So...he brought it up first....
And willie horton was an actual result of dukakis parole policies for violent criminals....he did get released on good behavior, did not return to the prison and tortured the man and raped the woman..when he should never have been released...but instead of actually dealing with the prison policies of Dukakis....you assholes screamed "racism" and you minions in the press refused to discuss anything else......must be nice to have the press on your side...you can lie at will and never worry about having people call you on it....
Uh, no. again, you are showing your complete ignorance of what happened.
First, Al Gore did not mention Willie horton by name. he brought up the issue in a debate, Dukakis answered it and that was kind of it.
Second- The policy of furloughing criminals was initiated under Dukakis' republican predecesor, and it was actually a good idea. Acclimating prisoners who were about to be released to the outside so they didn't re-offend five minutes after getting out. The courts - not Dukakis - ruled that these furloughs should be expanded to prisoner like Horton who shouldn't qualify for them.
Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release, and while he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation. The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers. However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, because the law specifically did not exclude them.[6] The Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill arguing it would "cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation."[7] The program remained in effect through the intervening term of governor Edward J. King and was abolished during Dukakis' final term of office on April 28, 1988. This abolition occurred only after the Lawrence Eagle-Tribunehad run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize.[8]
Frankly, it wasn't a matter of the Press being on Dukakis' side, because Bush got away with this bullshit.