Lessons from Gary Hart’s 1988 Presidential Campaign — and Why Good People Often Opt Out of Politics:

My response to: Was Gary Hart Set Up? by James Fallows

My older brother (a journalist), sent me this article and then posted it on Facebook. I had worked on Gary Hart’s campaign for President in 1988, so felt I needed to respond in part to defend history’s judgement of him.

It’s really sad what happened here. This scandal absolutely pales in comparison to anything that has happened in American politics since that time (or even before, if we dive into the alleged scandals of JFK, LBJ and others). I got to see Hart up close as a student at Colorado State, where he announced his Presidential campaign in ’84 to a packed lecture hall. I would see him again on his National Field staff for his1988 run. I worked mostly in Iowa for the caucuses there with a staff that was organized by a then relatively unknown Martin O’Malley (who would later run for President in 2016).

Hart was a very decent, respectable, intelligent and thoughtful man and would have made a great President. I should note that Paul Albritton (a friend and strategist for Hart) once told me that Hart had told him (over dinner I think) that he (Hart) did not think he would have been too popular with the public. Hart was known for rolling up his sleeves at campaign stops and using the chalk board to give lectures on civics, government and the role of the citizen in a democracy. Hart believed the public would have grown tired of this, and judging by where we are in our public discourse in this country now — I think he was right.

After barely losing to Mondale in the ‘84 Democratic Primaries and then seeing Mondale get demolished by Reagan in the Presidential Election, Hart was the natural front runner in ’88. I learned, during the course of the ’88 campaign, that there was even a meeting between Hart and Soviet leader Gorbachev sometime after the ’84 Presidential Election - since even Gorbachev likely believed Hart to be the next U.S. President. Possibly resulting from this meeting, Hart authored a policy he called “constructive engagement” — which was included in a 94 page book we gave out to voters that year, called Reform, Hope and the Human Factor: Ideas for National Restructuring.

There was so much excitement about Hart becoming President that it was only natural for an “attack dog” like Atwater to find a way to bring him down. This would lead, of course, to the more desirable candidate for the Republicans, Mike Dukakis (and we all know what happened there).

It just makes me sad that he got caught up in this — and that these tactics are still used today — driving out otherwise good and qualified people!

Thanks to James Fallows of the Atlantic for writing this piece. I think it was important to set the record straight, but also important for us to see the historical roots of how we got to this place in American politics. The question now is whether we’ll learn from our mistakes and make an attempt to strive for something better.

I’ve now written the entire story in a book called:

When The Dust Settles: A Collection of Stories From Gary Hart's 1988 Presidential Campaign