Editing Michael Dukakis (section)

===Result===
The Dukakis/Bentsen ticket lost the election by a decisive margin in the [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]] to [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[Dan Quayle]], carrying only 10 states and the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]]. Many believed he should have been campaigning across the country. During this time, his 17-point lead in opinion polls completely disappeared, as his lack of visibility allowed Bush to define the issues of the campaign. A large number of Democrats believed that the loss was to blame on Dukakis's delayed response to Bush and underestimating Bush's strength as a candidate.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vennochi |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Vennochi |date=November 9, 1988 |title=Party Comes to Grips With Defeat Democrats Fault Dukakis for Failing To 'Expose' Bush |edition=Third |page=24 |work=[[Boston Globe]] |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/294495470 |access-date=August 12, 2023 |id={{ProQuest|294495470}}}}</ref> Dukakis has since stated that the main reason he lost was his decision "not to respond to the Bush attack campaign, and in retrospect it was a pretty dumb decision."<ref>{{cite web |last=Rizzo |first=John |url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/dukakis-and-the-tank-99119_Page4.html |title=Dukakis and the Tank – Josh King |work=POLITICO Magazine |date=November 17, 2013 |access-date=April 5, 2015 |archive-date=March 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327164448/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/dukakis-and-the-tank-99119_Page4.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:ElectoralCollege1988.svg|thumb|left|The 1988 election with electoral votes by state.]]

Despite Dukakis's loss, his performance was a marked improvement over the previous two Democratic efforts, both in the popular vote and the Electoral College. Though Bush still won a majority of the popular vote, Dukakis's margin of loss (7.8%) nationally was narrower than Jimmy Carter's in [[1980 United States presidential election|1980]] (9.7%) or Walter Mondale's in [[1984 United States presidential election|1984]] (18.2%), and earned 41.8&nbsp;million votes nationally.

Dukakis made some strong showings in states that had voted for Republicans [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Gerald Ford]]. He managed to pull off a close win in New York, which at the time was the second largest state in terms of electoral votes; he also scored victories in Rhode Island, Hawaii, his home state of Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. [[Walter Mondale]] had lost all six states, and since then, all six states have remained in the Democratic column at presidential elections.<ref name="270 to win hist">{{Cite news|url=https://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/|title=Historical U.S. Presidential Elections 1789–2016|access-date=October 12, 2018|archive-date=March 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319032911/https://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/|url-status=live}}</ref> He swept Iowa, winning by 10 points in a state that had voted Republican in the last five presidential elections. His proportion of the popular vote would not be matched by any subsequent Democratic presidential candidate in South Dakota (46.51%),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=46&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison—South Dakota|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=November 6, 2020|author=Leip, David|archive-date=July 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728234236/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=46&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|url-status=live}}</ref> Kansas (42.56%),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=20&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison—Kansas|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=November 6, 2020|author=Leip, David|archive-date=July 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729000221/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=20&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|url-status=live}}</ref> Oklahoma (41.28%),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=40&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison—Oklahoma|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=November 6, 2020|author=Leip, David|archive-date=July 12, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100712154158/http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=40&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|url-status=live}}</ref> Wyoming (38.01%),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=56&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison—Wyoming|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=November 6, 2020|author=Leip, David|archive-date=April 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419050455/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=56&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|url-status=live}}</ref> or Idaho (36.01%).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=16&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison—Idaho|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=November 6, 2020|author=Leip, David|archive-date=July 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728222030/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=16&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although Dukakis cut into the Republican hold in the Midwest, he failed to dent the emerging GOP stronghold in the South that had been forming since the end of World War II with a temporary reprieve with [[Jimmy Carter]] (along with future President and [[Southern Democrat]] [[Bill Clinton]], albeit to a much lesser extent). He lost most of the South by a wide margin, with Bush's popular vote margins exceeding 15% in most states.<ref name="1988 all states">{{cite web|title=1988 Presidential General Election Data – National|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1988&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|access-date=February 7, 2013|archive-date=October 31, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031043941/http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1988&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|url-status=live}}</ref> He carried most of the southern-central parishes of Louisiana,<ref name="1988 all states"/> which was also his best Southern popular vote margin. His second-lowest Southern margin was Texas, where four overwhelmingly [[Mexican-American]] counties of [[South Texas]] delivered more than 81% of the vote to Dukakis, and were among his top five counties or county-equivalents nationally.<ref name="1988 all states"/>

In 2008, Dukakis stated during an interview with [[Katie Couric]] that he "owe[d] the American people an apology" because "if I had beaten the old man [i.e. George H. W. Bush], we never would have heard of the kid [i.e. George W. Bush], and we wouldn't be in this mess."<ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4386669n | publisher=CBS News | title=Dukakis Defends Obama Campaign | access-date=April 1, 2009 | archive-date=January 15, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115100103/http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4386669n | url-status=live }}</ref>