It was November 9, 1987, a year before the next presidential election. There was much speculation about who the Republicans would run to replace Ronald Reagan, whose second term was drawing to an end. Vice President George Bush had announced his candidacy and was endorsed by Reagan. But some aggressive competition for the GOP nomination also announced, led by Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, and included Pat Robertson, televangelist from Virginia, Jack Kemp, U.S. representative from New York, and Pierre S. du Pont, IV, former governor of Delaware.
This was an exciting time for the staff members of the student newspaper, as they would be working side-by-side with reporters and photographers from the national media. The process of the campaign for an incumbent vice president was intriguing to them. They covered the horde of secret service members who came in advance, the unloading of the vice presidential limousine from the huge cargo plane, and the deployment of the agents throughout the city. The meeting was in the ball room of the Student Union, which was packed. I left a class, from which I had gathered a paper assignment and went directly to the Union. I had to stand patiently by the doorway while secret service agents shuffled through the books and papers in my brief case. I found a seat across the room from my oldest daughter's elementary school class, who came to see a living vice president of the
Vice President Bush devoted most of his talk to issues of education. He certainly engaged the interests of the constituents who came to see him.
But therein lies an irony. In the election that followed a year later, the residents of Brown County, which now is reliably Republican, voted for the Democratic candidate, Michael Dukakis. Nevertheless, the state and the nation voted overwhelmingly for George Bush.
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