Politics
The GOP and Willie Horton: Together Again
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, left, listens as former President George H. W. Bush offers condolences to the Ford family during a news conference in remembrance of former President Gerald R. Ford at the Gasparilla Inn in Boca Grande, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006. (AP Photo/Armando Solares)
(Politico) – A question for Jeb Bush. And this one isn’t about his brother. It’s about his father.
Now that we know whether Jeb would have launched his brother’s invasion of Iraq — yes, I don’t know, I’m not saying, and no — I want to know if Jeb would have launched his father’s campaign against Willie Horton.
Some might consider that an unfair question. But I don’t think there are unfair questions for a presidential candidate, even an unannounced one.
Further, the 1988 presidential campaign pitting George H.W. Bush against Michael Dukakis and the use of race to transform a losing campaign into a winning one is back in the news.
The Bush campaign was run by Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, a Good Cop/Bad Cop team — except nobody was the Good Cop. They were both tough as hell, political knife fighters and proud of it.
