Editing Bruce Babbitt (section)

===National work===
In 1979, Babbitt was appointed by President [[Jimmy Carter]] to serve as a commissioner on the President's Commission on the Accident at [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]], a six-month investigation of the March 1979 accident at a commercial nuclear power plant at Middletown, [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=J. Samuel |year=2006 |title=Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tf0AfoynG-EC&pg=PA281 |publisher=University of California Press |page=281 |isbn=9780520246836 }}</ref> Babbitt spoke at the [[1980 Democratic National Convention]], which nominated incumbent [[Jimmy Carter]] as the Democratic candidate for president.

A founding member of the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] and the chairman of the [[Democratic Governors Association]] in 1985, Babbitt sought the [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]]'s 1988 nomination for President of the United States. Among his proposals was a national sales tax to remedy the then-record budget deficits piled up during the several past administrations. He enjoyed positive press attention (called a "boomlet" in ''USA Today''), but after finishing out of the top tier of candidates in the [[Iowa caucuses]] and [[New Hampshire primary]], he dropped out of the race. In an intentional reference to [[Richard Nixon]] (who said after losing the California governorship in the [[California gubernatorial election, 1962|1962 election]] that the press "won't have [me] to kick around anymore"), Babbitt joked in his last campaign press conference that the media "won't have Bruce Babbitt to puff up anymore." ''The Washington Post'' reported that Babbitt dropped this line from the prepared text of his withdrawal speech.<ref>{{cite news|title=Babbitt's Opening Line – Almost|last=Schwartz|first=Maralee|author2=Ifill, Gwen|date=1998-02-21|newspaper=The Washington Post|pages=A12}}</ref>