The Willie Horton Outrage
Ironically, it was DLC Democrat Al Gore, in April during Democratic Party primary debate, who first mentioned the Horton case. William J. Horton, Jr. was an African American man in prison for murder who, while on his ninth furlough from prison in Massachusetts, jumped furlough. He was eventually arrested in Maryland and charged with assault, kidnap and rape of two Maryland citizens.
"Atwater called him 'Willie' (a name Horton never went by), hoping to get more racial mileage. . . Atwater made sure that Dukakis, as governor of Massachusetts, got the blame for Horton's latest crimes. . . 'Every woman in this country,' a Bush strategist boasted to Elizabeth Drew, 'will know what Willie Horton looks like before this election is over.' Atwater repeated that boast over and over. . . 'Willie Horton,' he told a Republican Unity meeting, 'will [soon] be a household name.' A month later, on July 9, he alerted Republican leaders in Atlanta to a Jesse Jackson sighting 'in the driveway of his [Dukakis's] home' and then offered this speculation: 'Maybe he will put this Willie Horton on the ticket after all is said and done.' That same day Atwater told the press about 'a fellow named Willie Horton who for all I know may end up being Dukakis' running mate.' At the time, Bush was down eighteen points to the Massachusetts governor in the polls. . .
"By the time the regular Bush campaign ran [a] television spot featuring black and white cons heading to prison through a turnstile gate and then heading back toward middle-America's living room, Willie Horton was already firmly established in the public mind. The official ad did not mention Horton. It merely emphasized 'revolving door' justice and implied (falsely) that Dukakis had sent 268 first-degree murderers out on 'weekend passes' to rape, kidnap and kill.
"Dukakis remained oddly silent through most of this. He responded occasionally by citing dry statistics; more often not at all. . . Dukakis remained silent for the three months it took Lee Atwater to make Willie Horton his running mate for a variety of reasons. . . 'Whites might be put off. . . if we 'whine' about racism' [some advisers counseled]. In all probability, however, Dukakis remained silent because he wanted to disassociate his candidacy from his party's [liberal] reputation. He remained silent for the same reason that he failed to mention Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman on August 4 when speaking at the Neshoba County Fair-a silence that Marian Wright Edelman called the campaign's most disgraceful moment." (O'Reilly, p. 381-388)
