1992 Primaries Part 2

In the year 1992, the Republicans were at the point where they had not lost a presidential election since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1976. That was 16 years ago, and they were not looking to run out of luck again. President Rumsfeld was legally obligated to not run for a third term, and though there were some movements to repeal the 22nd Amendment to let him run for a third term, they never caught steam and Rumsfeld himself refused to even consider the thought. In the wake of this, many Democrats were setting themselves up to become Rumsfeld’s successor. Only 4 of them are of note.

-George W. Bush, Minority Whip of the House of Representatives
-Orrin Hatch, 2 term Utah Senator, deemed a rising star in the party
-Mark Hatfield, 4 term Oregon Senator, Pro-Peace and isolationist candidate
-Bob Dole, 4 term Kansas Senator, fiscal conservative platform.

George W. Bush was an early favorite of the race, a hero of the Portuguese Crisis and scion of the Bush political dynasty, early on he had the weight of a political machine behind him. He had presented himself to the American populace as a populist of sorts, working for the people to get across popular legislation and policies, he would fight the establishment as he forged a new American future, even if they dragged their feet doing so. He was to be beholden only to the American people and not to anyone else...This was of course a lie, George Bush Jr. was as much a part of the establishment as those he claimed he would stand up to as president. His family had been in government since the days of FDR, his father was a governor and his uncle was a Senator, to claim he was anti-establishment was laughable, and the Republican voters agreed. George Bush Jr.’s candidacy had underperformed compared to expectations earlier on in the race, and what he had at first expected to be an easy victory turned out not as he had expected. That’s not to say Bush’s campaign had completely failed, as he had carried Minnesota, losing New Hampshire to Orrin Hatch, who was positioning himself as the anti-Bush candidate. Many veterans appreciated his heroism in the Portuguese Crisis, so he had gained their vote handily.

Minnesota’s Progressive leaning sensibilities had given Mark Hatfield’s campaign a boost when he unexpectedly received second place in their primary, a feat he was not able to build up on. His campaign only won him a smattering of states in the Plains, and his home state of Oregon. His isolationist message was not popular among Republican voters, except that the Rumsfeld Administration had been acting too harshly in trying to stop the spread of the Marburg Virus to the United States and for criticizing President Pinochet’s controversial quarantine measures, something many American voters agreed with. Overall though, Mark Hatfield’s campaign was ignored, and considered an extreme long shot, though he was rather popular with college Republicans.

Bob Dole’s campaign was entirely oriented around Domestic Policy, namely fiscal policy. He advocated cutting spending on programs he found unnecessary, such as Amtrak and the National Science Foundation, the latter of which he claimed spent too much money into projects without any practicality. He also called for a raise in interest rates to deal with possible post-war inflation. He was also interested in the idea of privatizing government programs which he claimed would be better off under private control. However, his campaign could never get enough momentum to get going, and his lack of foreign policy focus was obviously shown in debates. However parts of his policy eventually gained hold within the Republican party platform going onto the general election.

Orrin Hatch presented himself as a moderate, a compromise candidate who would be the most fit to carry the mantle of the Republican Party coming into the general election, and proved to be a palatable choice. Bush’s campaign was demolished during a debate between the candidates, when an audience member asked George Bush Jr. if he had ever taken any drugs like heroin or marijuana. Bush dodged the question, something which the other candidates had taken advantage of, spreading doubt about whether or not the candidate was a heroin user. Some began claiming that he started taking heroin back in the 70s, they said that apparently after his plane crashed in the Azores Dogfight, he had gotten hooked on opioid painkillers Reporters repeatedly asked Bush afterwards whether or not he had taken drugs in the past, to which Bush ignored them. He claimed that these rumors were planted by others to ruin his campaign. Many are still unsure as to whether or not he really did get addicted to opiates or whether or not these were really just rumors. Bush has to this day avoided answering this question in interviews, though on the other hand there seems to be no real proof to these claims besides hearsay.
Either way, Orrin Hatch had avoided major scandal, and after Rumsfeld’s endorsement, clinched the nomination. Mark Hatfield, holding on to a pie-in-the-sky idea that he could win enough delegates to force it to convention, dropped out shortly after. Orrin Hatch had cruised his way towards the nomination.

At the convention, Orrin Hatch had multiple choices for a Vice President. He had the opportunity to pick a candidate who ran already, though they had their own problems for him... George Bush Jr. was gripped with scandal, Bob Dole refused to accept, and Mark Hatfield was too irrelevant. Names were floated about, John Glenn, Antonin Scalia, and Roger MacBride, to name a few. Hatch picked neither of them...He had a rather unconventional choice…


David Eisenhower, grandson of famous general and president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.


David Eisenhower was a favorite of the establishment, he was almost political royalty as the grandson of the former president, and a frequent donor to the Republican party. He was a rather uncontroversial candidate for all factions of the Republican party, especially since he was a close friend to president Rumsfeld. He seemed to have picked up his grandfather’s military tact, as he often served as an advisor to the president during the war. Eisenhower had appeased the establishment, as they considered him one of them. The Republicans were up and ready for the general election….



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The Progressive party, compared to the Republicans had no trouble at all in picking out their candidate.


Opposition Leader of the Senate, Dick Lamm was one of the main leaders of the Progressive Party, and its face in the Senate. He met little to no opposition in the primaries, winning every state by above a 60% margin. The Progressives mostly had prepared themselves for the convention as a result of this. Senators Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Lowell P. Weicker Jr. were popular candidates for vice-president, Ginsburg would be the first female vice-president if chosen, something which excited many feminists within the Progressive base, and Weicker was popular among voters in New England, and both were from the East Coast but eventually Lamm chose Tom Harkin, a fellow Senator from the Plains states, as his VP. The Progressive Party was one that had been gripped with divisions, between the Midwestern libertarian and coastal radical factions, but the Midwesterners, which had been pro-war and supported taking down the USSR had won out. With a more united party, the Progressives had an enthusiastic attitude going into the convention. They were hoping that with World War 3 finally over, and with the American people likely looking for an alternative to 16 years of Democratic rule, they could take the opportunity to present themselves as such.

But the Progressives were still a newcomer compared to the old guard of the Democrats and Republicans, and post convention polls from Buckley News showed current polling with:

Iaccoca/Yeakel: 46.5%

Hatch/Eisenhower: 29.3%

Lamm/Harkin: 24.2%


The election was on.