Willie Horton 1988 Attack Ad

"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" -Lee Atwater Too late, Lee.

Checkmate

You're confused. That did not happen. During the 1988 presidential primaries, Al Gore criticized Dukakis for furloughs only; he never mentioned Horton's name, his crimes, or his race.

It was Republicans who attacked Dukakis over Horton's crimes, emphasizing his race in the process.

This was not Bush's commercial, a PAC released it. So it is not really the "infamous commercial."

Isn't it funny that the candidate who first raised the Willie Horton issue against Mike Dukakis in 1988 wasn't George Bush -- it was Al Gore in his primary campaign against Dukakis.

Talk about an inconvenient truth ! Haha.

How many people did he release? Must have been hundreds if it saved money on prisons, cause prisons don't get budgets cut if a couple of prisoners are released. Actually states never, ever cut prison budgets, especially when prison populations in the US rise inexorably. Releasing a couple of prisoners allows prisons to waste a little more money elsewhere. Or perhaps make up a little for the massive underfunding.

As much as I loathed George Bush Sr., I have to say I loathed Dukakis more; and I am a Democrat. I was sick to my stomach when they picked this bureaucratic weasel for a candidate; were there none better out there? This man vetoed a bill to end furloughs, even when accounts of rapes and murders by furloughed inmates were coming in during his tenure. The idea he did it to "reform" prisoners is crap; it saved the prison (and his state) some money. If a few people were murdered...
ah well....

please note the right-wing coverage of each of these issues. no more need be said.

As governor, Huckabee apparently commuted 703 sentences, more than the surrounding six states combined. That mercy was directly motivated by his Christianity. This suspect was a black teen sentenced to 95 years in a southern state. Hard to fault Huckabee when a couple, out of several hundred, turn out to have been bad decisions.

now huckabee has got the same problem...