Word: hortons
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...Templeton's criticisms of Lee Atwater is for his "constant harping on Willie Horton." This criticism lacks of factual basis. The Willie Horton issue was originally brought up by a Democrat against Michael S. Dukakis in the primary season. When the commercial ran during the general election it was made and produced by an organization independent from the Bush campaign and from Atwater. In fact, the Bush campaign took legal action to prevent the further airing of the commercial...
Most cynical of all was Atwater's constant harping on Willie Horton, a Black convict who raped a woman while on a furlough from prison. Referring to Dukakis, Atwater said he would "strip the bark off the little bastard" and "make Willie Horton his running mate...
...Horton fit Atwater's unstated but obvious aim of playing to the basest instincts of the electorate. This was the trademark of his savvy political career...
...civil rights bill. They will; Senator Edward Kennedy and the other leading sponsors plan to reintroduce the measure early in 1991. Bennett was accurately assumed to be speaking for the White House. Thus the near universal belief that the Bush forces were sculpting a new version of Willie Horton, the black killer used in 1988 as a symbol of liberals' softness on crime...
...Horton ploy worked as well as it did because Michael Dukakis responded feebly. Determined to fight back this time, the Democrats began rhetorical carpet bombing a month ago. Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder sent Bush an open letter admonishing him to practice "moral leadership." The ideal of equal opportunity, Wilder said in a message that got wide attention, "is not a political football to be used by our President to appease the Jesse Helmses of this country." House majority leader Richard Gephardt, a possible candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, placed the Republicans on "a new trail of racial resentment...