I'm a liberal in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John Kelly.
I gather there's been very little discussion of our problem in the U.S. presidential campaign.
And I've been trying to make some news for the last three or four weeks. Now put me on the air.
People often say, well, where's the passion?
We got passion!
Michael Dukakis will be the real Terminator!
From NBC News, this is Sunday Today with Gary Cutley and Maria Shriver.
Good morning and welcome to Sunday Today. I'm Gary Cutley.
And I'm Maria Shriver on this last Sunday before Election Day.
This morning we prepared a special edition as the long campaign finally comes to an end.
We thought this would be a good time, a quiet time, to sit back and figure out just what the candidates have been saying, what the choice really is before we vote.
So on our cover this morning, two men who seek the presidency. One of them will succeed.
This morning we'll examine the issues that divide them, the rhetoric and the realities.
First, the economy, jobs, prosperity, the most important issues in most voters' minds.
And we'll follow with an examination of the Bush and Dukakis views on the environment, on crime, and on abortion, the issues that affect all of us.
And we'll wrap up today's special edition with an expanded Correspondents Roundtable.
John Chancellor will be joining our regulars Ken Bodie and Tom Pettit.
But first, let's get started with the news this morning.
Well, Garret, the latest NBC News Wall Street Journal poll completed late last night indicates a tightening presidential race and a shrinking Republican lead.
George Bush and Dan Quayle continue to lead Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Benson, but by a narrow margin, 48 percent to 43 percent.
The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.
Almost one in ten of the 1,722 likely voters interviewed nationwide say they are not sure how they will vote on Tuesday.
Undecided voters are split evenly between the two tickets.
And 12 percent of those interviewed say they still might change their minds before they vote on Tuesday.
And as this election year winds down, talk about the 1992 election has already started.
Jesse Jackson, for one, is hinting he will run for president then if Dukakis loses.
In a Chicago Sun-Times interview, Jackson said he was a heartbeat away from the presidency.
And if Bush wins on Tuesday, he will consider the next political season as starting on Wednesday.
Andrei Sakharov, one of the most foremost champions of human rights in the Soviet Union, is on his way to the United States this morning.
Bob Abernathy reports from Moscow.
We have a very interesting program today, but fundamentally when people go to vote on Tuesday, they're going to be voting for two men.
That's absolutely right, Maria, because a voter can listen to the candidates, we can listen to their debates, study their issues.
But on Tuesday, in that silence, almost the sanctity of the voting booth, we'll be voting for a person, Michael Dukakis or George Bush.
This human factor transcends raw issues.
And at the end of this long campaign, we know something about the character of these men who would be president.
Slowly, they have come into focus, the person behind the campaign face.
And yet, their self-portraits can be confusing, even troubling.
Where is it written that we must act if we do not care, as if we're not moved?
I am moved. I want a kinder and gentler nation.
If George Bush really believes that, why has he conducted one of the toughest, some would say meanest campaigns in recent history?
Miracle of miracles, headlines, read all about it. My opponent finally called himself the big L, called himself a liberal.
This election is not about ideology. It's about competence.
If Michael Dukakis is so competent, why has he not run a more effective campaign?
There are many oddities about these men and their contest.
George Bush was born in the lap of privilege. His family, a Ralph Lauren advertisement, come to life.
Yet he sells himself as the common man.
I represent the mainstream, the mainstream news and the mainstream values, and they are your values.
Michael Dukakis, the son of immigrants, should be the soulmate of Joe Sixpack.
But to many, he comes across as a cerebral elitist, all logic, little feeling, even when asked how he would react if his wife were raped and murdered.
I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life.
A majority of voters say they are not happy with the choice on Tuesday.
One man has a record of being overly accommodating, the other obsessively rigid.
One is said to take too much advice, the other too little.
On paper, George Bush is the man of experience, but beyond the resume, he has left few footprints.
Michael Dukakis is very bright, but can he lead a nation?
This election is as much about who these men are as what they stand for.
And it is what they stand for that we want to look at now.
We begin with our economy, jobs, prices, housing.
George Bush says, in effect, we've never had it so good.
Michael Dukakis warns that for too many Americans, the economy isn't good enough, and that when you count up the national debt, you see how precarious our prosperity may be.
I'm going to be the president who brings prosperity home to every home and every community and every region of America, with good jobs at good wages.
I don't take lightly the creation of jobs as the central goal for a government and the central issue in this campaign.
Levittown, New York, middle income, middle America, the kind of community where presidential elections are won and lost on pocketbook issues.
The kind of community where couples such as Don and Lorraine Pecora face the daily financial struggle of keeping their heads above water.
The Pecoras bought their home in April. It's their first house.
Don works as a plant foreman, and Moonlights is a bartender, a second job so that Lorraine can stay home with their two children.
Their concerns are what the candidates are trying to address.
What are people here worried about?
Feeding their children, getting the proper education for their children, being able to afford the skyrocketing costs. The taxes are phenomenal.
What do you think about taxes? What are taxes like? Are taxes not going to go up?
We hope not, but I don't see any other way.
There's no end. We're the middle class, and we're getting squeezed.
Michael Dukakis came to Levittown during the campaign and made one specific economic proposal to help people like the Pecoras.
And today we're announcing a new initiative that we call Home Start.
It's aimed at giving young families a chance to buy their first home, our start on the ladder of opportunity and security that home ownership represents.
What it will do is permit first-time home buyers to invest their IRA savings or their tax-deferred pension plans to make their down payments on a home.
George Bush has also made a specific proposal to help working parents.
I propose that we create a children's tax credit, a new refundable tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under age four to recognize the increased costs of families with children.
Home and children, the emotional ties that bind, they are important campaign issues.
But the candidates have not been specific on the paramount economic issue, the nation's debt, the fact that the United States is living on borrowed money and may be living on borrowed time.
George Bush says the deficit can be reduced with a flexible freeze.
I have proposed a flexible freeze under which total government spending can increase, but only at the rate of inflation.
But most economists think the flexible freeze won't work.
Lester Thurow of MIT.
The problem is that there are so many loopholes in the flexible freeze that there isn't anybody that thinks even by 1992 or maybe even 1996 that the flexible freeze would in fact balance the American budget.
Plus the fact you can't do a flexible freeze. You've got more old people every year, more health care every year.
Michael Dukakis says he would tackle the budget deficit by increasing revenues.
It will require us to go out and collect billions and billions of dollars in taxes owed that aren't being paid in this country and that's grossly unfair to the average American who's paying his taxes and paying them on time.
And there again you can raise a little bit of revenue doing that, but that isn't going to get you any closer to balancing the budget than Bush's flexible freeze is.
In short, what the candidates have been saying is what they think voters want to hear, the 1988 version of a chicken in every pot.
Read my lips.
Michael Dukakis says he would consider a tax increase only as a last resort.
But the economic fact is that whoever is elected may be forced to raise taxes because foreign countries now contribute $200 billion a year to our economy.
If the foreigners won't lend us $200 billion, the next president will raise taxes.
You will raise taxes because the German and Japanese governments will say you will raise taxes or we are not going to give you any of the money and he won't have any choice at that point in time.
And at that point, obviously things get very sticky if you're the next president.
Numbers such as $200 billion are beyond the daily concern of Don Pecora who leaves his Levittown home to take a second job on weekends.
Michael Dukakis came to Levittown, he spoke, he talked about the middle class that is being squeezed, people like you.
Does that register with you?
Can he do anything? Can a George Bush do anything? Can any president do anything?
Not really, I don't think so, no. I don't think anyone can do anything.
On the job when you talk to your fellow workers, how are they reacting to the two candidates and what they're saying?
They're looking at it and they're saying, you know, hey, cut me a break.
You know, say something, tell us what's going to do. We want to know what's happening.
What do you think is going to have to happen in terms of the economy and how you live and how it affects you?
If they don't clear up this national debt, we're going to have a blowout, I mean a bad one, okay?
It's going to pull everything down. There's going to be a lot of people that are going to be high-tech trained,
people that are carrying very large salaries now, they're going to be out in the street.
The big issues have been brought home to families like the Pecoras.
They worry about jobs, they know about debt, they know that whatever the candidates may say, they will end up paying the bill.
And Maria and I will have more on the election after these messages.
Susan, can we talk?
Sure, Dad.
You notice anything different about Mom?
She's acting pretty wild for her age.
Well, I don't just mean the roller skates.
And the motor scooter. She even borrowed my new dress.
Hmm. Come on, Dad, what is it?
A balanced diet with the right vitamin nutrition helps people get more out of life.
Some are finding Kellogg's product 19.
100% of 12 vitamins and minerals. Feel good about yourself.
And let the rubber dress feel like 19 again.
All our science, our technology, our mathematics.
Somehow they add up to moments beyond any calculation.
Howdy again, I'm Cal Worthy.
Hey, if you're buying any kind of a Japanese import, see me first, give me the first chance at the deal, and I'll give you this cordless telephone.
Now, you don't have to buy from me. Even if you buy from another dealer, I will still give you this cordless telephone.
It's a nice little gift, and it's just my way of saying thank you, partner, for giving me the first chance at the deal.
Hey, give us a call. Call us, collect. I'll save you time, save you money, save you trouble.
We'd love to talk to you. Pick up the phone. Call us, collect.
It's Worthington Toyota Rancho Cordova, open till midnight.
Two years ago, I was reporting on a hidden cancer that kills more than 60,000 Americans every year.
In learning about the warning signs of this cancer, I found out that I had a tumor.
Luckily, it was benign, but the Ceres probably saved my life.
Early detection and proper diet can lead to a cure for colorectal cancer.
Find out the facts, facts that could save your life.
The curable cancer, starting Monday when Channel 3 reports at 5.
The Ceres
Now we want to deal with the assault on nature, in a word, the environment.
What is happening to our air, water, and good earth has been a problem for some time.
But in this campaign, it has taken on new urgency as a political issue,
because the candidates have discovered that the people are very concerned about it, and that they constitute a sizable voting bloc.
Dan Bernard looks at the environmental rhetoric and reality of Bush and Dukakis.
Our air, our water, our sunlight, our food, all have become significant issues in this campaign.
1988 became the year of wide discontent with the erosion of our environment.
It was the year of pain, the year the warnings hit home as we were denied our beaches and some national parks.
Resort businesses stared at bankruptcy.
Fishermen lost markets for the catch that was pulled from polluted waters.
George Bush recognized the new power of the environmental issue.
In the blur of headlines about dirty air and closed beaches, there may be one silver lining.
An increased awareness to clean up the environment is now.
His opponent sees hypocrisy in that statement.
George Bush has been part of an administration whose environmental policies have been hazardous to our health.
In the Autobahn Society newspaper, this view of the Reagan administration record on the environment.
Peter Burley is the president of the National Autobahn Society.
We have not seized on opportunities that we should have seized.
We have not advanced the interest of environmental quality.
We've dismantled a lot of the regulatory and the good people in government that were helping us,
and we're not managing our resources any better.
The Bush campaign stole the environmental issue from the Democrats with his one campaign event,
the Bush appearance in Boston Harbor and this charge against Dukakis.
He delayed and the harbor got dirty and dirtier.
Half a billion gallons of barely treated sewage a day into the harbor.
Seventy tons of sewage sludge per day into the harbor.
PCBs into the harbor. Trace metals into the harbor.
Harbor of shame, the Boston Herald called it.
Jim Matty is the executive director of the League of Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan political action group.
On balance, the Dukakis record on Boston Harbor is a good one.
For the first time in 300 years of pouring this city's and this region's pollution into this harbor,
for the first time in 300 years it's beginning to be cleaned up.
A Bush staffer conceded the Republican campaign was distancing itself
from a poor Reagan administration record on environmental protection.
But Jim Matty charges the vice president with a significant role in reducing the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act,
which included Boston Harbor.
The position of Vice President Bush on Boston Harbor, on every harbor in the country and every river in the country has been,
if they're going to be cleaned up, someone else has to do it because the federal government should be doing less, not more, to clean up rivers and harbors.
Offshore drilling. Santa Barbara, California has offshore oil rigs.
Count them oil! Not this shit!
Mendocino residents have been passionately battling to keep such rigs off their coast.
Count them oil! Not this shit!
The Democratic candidate agrees.
My friends, it's time to send this administration's five-year oil gas leasing plan back to the drawing board.
Dukakis was part of the successful fight to keep rigs away from the George's Bank fishing ground off New England.
Michael Dukakis is saying that offshore oil drilling is a very risky proposition.
It is something that is often damaging to the environment, and we ought to do it only in those cases where our national energy security demands it.
The Bush position is essentially the industry position.
Development of our most promising oil and gas reserves is called for, but at the same time,
I oppose drilling in those environmentally sensitive areas where the risk of damage is too great.
Bush has put off making a decision on Mendocino offshore drilling until after the election.
The environment is an apple pie and motherhood issue.
No one wants toxic waste or acid rain, but little has been done to clean it up.
And 1988 was the year of new disclosures of radiation leakage over decades from government atomic weapons plants.
New warnings were heard about global warming because the vast rainforest of Brazil was being intentionally burned off to make room for agriculture.
Both candidates claim they care.
I am an environmentalist, and I always have been, and I always will be.
I'm for taking action to curb the damage done by acid rain.
And the time for study is over, so I favor a program of specific emissions reductions on a specific timetable.
In the Dukakis administration, I can assure you, we are not going to be cutting sweetheart deals with polluters.
We're not going to be selling off America's precious natural resources like used cars.
Peter Burley says neither candidate has said enough.
Well, I think the public is way ahead of the politicians on this one, and this provides a real opportunity for someone who comes in as president to seize on that public concern and really make something happen.
In effect, you're saying both men drop the ball.
Yes, I am.
But it's clear by the scorecard the League of Conservation Voters keeps on public officials.
Environmentalists lean to Dukakis, giving him a grade of D.
Bush gets a D, barely above failing.
The conservationists also agree that time is running out.
The next president must play a major role in reversing the destruction of our domestic and global environment.
For Sunday Today, Stan Bernard, NBC News, New York.
Well, both candidates have promised to call global conferences on the environment if they're elected.
Well, coming up on Sunday today, we'll have more on the candidates' views as we continue.
I'll have a report on crime, one of the gut issues of this campaign.
Cassandra Clayton will report on abortion, Keith Morrison on social issues, and Connie Chung will be here to talk about the defense issues.
All of that when we continue.
Children don't get private lessons in public schools.
Now they can get private lessons at home with Socrates, the complete educational video system that helps your kids learn one-to-one.
Hey, slugger, what's happening?
I'm out of here, Dad, and I'm going as far as this $3.42 will take me.
Northwest has some of the lowest fares around, but not that low.
While other airlines have prohibited smoking on flights under two hours, Northwest is the only U.S. airline to make every flight in North America smoke-free.
Hip hip hooray!
Northwest, Northwest, Northwest!
Phone calls, deadlines, stomach complaints, my job, and my lanta-2.
Double-strength mylanta-2, nearly double the acid-neutralizing power of any leading brand.
Because my life takes mylanta-2.
People can be changed if you can give them an incentive.
On the next Donahue, how to save a dying marriage.
When we get into relationships, we think that love is going to cure it all and that love is going to be enough.
Because of the very importance of the relationship, you tend to exaggerate every single little thing that happens.
When I started seeing him in a positive way, he started to change.
Just give us an example.
You have to make the commitment to know what makes your partner happy.
Putting pizzazz into your love life, Monday at 4 on KCRA-TV Channel 3.
Bush vs. Dukakis. California races. The propositions. Who will win and who will lose?
You'll be the first to know when Channel 3 reports Decision 88.
Join Stan Etkinson and Margaret Pelley as they head Channel 3's election team.
We'll bring you all the numbers, fast and accurate.
And Steve Swatt brings his unique perspective of California and national politics.
Join Channel 3 for all the results on Decision 88, Tuesday starting at 4 on KCRA-TV, where the news comes first.
...and more than half think he will win the Democratic election.
...for being too mean. Is this going to be the night of the nice guys?
Who's best equipped? Sit across the table from Mikhail Gorbachev.
Next President of the United States!
Watch your vote count on NBC News.
There is some concern about a low voter turnout next Tuesday.
The campaign of the candidates may account for some of that, if it happens.
But weather is also a political factor, and that brings us to Al Roker again.
Thanks a lot, Garrick. It shouldn't be an excuse, but more times than not,
campaign strategists have had to factor in weather in figuring voter turnout.
This year, Mother Nature may play a bigger role in this election than in any other in recent memory.
NBC News now is able to project the re-election...
Election Day. We've been voting in presidential elections on the same day,
the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November since 1824.
When it comes to the weather nationally,
politicians will tell you that clear, sunny weather generally favors the Democrats.
For the last 50 years, the theory was working class people,
the core of the Democratic Party, had a harder time getting to the polls,
so bad weather might discourage them, keep them home, and help the Republicans.
Well, this year, that weather wisdom may go out the window,
according to political writer and analyst William Schneider.
Well, I think bad weather would probably hurt George Bush, not the Democrats.
The old cliché is wrong right now.
The reason is that the Democrats really don't have that base among the toiling masses that they used to have.
A lot of the toiling masses now vote Republican.
Political analysts say bad weather in different parts of the country will affect each party's voters differently.
In what's considered Dukakis country, the Northeast and industrial Midwest,
bad weather could help George Bush.
An early snowstorm would hold down voter turnout in areas dependent on mass transit.
Statistics show these folks are usually Democrats.
But on the other hand, if the sun belt suddenly turns soggy,
Michael Dukakis might find a silver lining behind the dark clouds.
You know, every time it rains in California, it's considered a natural catastrophe,
and people just don't drive.
Say it's a rainy day on November 8th in California,
then you're going to get a lot of people who are just not going to drive to the polls because they're afraid,
they don't like driving in the rain,
and those people are more likely than not to be Bush voters and Republicans.
Why do we hold our presidential election in November when the weather could seriously affect voter turnout?
Turns out it's a throwback to a time when most of us earned a living working the farms and fields of this country.
The early fall was harvest time.
Winter meant tough going on the back roads of our nation.
And spring and summer was the growing season.
That left November.
Here in 1988, the weather may be an excuse that voters of both parties use
to mask their disappointment in the candidates and their campaigns.
Neither of these guys evokes that kind of personal commitment
that's going to lead a lot of voters to say, I don't care what it's doing outside,
I'm going to get out there and vote because I really love Michael Dukakis,
or I'm a great admirer of George Bush and we've just got to see this man as president.
So if there's any deterrent, if it looks like it's going to rain or snow,
or if the weather is bad, there are an awful lot of voters who are just going to stay home
and say forget about the whole thing, particularly if they are not pulled in by any dramatic issue,
a war, a scandal, a recession, a crisis, or if there's no candidate
who really has a tremendous magnetic personal attraction.
76 men escaped, then 50 were murdered.
For one man, freedom brings a search for the killers.
Find them.
I will.
Another finds courage with the help of a lover.
And for one, it means planning the greatest manhunt in history.
It's night!
The extraordinary story of the men who lived it.
The Great Escape 2 tonight.
Kids you can be proud of tomorrow at 6.30 on 3.
When you look at your car, it's a gentleman out there.
Make a Hyundai, make a Hyundai.
You can find a Hyundai for 109 anytime.
Make a Hyundai, make a Hyundai.
It's Mada's final 88 clearance sale.
If you ever wanted a new Hyundai, now is the time to get it at Mada Hyundai.
Your last chance for 109 anytime on an 88 Hyundai.
109 anytime, only at Mada's final 88 clearance sale.
Down payment may vary.
Mada Hyundai, make a Hyundai.
Let Mada Hyundai take you away.
How many times have you heard politicians talk about cutting duplication?
Well, two years ago, I saved taxpayers $9 million a year by ending some duplication.
Now, California workers like those in New York, Massachusetts, and 25 other states
are well protected under the Federal Worker Safety OSHA program.
But some big spenders put Proposition 97 on the ballot to restore that unnecessary state program.
Don't let them waste your money. Vote no on Proposition 97.
The issues that come up during a presidential campaign are more than debating points with the candidates.
They are a sign of the time, and it's rather troubling that an issue such as prison furlough and crime
has been such an important issue during these past few weeks.
A big issue. Crime certainly is an emotional issue in the campaign,
and people are desperate for some reassurance that something is being done about it.
Meanwhile, the statistics on rape, murder, and other acts of violence are rising,
and the candidates disagree on how to stem the increase.
You're going to be all right.
Chicago, Illinois. Six hundred and ninety-one people were murdered here last year.
But cold-blooded killings aren't just confined to big cities anymore.
Across the country, a person is murdered every 26 minutes.
Los Angeles, California. Almost 2200 women reported being raped here last year.
Sound high? Throughout this country, a woman is forcibly raped every six minutes.
Houston, Texas. Almost 8,000 aggravated assaults last year.
In these United States, a person is assaulted with a weapon or beaten up every 37 seconds.
America is a nation living in fear, and the men running for president know it.
And today, the people of this country are fighting another war.
A war against crime, a war against drugs, a war against fear.
My friends, the streets of America do not belong to drug peddlers and crack gangs.
They belong to us, and we're going to take them back.
I live in much more fear than I ever did before.
And with good reason. Three years ago, 36-year-old Nancy Simon of Santa Monica, California, became the victim of a violent crime.
It was a very warm night, and I had fallen asleep on my couch watching TV with my sliding glass window open.
And this man came over my balcony and into my home and woke me up out of a pretty sound sleep with a knife in his hand.
And I dare scream, or he'll hurt me with this knife.
And he marched me into my bedroom and tied me up and asked, was looking for drugs and money.
And when he didn't get that and he was angry, he tried to rape me.
He didn't end up raping you?
No, he did not.
He ended up beating you up pretty badly?
Yeah, he beat me up, and in the fight for the knife, I was cut several times.
Nancy's attacker was never found, but her experience with him is still fresh in her mind as she faces this presidential election.
I want somebody who's going to think about where does the problem start and how do we start at the grassroots level to get rid of it.
Our society simply cannot afford any more liberal experimentation with crime.
Is George Bush her man, or is it Michael Dukakis?
And whenever Mr. Bush has been given an assignment of specific responsibilities on the war on crime and drugs, he's gone AWOL.
The fact is that neither candidate is as bad as the other says, and given that crime is overwhelmingly a local issue,
neither will be able to change the crime rate as much as some voters may think.
Mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs can make a difference.
The further you get away from the neighborhood, the further out the pipeline you go, the harder it is to make a difference.
Professor James Wilson is one of the country's leading criminologists.
In a relatively issue-less election, the voters are looking for some way to assess the character of the candidates
and how they feel about crime or prison furloughs or capital punishment or gun control gives them a signal as to which candidate is closer to their core values.
Both candidates know that people vote on issues that hit them in the gut, and almost no issue is as emotional as crime.
Crime, thanks to the work of many right here in this room, is down under our leadership nationwide.
That's why Bush trumpets the fact that under a Reagan-Bush administration, crime hit a 15-year low.
But that was two years ago. What he doesn't mention is that the crime rate has been creeping up since then.
1.8 percent last year. And experts predict the upward trend will continue.
Dukakis, too, knows the power of crime at the polls, so he boasts about his record in Massachusetts.
The fact is that crime has dropped in Massachusetts by more than any other industrial state in America while it's going up all over the country.
For both candidates, talking tough about crime means talking tough on drugs.
Around the country, citizens are terrorized by violent gang drug wars.
Almost half the people who commit crime admit to being high on drugs when they do.
In America, drugs drive crime up.
If they are peddling drugs to our kids, they're going to be going to the slammer for a long, long time.
During his second term as governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis was tough on drug offenders.
He took them off the streets and gave them harsh sentences. As president, he says he'll do the same.
The single most important thing we can do to reduce the crime rate is to find new and creative approaches to discouraging the use and sale of drugs.
Hold it! Hands on your head, man. Hands on your head.
Bush says he knows about the drug problem because he's been the chairman of the president's task force on drugs.
During the past eight years, drugs have flooded onto the streets of America in such large quantities that their price has plummeted.
Cocaine has gone from $50,000 to $10,000 a kilo since George Bush and Ronald Reagan came into office.
But Bush says he'll be tough on drug dealers and users.
And for those who commit drug-related murders, for the drug kingpins who are poisoning our kids,
and especially for those who kill a law enforcement officer, the penalty should be death.
I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent.
And I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.
Along with his support for gun control, the issue of the death penalty is probably the greatest difference separating Dukakis and Bush in the area of crime.
Professor Wilson.
The death penalty is supported by between 70 and 80 percent of the American people.
For the first time in a long time, a majority of black voters support the death penalty, although not by nearly as great a majority as is true of white voters.
Willie Horton stabbed my teenage brother 19 times. Joey died.
It's the Willie Horton factor, though, that has probably been Bush's most effective firepower against his Democratic rival.
Dukakis seems to have become a victim of the murderer who escaped from the Massachusetts furlough program and went on to terrorize a young couple.
I know of no responsible correctional program in this country, with very few exceptions. It doesn't involve furloughs.
Every state in the Union and the federal prison system has a furlough or temporary release program.
Last year, 53,000 inmates across the nation went out on furlough, including hundreds of people convicted of murder.
Does the Willie Horton incident mean Michael Dukakis is soft on crime?
If elected, will George Bush put on a white hat and run a law and order White House?
Well, voters can't be sure, but many are mad as hell, and they don't want to take it anymore.
It makes me very mad. It makes me horribly mad to think that I, who like to have fresh air blowing in my home all the time,
have to keep my windows no more than two inches open at any given time, except certain hours of broad daylight.
It makes me very angry to think that people like this can be wandering the streets and that drugs are readily available, and that our system has allowed this to happen.
Will you vote on crime?
It's at the top of my priority list.
Vice President Bush's desire to name Dan Quayle as the national drug czar if they're elected would not be possible under the anti-drug bill passed by Congress in October and awaiting the president's signature.
That legislation prohibits the drug czar from holding any other job in the federal government.
And we'll be back with more on Sunday today, but first these messages.
Wherever there's a light shining in the night, we'll be there.
She is light, warm and bright. Wherever there's a moment and a dream in sight, she is light. We'll be there with everything's to light.
One was named Wilbur. The other Orville. Two brothers who shared a belief. A belief that when the fundamentals of aeronautics were properly applied, man could fly.
At Raytheon, we haven't forgotten their lesson.
Consider the revolutionary new Starship from Beech Aircraft, a Raytheon company.
Many of the fundamentals are the same as the one built by Wilbur and Orville. Raytheon, where quality starts with fundamentals.
There are a lot of good things on the ballot this November. Schools, worker safety, bonds for the future. And then there's these auto insurance propositions.
I'm chairman of the Assembly Finance and Insurance Committee, so people ask me what I think.
Both the lawyers and the insurance companies want to reform each other, but not themselves. When I propose to reform both of them, they kill them.
Don't let them get away with this multi-million dollar scam. Vote no on all the phoning reforms.
The romantic, historical and time-honored culinary treasures of Italy.
All this week, Channel 3 and Chef Biba Caggiano will take you along on a whirlwind tour of a beautiful and remarkable land.
Sampling mouth-watering delectable treats from each region along the way. From pizzas to pastas.
Join us for a tour for the taste buds. Italy. Biba style. Starting Monday when Channel 3 reports at noon and 6.30.
And now, abortion. The word itself cuts to the center of basic questions about life, a woman's rights and a doctor's responsibilities.
And inevitably, it is a political issue. It has been during the Reagan era and it will continue to be no matter who is elected on Tuesday.
Here's Cassandra Clayton on abortion and the candidates.
A young pregnant woman arrives for an abortion, but clinic doors are blocked.
She is hurried away by workers who send her to another clinic, not under attack.
Anti-abortion forces call this a rescue mission, stopping abortions by blockading clinics.
It is part of a new strategy, more confrontational, more high tech.
Pro-life advocates get themselves arrested by the hundreds. They say this is a civil rights movement.
Pro-choice advocates shout back, insisting a woman's right to an abortion should not be denied.
In this presidential election year, the abortion issue has taken on a new dimension of passionate debate and demonstration.
Abortion has always been about women's rights, unborn children's rights, life or death, morality decided by politics.
But never more so than now, when votes cast for one candidate or another may well decide whether legal abortion is a choice women have.
I oppose abortion and I favor adoption.
And if we can get this law changed, everybody should make the extraordinary effort to take these kids that are unwanted and sometimes aborted,
take them, let them come to birth and then put them in a family where there will be love.
And I have had a couple of exceptions that I support, rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
The issue of abortion is a very difficult issue, one that I think we all have to wrestle with, we have to come to terms with.
I don't favor abortion. I don't think it's a good thing. I don't think most people do.
The question is, who makes the decision?
And I think it has to be the woman in the exercise of her own conscience and religious beliefs that makes that decision.
Melinda Schrank is a 29-year-old mother of three. This day she is part of the anti-abortion protest. Schrank is voting for George Bush.
I believe a child's life is more important than any other issue.
And to prevent these women from being exploited in line two, when they're giving their children up to be killed,
I believe that those are two very important issues which I will be able to perhaps make a difference by voting for Bush.
I hereby request and demand that you and each of you leave this property immediately.
Pat Miller heads the nonprofit clinic under siege. She is voting for Michael Dukakis, fearing the loss of abortion rights if Bush wins.
My biggest fear is that we will be back to what we were before. Poor women are the ones who are going to suffer.
Which women can get abortion, but who won't get it are the poor women. They're the women who are going to be having their local hairdresser do it with a knitting needle.
And I don't want to go back to that. I mean, I care what happens to the health of women.
It has been 15 years since the Supreme Court gave women the constitutional right to safe legal abortions.
But that decision may be jeopardized by the recent conservative shift in the court.
This is where Tuesday's election could be crucial. With three justices 80 years old and older,
the next president and appointing justices who are conservative or liberal on the issue could decide the fate of legalized abortion.
As a state legislator and as governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis has consistently supported a woman's right to have an abortion.
George Bush says his position has evolved.
In the presidential primary in 1979, Bush said he did not favor a constitutional amendment banning abortion.
That changed after he became vice president under the more conservative Ronald Reagan.
In 1984, Bush debated Democrat Geraldine Carrara.
The president and I do favor a human rights amendment. I favor one that would have an exception for incest and rape, and he doesn't.
We only for the life of the mother, and I agree with him on that. So yes, my position has evolved.
In his first debate this year with Dukakis, Bush seemed to endorse criminal penalties for women and doctors if abortion is made illegal.
I'm for the sanctity of life, and once that illegality is established, then we can come to grips with the penalty side.
And of course there's got to be some penalties to enforce the law, whatever they may be.
Dukakis sees the issue.
What he is saying, if I understand him correctly, is that he's prepared to brand a woman a criminal for making this choice.
I just said it was a law I said.
No, let me finish. Let me simply say that I think it has to be the woman in the exercise of her own conscience and religious beliefs that makes that decision.
The next day, Bush's campaign chairman, James Baker, clarified the vice president's views.
Frankly, he thinks that a woman in a situation like that would be more properly considered an additional victim, perhaps the second victim, that she would need help and love and not punishment.
Right to life, your name to life.
Last month a Gallup poll found 81 percent of Americans favor legalized abortion.
24 percent for any reason, 57 percent with some restrictions. Only 17 percent want an outright ban.
Abortion is a tough personal moral issue, but not a decisive one in this election.
Still, the sound and fury in the streets reflects a...