Bush Surprises His Doubters With Strong Primary Run

Vice President George Bush has won 19 out of 20 Republican primary elections this year, putting him very close to winning his party's nomination for President. Many people thought Bush would make big mistakes and fall apart under pressure. Instead, he kept bouncing back every time things looked bad. His main rival, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, made a series of serious blunders that hurt his own campaign.

For months, Bush's critics said he was too clumsy and too likely to say the wrong thing to win the presidency. They pointed to past slip-ups, like the time Bush said 'nuclear war is winnable' or when he accidentally mocked Detroit's auto workers while campaigning in Michigan. People expected these kinds of mistakes to sink him for good. But each time Bush stumbled, he found a way to recover and move forward.

The campaign's turning point came in New Hampshire. Bush had just lost badly in Iowa, finishing third behind Dole and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. Many people thought this loss would cause a 'free fall' — a collapse so fast that even his supporters would abandon him. Instead, Bush worked harder than ever, showing up before dawn to call radio talk shows and spending full days shaking hands with voters all across the state.

Bush made some embarrassing mistakes in New Hampshire too. He showed up at the wrong entrance of a factory, so he only got to shake a few dozen hands instead of hundreds. The next day, he borrowed one of Dole's own campaign lines, saying 'I am one of you' — which made him look desperate. But then Bush steadied himself, gave a solid speech to local Republicans, visited a truck stop, and drove an 18-wheeler to connect with ordinary people.

Bush's spokesman, Peter Teeley, said two things surprised people about Bush. 'First is his energy. Nobody works harder,' Teeley said. 'And second, he can take a punch. He doesn't have a glass jaw.' Bush won New Hampshire by about 14,000 votes — not a huge margin, but enough to give him confidence and momentum going forward.

Meanwhile, Senator Dole's campaign fell apart in dramatic ways. His team spent money poorly, made bad decisions, and struggled to stay organized. On one trip, Dole's campaign plane circled a city in Wyoming for 45 minutes because of dangerous winds. At one point, Dole fired two senior advisers right on the airport tarmac in front of reporters, wasting a whole day of campaigning. The campaign became so chaotic that staff members started calling it 'the campaign from hell.'

Dole's troubles got worse on Super Tuesday, when 17 states held primary elections on the same day. Instead of focusing on states where he had a real chance, Dole traveled all over the South, wasting time and money in places where Bush was already far ahead. Dole himself joked about the lack of strategy: 'We all get in the plane and say, Go that way for a while.' Bush dominated Super Tuesday and left Dole with very few paths to victory.

Things got even worse for Dole in Illinois. His team decided to air a special 30-minute TV program to win over voters, but it was broadcast live from a remote location with no proper satellite equipment and aired opposite the popular game show 'Wheel of Fortune.' Just seven minutes before going on air, Dole received the outline for what he was supposed to say. In the middle of the broadcast, a power failure cut out the video, leaving viewers staring at a still photo of Dole while his voice kept talking.

Some experts say Bush still hasn't truly been tested because Dole's campaign was so poorly run. Democrats say Bush will have to defend all of President Reagan's unpopular policies without Reagan's personal charm. But Bush's team is confident, reminding everyone that people said the same thing about Reagan in 1980 — and Reagan won by a landslide. One Republican consultant said Bush's biggest advantage is simple: voters feel like they already know him.