobbyists, uh what do you outside the Gucci?
9:44
Gucci vouchs.
9:45
Yeah that's yes, where he's I feel sorry for all those lobbyists out there and they're Gucci loafers, wasn't that roughly that it?
9:52
Yeah.
9:52
Well yeah, Bob didn't have a lot of sympathy in in that sense for a lot of these absolutely egregious loopholes that people wanted to add.
10:00
He just he was um he was much more interested in broad base programs than he was.
10:06
Are we gonna because so much of what they wanted was very s comparatively small.
10:12
It is an earmarked special interest for whatever it might be.
10:15
And I think that finally got to Bob.
10:20
That last weekend of the campaign in New Hampshire when Tenuno, you know, and they came up with the ad.
10:27
And the thing about Bush, it's it's funny.
10:31
I got a call from Bush after the States Band broadcast about his library.
10:35
I mean a gentleman.
10:36
Oh, he's a great guy.
10:45
But in the end, uh I think Barbara is the uh the standard trial that is the uh the uh the taxes and all that stuff.
10:57
And uh it really hurt.
11:01
But uh you think it made the difference?
11:03
Well that was not storm.
11:05
When he was out there doing all these physical things, and I was walking around the drugstore trying to find a few people shake hands with the grocery store.
11:13
He was after a chubble on the snow and running a big snow plow, and of course that was all over the news.
11:19
And it was right weekend before the primary.
11:25
So were you running?
11:27
And the first one is events in the 70s and the 80s conspired to make you and Senator Dole competitors.
11:34
Your 88 contest was at times rancorous.
11:37
Could you describe the week between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary from your perspective?
11:44
Well, I think Bob Dole won the Iowa Caucuses.
11:49
And thus I was kind of on the ropes having Iowa made such an important positive difference for me earlier on.
11:58
So it was a it was a dog eat dog time in there where both felt that they had to do well in New Hampshire.
12:07
Uh and the tensions were high.
12:09
Uh, some of our own people were discouraged.
12:13
Uh, but uh overall it it worked out fine for me and in the long run, I think, for Bob.
12:44
A lot of people are doing pretty well.
12:46
What we've got to do is keep the recovery going until everyone does well.
12:50
And the answer is get the deficit down.
12:53
It is the number one problem.
12:55
And my view is you're not going to get it down by raising taxes.
12:58
You're gonna get it down by controlling spending.
13:07
You know what I'd say to the critics on Iran?
13:09
I'd say you give me all the blame for anything you don't like about Iran, if you'll give me half the credit for the good things that have happened under this president and this vice president.
13:28
I don't know what they're talking about.
13:29
I never heard anybody when I was flying combat for this country suggest that.
13:33
And when you're floating around a little life raft off a Japanese island, you're scared, and you think of your faith, and you think of your family.
13:45
And that's exactly what I did.
13:59
Senator Dole in the cold of New Hampshire, thank you very much for coming in today.
14:04
Thank you.
14:04
Glad to have you with us.
14:05
Thank you.
14:06
Now I'll ask you the hard question first, and then all the others will be easy.
14:09
Hard question is tell me who's going to come first, second, and third in the primary on Tuesday.
14:15
Well, I wish I knew.
14:16
We'd like to be first, but we we have been making up some ground.
14:19
I think Bush is still ahead.
14:20
It's a close race.
14:21
Uh third place, I think it's a dead heat.
14:24
I mean, I I would if I had to guess, uh, I might say Robertson at this point, but it's simply a guess.
14:30
No.
14:31
If um Vice President of Dole loses Bush.
14:35
Uh Bush, I'm sorry, loses.
14:37
Is he finished?
14:38
I don't think so.
14:39
I think the vice president has a good organization, uh got a lot of support in other areas.
14:45
So we would just like to do well here, it seems to me, that I've come a long way in the last uh thirty days.
14:50
I think the people are listening to the Bob Dole message of leadership, deficit reduction, and we feel good about our position, but uh we may not win.
15:01
On the question of leadership, the vice president this past week is saying that you're part of the problem on Capitol Hill, that Congress is out of the control, and that as one of the major leaders, you're part of the problem.
15:12
How do you answer that?
15:13
Well, I think it was regrettable.
15:15
We lost the Senate in 1986, but I think for the first six years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, it was uh strong Republican leadership in the Senate that really made the difference.
15:25
And I I think that's been my whole uh emphasis is making a difference, uh getting the Reagan program through.
15:32
And I I d uh my view is we've done a very good job.
15:35
It seems to me that uh what we need to do is to try to pick up some more Senate seats and House seats, and with a strong ticket in 88, we can probably do that.
15:43
Well, now, Senator, for four of those years, Howard Baker was the Republican leader in the Senate.
15:48
And for this past year, you were unable to corral enough votes to sustain the president's vetoes of the highway bill, of the clean water bill.
15:55
You certainly didn't help him much in the Bork nomination.
15:57
Where can you point to having done anything in this past year to help the president on Capitol Hill?
16:02
Well, I think you start off in 1981.
16:04
I was chairman of the Finance Committee, and that's where all the action on tax reduction started.
16:09
We fought off efforts of Democrats to raise taxes, to repeal the third year of that tax cut.
16:14
In 1983, we put together the Social Security Rescue Package.
16:18
It came to my committee.
16:19
We passed it out of there.
16:20
The president signed that bill.
16:21
Now we have a$70 billion surplus.
16:24
But as I said, I think 1986 was a bad year for Republicans.
16:27
We lost enough votes to have won the Bork nomination, sustained the vetoes.
16:33
But when you lose, you lose.
16:36
I mean, look at all the things that that Bob Dole has helped Ronald Reagan with over the past uh seven years, and I feel good about it.
16:43
I think the press and has been very grateful for my help.
16:46
At least I've got a lot of nice letters from him.
16:48
Senator Dole, everyone's running as a conservative this year, and everyone is running on agreement with Ronald Reagan, but I'd like to ask you about two aspects of this.
16:57
It could be said that what conservatism comes down to in the eighth year of the Reagan administration is deficits at home and detente abroad.
17:03
Let's take detente first.
17:05
Do you agree with the president's statement made twice around the time of the summit in December that the Soviet Union under Gorbachev is no longer an expansionist power?
17:14
Uh I don't share that view.
17:15
I have great respect for President Reagan, but uh it seems to me that I haven't seen I haven't seen any evidence that the the Soviets are withdrawing.
17:23
I mean, they talk about getting out of Afghanistan by March 15.
17:26
That's not realistic, or at least start getting out of there.
17:29
I haven't seen much action in other parts of the world.
17:31
It would lead me to believe that they've given up their policy of expansionism.
17:36
On the deficit, uh it seems fairly clear that we've had under Ronald Reagan this referendum on government.
17:42
Ronald Reagan's called the Great Communicator, and the Great Communicator could not move Congress to make the spending cuts he wants.
17:49
What makes you think you would be able to do so?
17:51
And if you can't, then are you going to have new revenues?
17:55
No, no, no new revenues.
17:57
I've made that clear, even though my record's being distorted a little bit the last year.
18:00
Well let me ask you about that, because you I I gather your position is no increase in personal tax rates.
18:06
Personal or business, yes.
18:07
Personal or business.
18:08
What's left?
18:09
How about a consumption tax?
18:11
No, no, no other kind of taxes.
18:13
Uh you know, Ronald Reagan has said we'll close loopholes, we'll go for user fees in those areas.
18:18
I've said under certain conditions I would support, I'm not advocating an oil import fee, not as a revenue raiser, but as a way to stabilize prices.
18:26
And if we did that, it's pretty much like Ronald Reagan said on February 4, 1986, you would do that only to stabilize prices, and then you would have any either an exemption or tax credit for those who use homing heating oil.
18:39
But I my view is a temporary freeze is only a beginning.
18:42
I think we can pass it.
18:44
It has a lot of support, get it in place early in 1989, and then start down that budget line by line, take a look at all the programs, get ready for a big uh deficit reduction a year later.
18:55
And my view is we have enough support in the Congress and both parties, and I find the American voters, regardless of party, very receptive to the freeze idea.
19:04
You talked about going down the budget line by line.
19:07
There is an argument being made, it was made in the Wall Street Journal this week, that there really is a line item veto in the Constitution for the United States.
19:13
I agree with Would you, as president, start out in uh 1989 vetoing line items in the budgets and let the courts decide?
19:23
I certainly would.
19:23
In fact, I made that speech about a thirty days ago.
19:26
It's never been tested.
19:28
It's a constitutional question.
19:30
And one way to do it is when they send me a bill with a lot of items in that ought to be taken out, go ahead and take them out, sign the bill, send it back, and then we've got a court case on our hands.
19:39
In the meantime, give me a temporary line item veto while it while the court is testing the constitutionality of of the general veto power.
19:47
I think it's uh my view it is it ought to be tested.
19:50
Maybe Ronald Reagan can try it out this year.
19:52
Well, Senator, going back to taxes, in 1982, as a leader in the Finance Committee and the Senate, you helped pass a$96 billion tax increase bill for this year.
20:02
How can you claim to have supported Ronald Reagan's idea of cutting taxes?
20:05
Well, he signed that bill and he, in fact, he initiated it.
20:08
Uh I don't, you know, I'm I wasn't the president, then I was just a nice Republican chairman.
20:13
What we did that year, though, Sam, we closed a lot of loopholes.
20:16
We picked up seven billion dollars from big insurance companies, seven billion dollars from big corporations who were using this thing that somebody dreamed up in 81 called safe harbor leasing.
20:26
We made it more difficult for the rich to uh benefit more from pension programs.
20:31
But about 85 percent of that revenue was you know, loopholes.
20:35
It was really the forerunner of tax reform.
20:37
But you now just told George Well that you wouldn't raise money from the corporations, yet you have just now said that you did, although you call it loophole closing.
20:45
What's the difference?
20:46
Oh, big difference.
20:46
I mean, I I don't believe the American people, uh corporate America or or individual Americans want anybody to have an unintended tax break.
20:55
And if I see a loophole in the tax code and I am president, I'm gonna ask Congress to close it.
20:59
It's a very different thing than saying we're gonna raise your tax rates.
21:02
And keep in mind that in 1981 it was Bob Dole's amendment on the Senate floor that indexed the tax code, and it's gonna mean$75 billion to workers over the next five years, it's gonna stay in their pockets instead of going to the Treasury.
21:16
That's the most important part of the 81 tax bill that hasn't been discussed very much because now we index the brackets.
21:22
If you get a pay raise to take care of inflation, you don't get you're not tossed into a higher bracket where the government gets the money, you keep it.
21:29
And I believe that's one significant thing that uh the American working men and women appreciate.
21:34
Senator, let me interrupt for a moment.
21:36
We'll be back with more questions for Senator Dole in a moment.
21:40
Yes, sir.
21:41
What uh what do you make of the Pat Robertson phenomenon?
21:45
Does it bother you?
21:57
If Pat Robertson's not the nominee, uh I believe some will, so it's encouraging from the standpoint of broadening the base of our party.
22:04
It's that's assuming that he is not nominated.
22:07
That's ass you're right.
22:08
Uh I I don't believe Pat Robertson uh will receive the Republican nomination, but let's face it, uh he broke a lot of China in Iowa, and he's working very hard uh in the state of New Hampshire.
22:20
And uh who knows, but I think it's much more difficult for him in a state like New Hampshire, where you have a larger universe, it's an open primary, it's not a caucus state.
22:30
Organization is not as important, so it makes it more difficult for Pat Robertson.
22:34
Senator Pat Robertson's been on television an awful lot.
22:37
And he said a number of remarkable things over the years.
22:40
Let me read you a few of them.
22:42
There's a woman named Marcia who's got cancer of the throat, and the Lord has just healed you.
22:47
Someone else who has lung fungus has just been healed by God's power.
22:51
A hernia has been healed.
22:52
If you're wearing a truss, you can take it off, it's gone.
22:55
Several people are being healed of hemorrhoids and varicose veins.
22:58
In the center section there, somebody's just been healed of an ulcer.
23:02
Now, does it do the Republican Party good with the general electorate to have a man with this kind of rhetorical tradition uh becoming as prominent as he is in Republican politics?
23:18
Well, uh my view is that Pat Roberts and his and and again I'm not following his campaign that closely, but trying to shed that past, and he doesn't like to be referred to as uh a TV minister.
23:29
He is a candidate for president, he's speaking to the issues, and so I would guess that uh much of that uh past rhetoric uh has gone overboard.
23:39
What do you suppose uh he would want if he gets a lot of delegates, comes to the convention in New Orleans, can't be nominated, but would like to leave his impress on the party?
23:48
What kind of impress would that man leave and would it do you any good in the general election?
23:53
My view is Pat Robertson uh wants uh looking for strong moral leadership, he believes he can provide it.
23:58
Uh, he's concerned about traditional family values and feels very strongly about uh uh uh you know, care of the unborn, abused neglected children, pornography.
24:09
There are a lot of ideas that Pat Robertson has that I my view uh are good ideas, and uh I think some I could not obviously could not adopt, and many of the statements he's made, in my view, are fairly unrealistic.
24:22
Senator, are you for a school prayer amendment?
24:24
Yes.
24:25
And you're for a balanced budget amendment?
24:27
Balanced budget amendment, line item veto, the human life amendment.
24:31
So you support the social agenda that Ronald Reagan has supported all these years.
24:34
That's correct.
24:35
I have a very uh good record, uh, and I've supported Ronald Reagan all these years.
24:40
Well, you mentioned a moment ago that you had letters from Ronald Reagan.
24:43
This past week you waved a letter around, I think, at the state legislature in New Hampshire, which uh thanked you for your leadership on the Contra aid vote.
24:51
Uh but you didn't mention that the president wrote a similar letter to all 250 odd people in the Congress who had also voted his way.
25:00
Don't you think this was a little bit dishonest?
25:02
Oh, I don't think so.
25:03
I didn't wave their letters, I waved mine.
25:05
I didn't know he'd written any others.
25:07
It cost a lot of money to send out all those letters.
25:09
I thought I got the only one.
25:11
You stood with uh Senator Haig, or rather with uh General Haig the other day, uh, when he withdrew from the race in your favor, and uh he said, of course, that George Bush was not competent really in the field of foreign affairs to be president.
25:23
Do you share that view?
25:25
I believe I'm more competent.
25:26
I mean, General Haig, in my view, is going to be a much stronger supporter than he was candidate.
25:31
Al Haig has a lot of friends.
25:32
In fact, we were around together yesterday, and he had standing ovations in a couple of the areas.
25:37
We went to visit a VFW hall and and all the veterans there, they want to see General Haig, so he's got a base of support.
25:44
Well, if he had so much support, why didn't he stick around and see if they would vote for him next week?
25:48
Well, I think there's a difference.
25:49
You can be a strong supporter and a weak candidate, or a weak uh supporter and a strong candidate, but in any event, uh General Haig is for Bob Dole.
25:57
He's worked with both Bob Dole and George Bush, and uh I can only quote what he said.
26:02
He says I'm head and shoulders with the S.
26:03
Well, let me try you on one issue that's come up this past week on foreign affairs.
26:07
Soviet ships bumped U.S.
26:09
warships that were uh in the uh Black Sea.
26:13
What would President Dole have done in reaction to that?
26:15
Well, I think I'd have done pretty much what Ronald Reagan did.
26:18
I and then again I'm a Sabin camp any more than reading the papers, but send a strong uh message to the Soviet Union.
26:25
Uh we think we have a right to be within that uh twelve mile zone.
26:29
Uh they they happen to believe it's uh twelve miles, we believe it's three miles, and I would make it known, and I might even pick up the phone and call Mr.
26:37
Gorbachev.
26:38
What would you have said to him?
26:39
Well, first I'd have said hello, and then I'd tell him that we c we can't continue this way.
26:44
If we're going to talk about better relationship with the Soviet Union, then he must be a player.
26:49
It gets back to George Will's first question.
26:52
The bottom line is we don't make any deal with the Soviet Union unless it's in the American interest.
26:57
And I think that's Ronald Reagan's view, but you don't provoke something, but you at least send a very strong message, maybe a personal message to Mr.
27:04
Gorbachev, that enough is enough.
27:07
Senator Dole, sometime, I guess between now and the first of March, you have to make a decision, naming two people to this Commission on basically deficit reduction.
27:16
The Democrats have named their six.
27:18
You, Bob Michael, and the president must name six.
27:21
The Democratic six seem to be people who, to put it mildly, would not be averse to raising taxes.
27:26
Can you tell us who you're going to pick?
27:28
And that because this would be some indication of the kind of governing we'd get from uh a President Dole.
27:34
Well, we'd like to coordinate our picks with uh the president.
27:37
We've discussed this with Senator Baker, or former Senator Baker Chief of Staff, Har Baker.
27:41
One pick will be uh Senator Pete Domenici.
27:44
I haven't decided on the other one, but Pete Domenici has been chairman of the budget committee.
27:49
I've had a good discussion with Pete D'Menici.
27:51
He'd bring a lot of expertise uh to the commission.
27:54
But we don't want uh our six going in there with any thought of raising taxes.
27:59
Uh we just had tax reform.
28:00
We took a lot of things away from a lot of people.
28:02
My view is we ought to give the American people a rest from increased taxes.
28:06
So do you think it would be a kind of litmus test that the three of you would have in selecting your six, that they would basically subscribe to what you've outlined here and elsewhere as your view on taxes, no increase in personal or corporate rates?
28:19
That would be my litmus test, and that will be my litmus test.
28:25
And Bob Michael feels the same way.
28:27
And we understand that uh that Bob Strauss, for example, who will be a Democratic pick, uh, does not want to raise taxes.
28:34
So my I'm not certain how the Democrats come down, but I think in Bob Strauss's case, he's indicated to me personally that he's not going in there with any idea of raising taxes and doesn't want to come out with any idea.
29:30
In the final few hours of this heated race, the vice president says he is confident, despite the fact that he and Senator Dole are apparently running neck and neck down the stretch.
29:39
Just a few weeks ago, you were really way ahead, and now it seems that the gap is narrowed.
29:44
Things are tighter.
29:45
What happened?
29:46
1980 revisited.
29:48
Remember when I came blowing into here and the polls shot down for Ronald Reagan?
29:53
Turned it right around here and beat me.
29:55
That's what's gonna happen tomorrow.
29:57
I'm gonna win New Hampshire when I lost Iowa.
30:00
And late this afternoon, Bush in a last-minute tactic, had former Senator Barry Goldwater come to New Hampshire and Channel 9 and cut an endorsement ad.
30:08
In the end, Bush said Dole will raise taxes and call for an oil import fee.
30:13
Is that a something you would have done if you were way ahead, or was it out of desperation?
30:16
Absolutely.
30:17
Goldwater is one of the most respected names in New Hampshire.
30:21
Uh we'd wanted to have him all along.
30:24
Senator Dole planned no campaign activities this evening.
30:27
Instead, he retired to his hotel room here in Merrimack to try and get an early night's sleep.
30:32
But we caught up with the Senator and asked him about tomorrow.
30:36
Tomorrow's a very important day for all of us, very important day for the people in New Hampshire and around the country.
30:41
And we're just going to have a little quiet time and reflect on what we've done and hope it's the right thing.
30:46
Dole seemed unhappy with last-minute tactics by Bush.
30:50
Well, it's totally inaccurate, and I think uh the Vice President of the United States uh shouldn't do things like that.
30:56
Let me tell you something.
30:56
So the battle has been fought, and now these two Republican frontrunners await the votes, both claiming they will win.
31:03
In Merrimack Marshall Jack Heat for News 9.
31:06
What did he say?
31:07
Uh joining us now is the Paul Guru, as he's known in the Twitter verse, Tom Rath.
31:12
Tom, thanks for joining us.
31:15
So you were a senior advisor to Senator Dole back in 1980.
31:18
Yes, of course, of course.
31:19
This report a offered some foreshadowing of how frustrated Senator Dole with was with those attacks.
31:25
What happened on primary election night that he said that really sent his campaign into a tailwind?
31:30
Well, when it happened, it was just what what that piece showed.
31:32
Uh about middle of that week out before the primary, the Bush people ran an ad called Senator Stratdle, which contrasted the two records and basically said Dole was inconsistent on taxes and some other things.
31:44
And it rankled him.
31:46
It was a typical ad today we find it pretty mild.
31:49
But in those days he said, you know, they took pieces of it, they weren't in the telephare store and he got angrier and angrier and angrier about it.
31:55
And uh same thing had happened.
31:58
Our tracking polls had showed Dole ahead until that ad really hit.
32:02
And those days he really only could be on here in Channel 9.
32:04
We'd have a lot of other places to go.
32:06
And w the lead was was narrowing.
32:09
And the election day, when I first saw him, he came to my office in Congress, he been campaigning in Nashua, and he felt he's a great campaigner and a good politician.
32:17
He felt the bottom had dropped out.
32:19
He knew that afternoon it we were not going to win, and he was in a very black mood, and it it got worse, and he kept talking about the ad.
32:28
He was really uh perseverating about that ad, which he felt was unfair.
32:32
And it boiled over in an interview with Tom Broke, I believe.
32:35
What did what did he say?
32:37
Well, we went in to uh do the net networks, they're all based here in Manchester, and they were in the uh armory behind uh the Radison now.
32:45
And he went in there and a bunch of us were in the car, actually outside, we didn't go in, Rudman was with us and all.
32:51
And uh Rudman went in with him, and then he he gave a pretty aggressive thing, and they put them both on screen together.
32:59
And I forget where where uh the vice president was, but Dole was here, and he was in the studio and he said, Would you say anything to each other?
33:06
And Dole said, Yeah, I'd tell them stop lying about my record.
33:09
And we walked back in the car, there was silence, and Warren said to me, No.
33:15
And we could tell it was not a good night.
33:17
Now, voters are always looking for those unguarded moments with politicians.
33:21
Why is it though that they're so unforgiving when a politician seems to be complaining, essentially, as Senator Dole was in that?
33:27
Well, these are two grown-ups.
33:28
These are people that were veterans, they had, you know, done a lot of politics between them, and it it it it did demonstrate at the time what I'll call the coarsening of politics.
33:38
By the way, these were two really distinguished people, both uh uh military veterans, uh decorated war heroes, and they were fighting over a narrow piece of political geography as to who was the more conservative, and it was it really got nasty, and Dole was was really offended by this.
33:55
Why was you mentioned the military record there?
33:57
Senator Dole seemed like a natural fit almost for New Hampshire.
34:00
Did he fail to connect here?
34:01
What happened that that allowed this that sort of to slide out of his hands?
34:05
Well, I I think they were he he was the Washington politician, maybe in a way that George Bush wasn't.
34:10
Um Bush did have a little bit of the imprimatur of having served eight years with Ronald Reagan, who was still the most popular.
34:16
He didn't endorse, but he was the single most popular person around.
34:20
Uh and they were able to hit Dole with an ad what is what is what was then and remains today the most potent weapon in New Hampshire.
34:27
You're soft on taxes.
34:29
And that just resonated exactly as it does in our governor's race, and it really caught them.
34:34
And after this primary, uh uh Vice President Bush was running downhill towards the nomination, but there was some political wreckage left over here in New Hampshire, particularly in the Republican Party, where you had sort of Senator Rudman on one side and then the Sununus and Greggs on the other.
34:47
But there were fractures all over the place.
34:48
Well, yeah, and there wasn't always an issue about uh be somewhere in between the Greggs who had started out as the lead uh advisor to Bush and then the Sununas had gotten in, or Governor uh Johnson who had gotten in, and there was a little friction there.
35:01
Uh Warren and the end of the day, we got along with everybody, and we and uh uh he he he made up, but it was not a happy thing.
35:09
But it did it there was a split, and there was no question about it.
35:12
Um and it it mattered uh come uh November.
35:15
Yeah.
35:16
All right, Tom, thank you for your perspective.
35:17
Thank you.
35:18
Much appreciated, and thank you for joining us for this installment of Primary Volt.
35:23
Five remaining candidates are locked in a crucial test of political strength, which New Hampshire voters will decide upon in two days.
35:30
But the bottom line is this we can't lose our clean water and our clean air.
35:35
If we lose the environment, we've lost the battle.
35:39
Norries ought to get out of there.
35:41
When you can get Jesse Helms and Ted Kennedy to join in an amendment, condemning Noriega using everything but the millennium, did it all the small form?
36:55
I'm a conservative nothing like I don't think that if you want to suggest otherwise, but I think it could be a conservative and still be sensitive and compassion that if we're going to build the Republican Party, then I want to build the Republican Party, and I want to reach out and bring more people in.
37:10
The one chairmanship I kept when I was a majority leader was the treatment committee dealing with the WIC program, food stamps, cool lunch.
37:18
Because I understand those programs, understand the need for those programs.
37:22
Bush won.
37:23
And on election night on national TV, Bob Dole melted down for all of America to see.
37:32
Mr.
37:32
Vice President, if you look right down at that monitor, you'll see the man that you beat tonight.
37:35
That's uh Senator Bob Dole, who is standing by in his headquarters.
37:39
Anything you'd like to say to him at this point?
37:40
No, just wish him well and meet him in the south.
37:43
And Senator Dole, is there anything you'd like to say to the Vice President?
37:46
Yeah, stop lying about my record.
37:48
After uh Bob Dole's defeat in New in New Hampshire, he will uh try to keep the campaign going, uh, but it it it's not meant to be.
37:58
And then later later, Fred DeCordova, the executive producer of the Tonight Show, Republican presidential contentist Senator Robert Dole, is trading George Bush in Wisconsin and nationally, and I cannot read.
38:09
His closest advisors have urged him to close up shop.
38:12
His coffers are now almost bare, but Bob Dole has vowed to stay in the race.
38:16
In an attempt to revitalize that campaign, he streamlined his staff, dismissed over 80% of them, as set to liven up his speeches, which will detail his vision and agenda for the future of the nation.
38:26
Can Robert Dole beat the odds and breathe new life into a faltering campaign?
38:31
We welcome Senator Robert Dole.
38:33
What happened?
38:35
What happened?
38:36
Iowa, you win.
38:37
New Hampshire, look, what happened in the in that weekend?
38:40
I think it was New Hampshire as you look back on it.
38:42
Uh, we had a sort of a fleeting moment there when my pollster was whistling hail to the chief, and you felt pretty good about it.
38:49
And what happened?
38:50
Uh, and we lost.
38:51
Uh, we lost, uh, well, we really gained about 11 points in a week, but we didn't beat uh George Bush in New Hampshire, and a lot of the Gallup polls said we were ahead by seven points, and we didn't make it.
39:02
So uh from then on it's been sort of downhill.
39:05
Super Tuesday, big state, 17 states one day.
39:09
Uh, but uh, you know, it's tough.
39:10
But we've won about five states.
39:12
We've got a couple hundred delegates.
39:14
Uh we're a long way from George Bush, and he's clearly the front runner.
39:19
All likelihood will probably be the Republican nominee.
39:22
But I think I went back to 1980, and when Reagan was further ahead of Bush and Bush is ahead of Dole, he stayed in for nine weeks.
39:31
And I think he did the right thing.
39:33
He kept the debate alive on the Republican side.
39:35
Bush stayed in, though.
39:36
Bush stayed in.
39:36
You're staying in.
39:37
He got out to May 26, 1980.
39:40
Back to yourself, Bob.
39:41
Yeah.
39:42
What happened in New Hampshire?
39:43
And did you what did I know some people were dismissed after that.
39:46
Yeah.
39:46
What uh on reflection did you do wrong?
39:49
Well, I don't know.
39:50
The candidate has to accept the blame.
39:51
I uh, you know, I I'm not sure we did anything wrong.
39:53
Maybe we we got our expectations too high.
39:56
I mean, every poll showed it very close.
39:59
Uh, some polls showed us ahead.
40:01
Uh we were advised to sort of sit on our lead, not to do anything, say anything, make any noise, that we were going to win.
40:10
And uh we followed that advice.
40:12
Problem is uh we got fewer votes than Bush.
40:14
And I must say, to his credit, uh he brought Barry Goldwater up, brought a lot of members of Congress up, made a lot of news over the weekend.
40:21
Uh we were fairly quiet in our campaign, and he won.
40:25
And uh that was the turning point, I would say, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
40:29
And South Carolina was right before Super Tuesday.
40:32
We didn't expect to win there, but we didn't do very well there, and it really had an impact on Super Tuesday.
40:38
You were angry at him, too, for the television campaign, were you not?
40:42
Well, I'm not angry, but I'm you know I were then, though.
40:45
I was then, and I I still feel a little uh frustrated by it when somebody distorts your record.
40:50
I also went back and I I I checked uh what what I guess Reagan and Bush were a little tense at times in 1980.
40:58
And uh I remember Reagan saying one time, that's a lie.
41:03
So, you know, I guess it depends on whose campaign.
41:06
But when somebody distorts your record, you expect a lot of rough and tumble in politics.
41:10
Uh but when they say Bob Dole wants to raise taxes, and I've got a record of carrying the ball for Ronald Reagan, that's not accurate.
41:17
And George Bush knew it was not accurate.
41:20
But Bush wound up running with Reagan in 18.
41:23
Do we mean possibility of that that you might run with Bush in 88?
41:27
No, I don't see any likelihood of that.
41:28
If you know, if I can't make it, I'm gonna be out working for George Bush.
41:31
I'm a party builder, not a party divider.
41:34
I want a Republican in the White House.
41:36
Uh but uh we're out there working.
41:38
I was in Wisconsin today, met a lot of nice people, was there yesterday and the day before.
41:43
We're way behind, according to polls, but we were way ahead in New Hampshire according to polls.
41:48
So I've said polls uh are not always accurate.
41:51
You've also said that you worry about whether Bush can win.
41:54
Well, I worry about it, yes.
41:55
I think Bush had the same worry about Reagan in 1980.
41:59
He talked about his experience and his age.
42:01
But uh I do attract a lot of independents and Democrats.
42:05
George Bush does not.
42:06
Now maybe he will.
42:07
Maybe he'll have a program that will attract independents and Democrats.
42:11
I also believe when the Americans see a comparison of all the Liberal Democrats and a more conservative Republican, that many will come to the Republican nominee.
42:21
But that's a job that George Bush, if he's a nominee, will have to do.
42:25
I think he can do it.
42:25
Are you surprised who caucus leads him in in polls?
42:28
Leads him in New York?
42:30
Leads him in Wisconsin?
42:31
Uh well, not really surprised.
42:33
I think there is Caucus is not a household name yet, and he's not a good thing.
42:37
Somebody says the last line on the vision chart, you know, and you get out and get your actor check.
42:42
So there are a lot of jokes around it.
42:45
That's the new one I heard today.
42:46
And Mike Ducox is a good guy, he won't mind.
42:49
But uh uh it's gonna be a tight race.
42:53
Anyone who tells you, and I've I'm the one Republican who's never made any reference to the seven dwarfs, I've said right along the process will work, the Democrats will have a strong candidate, and we better make certain we nominate someone who can be elected.
43:08
So when George Bush said, I've looked at those other people over there and I've got nothing to worry about, that's a mistake if he keeps up that kind of.
43:14
I don't think he will.
43:15
I mean, George Bush knows.
43:16
He's a smart guy.
43:17
He knows it's gonna be a tough race.
43:19
We've been in power eight years.
43:21
Democrats are hungry, they control the Congress.
43:24
There is uh, you know, they do have a constituency out there, and they're gonna work at it.
43:29
And we'll work at it and try to keep the White House.
43:31
All right.
43:31
Uh barring the unforeseen, why are you staying in?
43:35
I think for a couple of reasons.
43:36
I think, you know, we started out with about twelve Republicans who either formally declared for president or thought about it.
43:43
You know, Paul Laxall, Gene Kirkpatrick, Senator Bill Armstrong, uh Secretary of Education Bennett took a brief look, Don Rumsfeld.
43:52
And uh right now we're down to two of us, essentially.
43:56
Here it is, the second day of spring, and people are saying, well, it ought to end.
44:00
I don't think they want it to end.
44:01
Now it may end because more there's more focus on momentum than issues, and what does Bob Dole know and what does George Bush know?
44:08
But I believe a lot of people who worked very hard for me, and there are thousands across this country, you know, want me to take a look and see if I can pull it back together.
44:17
Can we get people to focus on the issues in Wisconsin?
44:20
Wisconsin's a very independent state.
44:21
Why?
44:22
They're not gonna be told by somebody else how to vote.
44:25
I've been there three days.
44:26
My wife, Elizabeth, who's my best resource, be there a couple of days starting tomorrow.
44:30
And uh even his friends would say that George Bush has hardly run an issue-oriented uh campaign.
44:36
Uh how do you fight that?
44:38
How do you get him to debate?
44:39
How do you how do you deal with it?
44:41
Because it's a tactic.
44:43
I'm gonna challenge him to debate, just just as he challenged Ronald Reagan in 1980 when Reagan had a big lead.
44:50
But uh and Bush stayed in, and even though he needed 97% of all the remaining delegates, he hung in there, and I think he was right.
44:57
Now Bob don't stay that long.
44:59
I think sooner or later I've got to make the decision.
45:02
If we can stop the momentum, put the brakes on, tell the American people hold it a minute.
45:06
You may nominate someone who can't win.
45:09
Or talk about the issues.
45:10
Maybe have a free-wheeling debate on your program.
45:13
I'd love it.
45:13
What's the biggest issue difference between you and the vice president?
45:16
I think the biggest issue difference is dealing with issues.
45:19
And that's what I do every day.
45:21
Whether it's Social Security, agriculture, tax reduction, voting rights.
45:26
What area do you think, let's say a major area, you and he would have voted differently?
45:30
We can't know because we don't know his vote.
45:31
That's right.
45:32
But would you guess or think or speculate based on his record and your record?
45:37
An essential vote where he would have voted yay, you nay or you, yay, him, nay.
45:42
You know, I haven't tried to speculate.
45:43
Isn't that one of the problems, though?
45:45
People have said it's like running against Ronald Reagan, and Ronald Reagan's not a candidate and George Bush has been a good vice president.
45:52
Why shouldn't he be promoted?
45:55
It doesn't normally work that way in politics, but uh it's working that way in the South, where Ronald Reagan had an 80% favorable rating.
46:03
There is no way you're going to beat the vice president.
46:06
They don't know the Republican leader, they don't know he carries the ball.
46:10
Plus, the vice president has a lot of advantages, millions and millions of dollars in advantages other candidates don't have.
46:17
So what did the right wing, the right of of the Bush wing, do poorly in this campaign?
46:22
They never could focus on a candidate.
46:24
And uh they had a you know, they thought Jack Camp might take off, and Jack's a good guy.
46:29
Just never never took off.
46:32
Uh others uh thought Pat Robertson might be the one who could pull a conservative agenda.
46:38
And Pat Robertson hasn't taken off.
46:40
He's he really probably was just as disappointed as I was on Super Tuesday.
46:45
He was supposed to get a couple hundred delegates.
46:47
He got 16, or whatever it is.
46:49
So for a lot of reasons, but the final analysis, George Bush won.
46:54
And he's winning right now.
46:55
Can Bob Dole stop him?
46:57
Stay tuned in.
46:58
You're gonna try.
46:59
Gonna try.
47:00
Any chance of a Bush Dole ticket?
47:01
The other Dole.
47:03
Probably a better chance of that than any other combination, but uh, I don't know.
47:07
Oh, I don't know.
47:08
We haven't talked about that.
47:09
And I'm certain that George Bush uh will have his own list, and uh, I doubt that she'll be on it.
47:14
How would you feel if she wasn't on it?
47:17
The arm with me.
47:17
I mean, you know, she's a very distinguished uh lady.
47:22
She understands politics.
47:23
Uh she has a great rapport with people.
47:25
I think she appeals to people pretty much across the political spectrum.
47:30
And she's a terrific asset in our campaign.
47:32
You know, if people kid me about adult doll tickets.
47:35
And I say, I don't want to be vice president.
47:38
So she's she's got the ability to.
47:42
That would be a I would assume.
47:44
But that might be a positive.
47:45
But you wouldn't mind if she were on the ticket.
47:48
I mean, it wouldn't bother you personally.
47:49
It wouldn't I mean you might as a husband say maybe as a lifestyle.
47:53
I don't want that.
47:54
I'd probably get a car and drive her out of it.
47:57
It would be interesting if you were in the Senate, because she was the vice president.
48:01
She'd be presiding over the Senate.
48:02
I'd be trying to get orders and all that stuff.
48:04
You did not vote today on the override, did you?
48:07
I was in uh Milwaukee at an uh appointment there to speak to the Rotary Club.
48:12
I'd already checked.
48:13
I thought uh the vote would be as it turned out, it was 73 to override.
48:19
Uh you need as what?
48:20
66 today because there was some absentee.
48:22
Now, is it true that you said if it were one vote difference, you should have voted with the president.
48:26
If you were a president in the Senate and not, and just ask your opinion how to vote.
48:31
I mean, my view was well, you could say, well, there's some questions on religious institutions matter interpretation.
48:38
But I said some time ago to a lot of disabled Americans that I'm gonna try to protect your rights, and this does protect their rights.
48:45
We don't want to subsidize discrimination.
48:47
Women, black, brown, disabled, whatever.
48:51
I think the administration you disagree with the vice president today.
48:55
He said he agreed.
48:56
Uh I don't suggest he's for discrimination.
48:59
But I do suggest the administration was a little late.
49:02
The things they proposed to do the last few days should have been proposed months ago.
49:07
But it was overridden in both bodies.
49:09
It will become law.
49:10
Rob Dole's our guest.
49:11
He's the minority leader of the United States Senate, Republican from Kansas.
49:14
He's still in it.
49:15
We'll take your phone calls after this.
49:19
We bring you today's press conference held by Senator Robert Dole of Kansas.
50:01
And the House too.
50:02
And the House members here?
50:06
They're next to the hardest working people.
50:10
Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you on this momentous occasion.
50:16
We are going to welcome back to the Senate our Republican leader, Robert Doe.
50:45
And the fittest and smartest woman in public life today, his wife, Elizabeth.
51:02
Bob Dole has been on the hustings, of course, as you know, and we're glad to have him back.
51:08
He's a man of character and integrity, he's a man of ability and dedication.
51:14
We are proud of him in the Senate.
51:16
We're proud of him as our leader on the Republican side of the aisle.
51:21
And I don't know of any man that's worked harder to put over the Reagan program than he has.
51:26
In fact, Reagan has made one of the greatest presidents we've ever had, and one reason is that Bob Dole has put his program over in the United States Senate.
51:52
Bob Dole is a man who's fair and just and reasonable.
51:57
He's a man of vision, he's a man of dedication, he's a true patriot, and no one sacrificed more in World War II than he did, and I now present to you a great American Bob Dole.
52:56
Thank you very much.
53:03
That's trauma, I kind of like that.
53:05
Maybe I better change this.
53:11
Well, I'm very honored to be here today, and I uh appreciate all my many of my no most all of my colleagues being here, many from the house, and my good friend Pat Moynihan.
53:20
Pat appreciates your being here, too.
53:22
And we're not gonna say anything mean about anybody, so you it's about it's gonna be a nonpartisan statement.
53:29
Not gonna attack any Republican.
53:31
So in any event, uh but nearly five months ago, I went home to Russell, Kansas to declare my candidacy for the highest office the American people can bestow.
53:48
It was only natural that I should begin my campaign for the presidency on Main Street, among those from whom I have always drawn my strength and identity.
53:59
Today here I am, bloodied but unbowed, as the poet says, reminding you that there was a special reason this year for those of us on the Republican side to walk, or in my case, to run the extra mile.
54:16
And that reason is the national interest.
54:19
The nation is entering a period in which there are great dangers and great challenges.
54:26
And I entered this race convinced that to solve our problems and realize our potential, America requires strong leadership.
54:36
The kind forged in the crucible of governance, the kind that is sensitive to how ordinary people live and attuned to their extraordinary possibilities.
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I ran for my party's nomination because I was determined to lead a dialogue on issues that matter, issues that I care passionately about, involving the national offense and fiscal integrity of this country.
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Profoundly interrelated issues I feared would get lost in the shuffle.
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I wanted these issues to be a part of a crucial dialogue about this country's future.
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It matters if we have this hostile Soviet client state the Sandinistas are building in our own backyard.
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It matters if we have this monster deficit looming up like a tidal wave in our future.
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And it matters how we deal with these issues.
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Whether we mortgage our future to them or whether we make certain that the buck stops here.
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And future generations don't have to pay up because of our cowardice.
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My campaign has been an appeal for all Republicans to recognize and celebrate the diversity of America.
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No party can govern that is not truly representative of this nation of nations.
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And no president can succeed who promises confidence but withholds compassion.
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I seek as a party as strong in its commitment to equal rights as to its military and economic preeminence.
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For the defense of American freedom, whether at home or abroad, is ultimately indivisible.
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Its success depends on a house united and leadership with the will to win.
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Now I know, and my friends know that I'm a fighter.
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And I don't like to lose.
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And I make no apology for that.
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It's simply the way I am.
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They also know that I'm an optimist.
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If I weren't, I wouldn't be standing here today.
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And I have been beaten before, and no doubt will again.
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But I have never been defeated, and never will be.
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So my wife Elizabeth and my daughter Robin are beside me today, as they have been throughout this campaign.
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We have become even closer because of this journey, and I'll always be grateful for their love and support.
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Bill Brock and Bob Ellsworth and Nancy Casabaum and Joe Fogg and countless and hundreds of others, my colleagues in the House and the Senate, staff members and members of the Dole for President Committee all across America, volunteers both here today and across the country, have made this campaign a labor of love.
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And my thanks seem hardly enough.
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More than one and a half million Americans have honored me with their support in primaries and caucuses, and for that I will always be humble.
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But one thing you learn how to do pretty well in our business is to count.
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You come to trust your instincts to tell you when it's over.
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And in my heart I know that that time is now.
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And so I congratulate George Bush and wish him well in November because I've said many, many times, the bottom line is keeping the White House Republican.
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That's the bottom line.
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But the journey is far from over.
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When people ask me why I ran for president, I will say because I wanted to make a difference.
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And that desire will remain with me for as long as I live.
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Ronald Reagan has made an historic difference for America.
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He has set us on a renewed course to renewed prosperity, greater security, and more hope and more opportunity for each and every American.
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But there is much more work to do.
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So I returned to the Senate as a Republican leader, eager to engage there the issues that confront America, and ready to do all I can to elect Republicans in November, and doing all I can for our nominee, George Bush.
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Thank you very much.
1:00:47
Right near inside, perhaps, Dukakis headquarters, or is that in the sky, Bernie?
1:00:52
Can we tell?
1:00:53
I can't tell, but uh with a reflection of some of these graphics, it would have to be reflected on something.
1:00:58
My guess would be it's inside.
1:01:02
Michael DeCakis's supporters are waiting to hear him address them.
1:01:06
We know that he's contacted George already.
1:01:18
Thank you all very, very much.
1:02:00
I know I speak for all of you and for all the American people when I say that he will be our president.
1:02:08
We'll work with him.
1:02:09
This nation faces major challenges ahead, and we must work together.
1:02:16
I extended my best wishes to him and to Mr.
1:02:18
Bush and the members of the Bush family.
1:03:49
And it was in the great tradition of American politics.
1:04:03
The most majestic words of democracy has to offer the people have spoken.
1:04:28
We were young here, started out here 40 years ago, summer of 48, worked in the oil fields, and you know, started a business and went into politics for 40 years.
1:04:40
40 years of work and caring and friendship.
1:04:43
And now I'm gonna take that love and friendship.
1:04:47
It's all right here in this room.
1:04:49
Put it in my pocket.
1:04:50
Take the recipe to Washington, D.C.
1:04:53
where sometimes goes.
1:05:03
There's lots of work to do.
1:05:16
I made a promise.
1:05:39
He wants to add that the elephant has a thick skin and a head full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade knows, proceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor.
1:05:50
Symbolically, George Bush is grasping to help out the keeper.
1:05:56
And it is a happy night.
1:06:06
It decisions clear the way for harmony and feast.
1:06:09
He said to his level best work and stuff.
1:06:14
But the post-bordemps weights by this candidate is well at the Michael the darkest post-bordempic state.
1:06:45
They did not expect the test bad ways to drive in any way.