Follow-up hypothetical question (which people often raised at the time):
If the race were between GHWB and Lloyd Bentsen (let's say the Dems had flipped their ticket), who would you have preferred?
Many people remarked at the time that out of the four candidates (GHWB, Quayle, Dukaka, GHWB), Bentsen came off as the 'most presidential' in debates.
No, I wasn't looking for an argument. Just reflecting on that election and trying to be objective and open-minded in doing so.
As someone in the discussion implied, there is such a big gap between what we knew then and what we knew now.
I wasn't old enough to vote then so it's all entirely hypothetical to me as to who I would have voted for if I could have.
Personally, I could not have voted for GHWB in that election because there had been a murder in my family and the local PD told us the murderer had been traced back to a drug ring which they strongly suspected was being controlled by GHWB. My hatred of that man was and is visceral.
That, of course, didn't do anything to elevate Dukakis in my eyes… but Bentsen, I remember liking Bentsen for the most part. Dan Quayle seemed dumber than most kids I knew in high school at the time.