129. “He responded with” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
130. Five weeks later William M. Welch, “Dole Bows Out of Republican Race,” Associated Press, March 29, 1988.
131. On Thursday, May 26 Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 299–300.
132. The son of Christopher B. Daly, “Dukakis: Son of Greek Immigrants Runs for White House,” Associated Press, Feb. 2, 1988.
133. His brand Bob Drogin, “Dukakis Draws Heavy Crowds, Money, Press,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1987.
134. Ailes watched Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 300.
135. “If you learned” Ibid., 301.
136. Ailes had consulted Ibid., 360.
137. At a campaign retreat Cramer, What It Takes, 998–99.
138. “We’re gonna have to” Author interview with a source familiar with the conversation.
139. Polls showed Cramer, What It Takes, 998.
140. “Well, you guys” Ibid., 999.
141. On June 9 Ibid., 1010.
142. “Michael Dukakis on crime” Ibid., 1011.
143. Ignoring the slick Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 362.
144. Ailes also tapped Author interviews with Tom Messner and Sig Rogich.
145. While only fifteen Paul Taylor, “Campaigns Take Aim Against Consultants; Incumbents’ Tactic May Deter Later Attacks; Some See Other Motives,” Washington Post, Feb. 15, 1990.
146. To attack Dukakis Miller Center, “Interview with Sigmund Rogich,” University of Virginia, March 8–9, 2001, http://millercenter.org/president/bush/oralhistory/sigmund-rogich.
147. The ad’s centerpiece Museum of the Moving Image, “The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952–2012,” http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
148. To hammer Miller Center, “Interview with Sigmund Rogich”; author interview with Sig Rogich.
149. The warning was Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 363.
150. The proposed ad Ibid., 361.
151. Ailes told his team Ibid., 362.
152. “He didn’t give” Author interview with former Bush campaign spokesperson Sheila Tate.
153. “Roger had an uncanny ability” Author interview with former Secretary of State James Baker III.
154. He called Dukakis “Election ’88: Waving the Bloody Shirt,” Newsweek, Nov. 21, 1988.
155. “You’re the reason” Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 361.
156. “Weekend Passes” Museum of the Moving Image, http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
157. In August, Ailes had boasted Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
158. And the Horton ad Joe Conason, “Roger & He,” New Republic, May 28, 1990.
159. Roger Stone said that Author interview with Roger Stone.
160. “I know Roger very well” Martin Schram, “The Making of Willie Horton,” New Republic, May 28, 1990.
161. “Roger detected” Author interview with Sheila Tate.
162. That night Ibid.
163. “That was his idea” Ibid.
164. In August Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
165. “He threatened to kill” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
166. Staffers noted Author interview with Roger Stone.
167. He told the press Stengel, “The Man Behind the Message.”
168. His weight ballooned Ibid.
169. Craig Fuller recalled Author interview with Craig Fuller.
170. He was also known Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 191.
171. Tom Messner recalled Author interview with Tom Messner.
172. “When he would have” Author interview with Sig Rogich.
173. Leaks sent Ailes Author interviews with Sig Rogich and Tom Messner.
174. A week and a half Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 422.
175. “It was a hard ad” Author interview with Janet G. Mullins Grissom.
176. By mid-October, Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 422.
177. From the time Dukakis Ibid., 420.
178. In the campaign’s most memorable Museum of the Moving Image, http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988.
179. “I sat there mute” Author interview with former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
180. “Wedge issues” Author interview with Roger Stone.
181. “Here’s a man” Author interview with Craig Fuller.
182. In late October Mathews and Goldman, The Quest for the Presidency, 398.
183. Bush won Ibid., 422.
184. Ailes’s marriage to Norma Author interview with friends of Roger Ailes.
185. “My wife has made the case” Howard Fineman and Peter McKillop, “Roger Ailes: I Have to Take the Heat,” Newsweek, Nov. 6, 1989.
186. In 1983, Ailes’s father Author interview with Roger Ailes’s brother, Robert Ailes Jr.
187. “New York’s master of” Fineman and McKillop, “Roger Ailes: I Have to Take the Heat.”
188. “political terrorism” Vlae Kershner, “Campaign Insider,” San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 10, 1990.
189. He offered a $100,000 reward Barbara Demick, “Bush Campaign Role in Ads Probed; New Light Cast on Willie Horton Flap,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 4, 1992.
190. “TO IMPLY COLLUSION” Conason, “Roger & He.”
191. In July 1989 Baer, “Roger Rabid.”
192. In the fall of 1989 Kerwin Swint, Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes (New York: Sterling, 2008), 39.
193. Ailes continued to stoke “Good Night, Gracie,” Newsday Magazine, Dec. 17, 1989.
194. At another point Howard Kurtz, “Giuliani Presses Dinkins’s Connection to Jackson as Campaign Intensifies,” Washington Post, Sept. 30, 1989.
195. Jackson had called New York Laurence McQuillan, United Press International, Feb. 27, 1984.
196. Dinkins attacked Swint, Dark Genius, 41.
197. On the night of October 23 Vivienne Walt, “Ailes Faces Assault Complaint,” Newsday, Oct. 26, 1989; Joe Klein, “Gandhi vs. Gumby: Can’t Anybody Here Run This Town?,” New York, Nov. 6, 1989.
198. “We were screaming” Author interview with activist Kathy Ottersten, who at the time and in news reports was known as Kevin Ottersten.
199. At the time, Sergeant Walt, “Ailes Faces Assault Complaint.”
200. “I attempted to file” Author interview with Kathy Ottersten.