Presidential Elections 1988

At 7:30 p.m. election night--half an hour before polls closed on the West Coast--NBC's Tom Brokaw announced that George Bush had won the race for President. That was exactly what Bob Newlan, a film and TV sound editor and father of two young children, had been worried about earlier that day. "It's a big disservice to the voters on the West Coast," said the 32-year-old Newlan, who describes himself as a moderate liberal.

It was 2:10 a.m. Tuesday, with the dawn of Election Day a few hours away, and Lloyd Bentsen was making his last campaign speech as a vice presidential candidate. For that moment, as he faced the 150 or so campaign workers who had gathered on the candlelit tarmac to welcome him home, Bentsen finally lost his reserve. He let the tears come to his eyes. "It's been an absolutely incredible experience," he said. And for Bentsen, it absolutely was.

Democratic leaders in Congress, clearly disappointed by George Bush's victory, insisted Wednesday that the congressional election returns show the American voters want their party to be an "equal partner" with Bush in governing the nation.

When Michael S. Dukakis climbed into an M-1A1 battle tank in mid-September, two aides warned him he would look silly, not tough, on TV if he wore the tank's high-tech helmet. But, moments later, as the giant tank rumbled across a dusty field, the Democratic nominee for President suddenly popped up with a Snoopy-like helmet with earphones on his head and a nervous smile on his face. "He said he wanted to hear what the other guys in the tank were saying," one aide said. "Fine.

Touting his party's successes and depreciating his rival's mandate, a relaxed and humorous Michael S. Dukakis Wednesday accepted responsibility for his defeat, saying it was he, and not the Democratic message, that voters rejected Tuesday. "It was winnable," Dukakis told reporters at a post-election press conference, noting that he had lost several key states by small margins. But, he added, " 'almost' doesn't count in politics."

Former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger defended prison furloughs Tuesday, contending that the issue had become "very much garbled" during the presidential campaign. "Unfortunately, the issue of corrections is never likely to become adequately treated in any political campaign," the former chief justice, who now is chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, said in a written statement released to the Associated Press.

Moments after the networks projected that George Bush would be the next President, politicians suddenly started using the D-word again Tuesday, as the deficit--missing during most of this campaign--resurfaced on television as the country's most pressing problem. And even leaders of Bush's own party strove to minimize any talk of a conservative mandate and moved to undercut Bush's most famous campaign promise: "Read My Lips, No New Taxes."

A beaming Dan Quayle left the agony of a harsh campaign behind him and basked in the ecstasy of victory today as his supporters hailed him as the next vice president of the United States. "We will never forget this night," the 41-year-old Indiana senator declared as he stood, flanked by his wife and three young children, before a triumphant Republican celebration in a massive hotel ballroom here early this morning.