Preparing for a run In early 1991, Bush once considered not running for re-election, asserting he seemed not to have an "ounce of energy to manage a massive project". With the end of the
Persian Gulf war in March 1991, Bush had very high approval ratings, some even approaching 90%. But by 1992, many conservative Republicans' support of Bush had waned for a variety of reasons, including raising taxes and cutting
defense spending. Americans were less concerned with his foreign policy successes than the nation's changing economic situation. Bush was not impressed by the polls' prediction that he would win re-election. He felt the economy would be the deciding factor in the election and could even overshadow the success of Operation Desert Storm. While 71% of the population viewed Bush's handling of foreign policy positively, only 21% approved of his handling of domestic issues. Yet, while addressing a rally in Texas on February 12, 1992, he announced his re-election bid and said: After the success of the Gulf War, Bush's re-election was considered highly likely. Several high-profile Democratic Party candidates, like
Mario Cuomo and
Jesse Jackson, refused to seek the Democratic nomination. The media gave the Democratic Party little chance of winning the presidency. Most Republicans continued to endorse Bush as their nominee.
Ron Paul, the
Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1988, had planned to run against the president as a Republican, but dropped out shortly after former White House communication director
Pat Buchanan's entry in the Republican primaries. In 1990, determined to undercut Bush, Buchanan published a newsletter called
Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right; it sent subscribers a bumper sticker reading: "Read Our Lips! No new taxes".
Vice-presidential selection Throughout Bush's presidency, there existed widespread speculation about Bush potentially replacing Quayle as his running-mate in his expected 1992 reelection. As early as 1989, Quayle's poor public standing was noted by the
Washington Post, which conducted a poll that found voters did not consider him fit to take over the presidency by a 52 to 38 percent margin. In 1990,
The New York Times reported that there was a movement to have Quayle replaced on the Republican ticket in 1992. The choice of running mate was considered to be particularly important given Bush's age and widely reported health issues. Despite Bush's misgivings with the Vice President, he was reluctant to drop Quayle in the absence of him voluntarily stepping aside. Bush asserted that removing his 1988 choice from the 1992 ticket would be an implicit admission that choosing Quayle had been a mistake. In the aftermath of criticism over raising taxes, Bush had no appetite for another controversial political moment. Nevertheless, there were reports that Bush did indeed consult with top confidantes about replacing Quayle on at least two occasions, including in a conversation with
Chief of Staff James Baker. The May 1991 issue of
Time magazine features a cover story on the push to replace Quayle on the ticket. The names mentioned were: •
Dick Cheney,
Secretary of Defense •
Colin Powell,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff •
Pete Wilson,
Governor of California •
Nancy Kassebaum,
Senator from
Kansas •
Carroll Campbell,
Governor of South Carolina Bush's son
George W. Bush urged him to replace Quayle with Cheney, and his son
Jeb Bush also urged him to replace Quayle because of his relatively low polling performance. Former Presidents
Richard Nixon and
Gerald Ford also urged Quayle's removal from the Republican ticket.
Republican presidential primaries in 1985 Primaries were held for all 50 states and the
District of Columbia from February 18 to June 9, 1992. In addition to Buchanan;
David Duke,
Pat Paulsen,
Harold Stassen and
Jack Fellure had also challenged Bush. Buchanan's candidacy relied heavily on a strong showing in the
New Hampshire primary, as a result, Bush made New Hampshire a focal point in his re-election bid. However, New Hampshire remained a pivotal base for Buchanan's primary campaign. Buchanan explained the reason for running against incumbent President Bush: Buchanan ran on a platform of
immigration reduction and
social conservatism, including opposition to
multiculturalism, abortion, and
gay rights. He also encouraged
isolationism, causing Bush to stop talking about foreign policy almost entirely. Even after challenging an incumbent president in the primaries, his campaign managed to raise $14,521,899 () from donations. On February 5,
an exaggerated account suggesting Bush was unfamiliar with
barcode readers made him look out of touch. Early counting of ballots in the New Hampshire primary favored Buchanan, It was a strong showing by Buchanan as Bush got fewer votes than expected. Buchanan's score nearly matched
Eugene McCarthy's protest vote against
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Heading into primaries in Georgia and Texas, the campaign pollster Robert Teeter argued that Bush should criticize Buchanan's campaign directly, while Quayle disagreed. Bush said he would largely not criticize Buchanan directly, but "might tweak him from time to time". On the evening of the Georgia primary, in an interview to
The Atlanta Constitution, Bush accepted that the tax increases in the 1990 budget deal had been his "biggest mistake". Buchanan managed to get 35% or more votes in primaries until March 10, after which, Bush won all the primaries on Super Tuesday which gave his campaign a lead in the polls. During a speech in May 1992 at the
Commonwealth Club in
San Francisco, Quayle discussed the high costs of the breakdown of the two-parent family and mentioned the
sitcom television series
Murphy Brown. He asserted that its plot-line was injurious to family values. He found the plot-line where a woman bore a child out of wedlock mocked the importance of fathers.
Murphy Browns co-creator
Diane English responded, "If the vice president thinks it's disgraceful for an unmarried woman to bear children (out of wedlock), and if he believes that a woman cannot adequately raise a child without a father, then he'd better make sure abortion remains safe and legal." Quayle's comments backfired and were widely attacked for seeming to be insensitive to single mothers, but Quayle's criticism didn't affect the primary result and Bush went on to win all the remaining contests. Bush won 72.84% of the popular vote while Buchanan won 22.96%. The fact that Buchanan got almost 2.9 million votes despite challenging an incumbent in primaries threatened Bush's campaign for his presidential run. Bush's Secretary of Commerce
Robert Mosbacher would chair this re-election campaign.
Republican National Convention In early August, the Bush campaign and the administration debated how Bush might take the initiative on the domestic front. The early ideas for the president's acceptance speech were issues that would have broad appeal. The
1992 Republican National Convention convened at the
Astrodome in
Houston, Texas, from August 17–20, 1992. To accommodate the convention and its set-up, the
Houston Astros, the
Major League Baseball team that played at the Astrodome, played 26 consecutive away games over 28 days, while the
National Football League's Houston Oilers played all their preseason games on the road. With all the state contests settled in Bush's favor, the roll of delegates drawn up by the RNC heavily favored Bush as the unanimous choice, though Buchanan and
Alan Keyes also won delegates. Heading to the convention,
Robert Teeter said that the south was critical for Bush's re-election strategy, since both
Bill Clinton and
Al Gore were southerners. The 1992 convention was where former president
Ronald Reagan made the last major address of his political career. Before the convention, Bill Clinton's poll numbers were rising, sharply affected by the fact he delivered his acceptance speech on the same night when
Ross Perot dropped out of the race. Reagan said:The convention energized the Republican base, giving the Bush-Quayle ticket a
bounce in the polls. As the bounce faded, the race returned to a lopsided double-digit lead of the Democratic ticket. During his acceptance speech, President Bush thanked former president
Richard Nixon for his advice and contributions to the administration's foreign policy. Bush opened his acceptance speech with issues related to foreign policy, taking credit for the multiple changes that had convulsed the world since the previous RNC convention four years before. He said: Bush received 2166 delegates; Buchanan received 18 delegates; and Alan Keyes received one delegate. Quayle was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate by voice vote. == Opponents ==