For President-elect George Bush, the picture of the triumph of today and transition at
the White House to come.
And words of encouragement from President Reagan.
Today my hope is this, you ain't seen nothing yet.
This is the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather reporting.
Good evening.
The day after election day, President-elect George Bush moved quickly today to smooth
the transition from the Reagan-Bush administration to the Bush-Quail administration.
Mr. Bush picked his campaign chief, Jim Baker, to be the new Secretary of State.
He also tried to smooth over some of the hurt and dirt of the long campaign.
He said he would work hard with the Democratic majority in Congress.
The size and scope of the Bush-Quail victory is clear on the map.
A red sea of 40 states for Bush-Quail and 400 plus electoral votes.
For the caucus, Benson, a 10 state patch of blue, 100 plus electoral votes, best showing
by a Democratic presidential ticket this decade.
CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer begins our post-election day coverage.
Winners always draw a crowd and George Bush came home a winner.
Thousands upon thousands of supporters jammed into Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington
to give him a red carpet hero's welcome.
For the President-elect, it was a happy landing after a long, often turbulent quest.
And he returned with a promise to build on the Reagan record.
The good policies of the last eight years will continue.
The closeness and the consultations will continue.
And after eight years of strong leadership, calm stability, dramatic progress, we are
open now to new progress and to new challenges.
It was the first time in weeks he had shared a stage with his oft-beleaguered running mate
Dan Quayle and for Quayle too, there were kind words.
Let me tell you about him.
He's going to be one of the great vice presidents.
You watch him closely, America, because you're going to respect what you see.
Any way you cut it, all this was a little out of the ordinary.
Bush, after all, is the first sitting vice president to win the White House since Martin
Van Buren did it way back in 1836.
Before he left Houston this morning, he had a little fun with that.
I also want to thank Martin Van Buren for paving the way.
It's been a long time, Marty.
The big news at the news conference was expected.
The announcement that the ranking post in the cabinet will go to his best friend and
campaign manager, James A. Baker.
The personal respect in which he is held will allow him again to demonstrate the highest
standards of performance as our next secretary of state.
Bush provided little else on the shape of the new government, but said he wants to be
president of all the people.
As for his own feelings, today it was almost as if he hadn't yet had time to sort them
out.
Somewhere in between total exhilaration and recognition that the challenge ahead is going
to be awesome.
But even the man who's shy about showing emotion was showing a little by the end of the day.
Dropping by the White House, Bush seemed truly moved by kind words from his mentor, who had
campaigned hard in his behalf.
To those who sometimes flatter me with talk of a Reagan revolution, today my hope is this.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
I really believe that the results would have been entirely different if we hadn't had this
loyal steadfast campaign support, and I know they would, if I hadn't learned from a giant
the good things about the United States of America.
Thank you, sir.
And for a day or so, George Bush plans to leave it right there.
He plans to take off Friday and go fishing in Florida, and not until after he comes back,
he says, will he start to think about who else is going to be in his government.
Bob, thanks.
CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plant has more now on the beginnings of the passing
of power from Ronald Reagan to George Bush.
As George Bush arrived in Washington to meet his running mate and the president, the transition
of power was already well underway.
Following Bush's transition team, campaign officials Craig Fuller, the chief of staff,
and pollster Robert Teter with press secretary Sheila Tate, all of whom may stay on after
January 20th.
He's making decisions starting today that are just as important as the ones he will
make when he's actually president.
Following Bush's first cabinet decision, James A. Baker to be secretary of state, some speculation
on other likely cabinet-level appointments.
Former Senator John Tower to defense, retired General Brent Scrocroft to the National Security
Council, former Treasury official Richard Darman to head the budget office.
The recently confirmed secretaries of Treasury, Justice, and Education are likely to remain.
Probably have a series of announcements, you know, within a couple of weeks, I think.
He's got to get a fast start.
He's got to find some area in which he can have a decisive victory.
But there's no policy blueprint for the new team since Bush never spelled out in the campaign
exactly what he'd do.
And that, says a former White House official, means there will be some surprises.
The public is going to have a whole set of new issues that are going to hit them like
a cold shower on January 20th that have not been discussed during the campaign.
Priority number one, a budget that has to be cut by more than $30 billion, despite Bush's
promise of no new taxes.
No easy task.
One possible solution, shift priorities.
As a rule, a new president starts with domestic affairs and then moves to foreign policy.
I've got a sneaking suspicion that George Bush would do well to reverse the order.
And in fact, some administration officials still hold out the hope that strategic arms
talks with the Soviets will move quickly enough so that George Bush can have a substantive
summit in 1989.
Apple Plant, CBS News, the White House.
In Moscow, a Soviet spokesman said it is possible a superpower summit can take place soon after
the Bush inauguration in January.
George Bush's own reluctance today to characterize his electoral college blowout victory as a
mandate in part has to do with what he may be up against in Congress.
Gains in the Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate.
Democratic senators now outnumber Republicans 56 to 44.
That's a net gain of two for the Democrats.
That's not counting the still skin tight and undecided race for a Florida Senate seat between
Republican Connie Mack and Democrat Buddy McKay.
In the House, the Democrats not only keep an 80-vote majority, they add to it a net
gain in the House of five.
Our veteran CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent, Phil Jones, reports tonight on how this might
affect Bush administration relations with Congress.
Here at the Capitol, Democrats now with even larger majorities are talking peace with the
newly elected president, but under their conditions.
But if he expects to come in and be really a Ronald Reagan who with all of his great
qualities, Ronald Reagan was very confrontational, very partisan, that's not going to work with
George Bush.
Too often these days, Congress is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Today Mr. Bush was trying to forget those campaign attacks.
So I'm going to do everything I can to have good and open and friendly relationships with
the United States Congress.
And I don't want us to talk at each other.
I want us to talk to each other.
Read my lips.
No new taxes.
That campaign pledge is one of Mr. Bush's biggest problems with the next Congress, not
just with Democrats, but with some prominent Republicans who clearly want no part of the
promise.
But he made the pledge for no new taxes.
And my suggestion is you'll have to work that out with the Democrats.
Piled on top of the deficit crisis are expensive problems like the bailout of bankrupt savings
and loans and domestic health care, homeless and drug programs.
Congressional Democrats say they received their own mandate from the voters yesterday,
but believe it or not, at least one Democratic leader is predicting a new era of cooperation.
Instead of discussions at leadership meetings with the president and jokes and so forth,
you're going to have real serious decisions made at leadership meetings, one-to-one decisions
made with the president.
That kind of cooperation might bring the new president peace with the Democrats, but it
would be guaranteed to bring war from his party's conservative right wing.
Phil Jones, CBS News, Capitol Hill.
And still to come on the CBS Evening News.
Correspondent Bruce Morton on Mike DeConcass on the job, the old job.
And Leslie Stahl on a key state where Republicans got the job done.
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The last hurrah for Michael Decaucus today, it was transition day for him, too, from defeated
Democratic candidate for president back to full-time governor of Massachusetts.
CBS News chief political correspondent, Bruce Morton, has the post-election day post-mortem
on how the race was lost.
The loser walked in a day at the office, just like any day, except for the cameras and the
people applauding.
The loser headed for his desk.
Shirt sleeves rolled up, papers in hand, got down to work.
Under his breath, he was humming.
Losers seldom hum, but Michael Decaucus really likes being governor of Massachusetts.
Obviously, I'll be digging into that vigorously and fully.
Why did he lose?
It was a campaign that distorted my record and I think did not set high standards for
the kind of campaign we won for the presidency and may well set a standard that we live to
regret.
Negative ads hurt, but so did waiting so long to answer them.
I wasn't successful in getting my message through in the South and in some parts of
the West.
What lost this was the media consultants.
Not only did they not know the South, they didn't know the Midwest, they didn't know
the East, they didn't know people.
Decaucus' ads were bad, but he always had a harder message to sell, worry about the
future as against George Bush's cheerful peace and prosperity for more years.
We started to make inroads in the West.
We made some good inroads in some states we had not even come close to winning in the
Midwest.
Democrats will debate, do we need to look West or South?
Move the party to the left or the right?
Half the Reagan Democrats came home, polls show.
The junior gap lives, Decaucus ran much better with women than with men.
He ran better with young people than Walter Mondale did four years ago, but exit polls
may not tell us why Decaucus lost.
Am I disappointed?
Of course I am.
But not brokenhearted as friends said he was after losing the governorship ten years ago.
Maybe the campaign was unwinnable, certainly Decaucus made mistakes which helped him lose.
Monday morning, quarterbacks will blame this advisor or that one.
But in the end it came down to the candidate, the technocratic governor who ran very hard
and lost and goes back now to a job he truly loves.
They played that Neil Diamond song a lot at the rallies, Dan, but the campaign's real theme
song I always thought was one Sinatra used to sing.
I did it my way.
Bruce, thank you.
Besides the people on the ballot, there were the issues, the dozens of propositions, initiatives
and referenda on state and local ballots.
A few highlights.
In Maryland, voters approved a gun control measure upholding a ban on cheap handguns,
the so-called Saturday night specials.
In California, voters overwhelmingly said no to making doctors disclose the identities
of AIDS patients so that everyone they might have affected could be traced.
Californians approved a 25 cent increase in cigarette taxes, proceeds to be used to promote
health.
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Actual tabulated vote for president.
No question that the popular vote was far and away in favor of the Bush quail ticket
over to caucus Benson.
Still all these millions who cast votes represent only 49 percent of this nation's voting age
population.
That's the lowest turnout in at least 64 years.
Only two states, Nevada and New Hampshire, had voter turnouts higher than in 1984.
CBS News correspondent Bob Fahl reports tonight from Georgia, one of the 48 other states where
turnout was lower this time around.
The Savannah high blue jackets played heard it through the grapevine.
But what was heard here and across America was that the presidential campaign turned
off as many voters as it turned on.
While nearly 90 million Americans did vote, 90 million others who could have didn't.
I'll be inclined to think that people just don't care.
There's been no issues.
Nothing.
Feel the power.
Vote America.
Despite massive publicity urging people to vote, many who did so ended up holding their
noses.
CBS News exit polls found that more than one third of those voting said they had reservations
about their choice.
Had I had the third choice of none of the above, that's what I voted for.
I think that's truly what it's all about, the lesser of two evils.
And they need to be concerned more with the issues as opposed to throwing mud at each
other.
There is more to low voter turnout than dissatisfaction with candidates Bush and Dukakis.
Here and elsewhere, millions of would-be voters are turned off by the entire electoral process.
Alienated, say the experts, convinced that no matter who wins, nothing really changes.
Because I don't feel like whoever you vote for matters.
I just don't feel that one person makes a difference.
Some analysts think all those nasty commercials disgusted people and helped keep the vote
count down, others blame networks and newspapers for harping on polls which suggested the race
was already over.
We're too poll driven.
Other countries cut off polls 30 days before the election.
Only 44% of eligible blacks voted, many of them staying away because they didn't like
the way Jesse Jackson had been treated.
Many blacks felt that this was not really their campaign.
And millions more did not take part because they found registration procedures confusing,
cumbersome and inconvenient.
Really, I didn't know how to go about it.
The United States is the only western democracy that puts all the burden on the individual
to register to vote.
In other countries, the state helps.
So what happens when they hold an election and more than half of America doesn't show
up?
We're going to get what a select few feel is important or what our values should be.
I'm going to say the country is a big loser and it's its own worst enemy.
What was heard then through the grapevine wasn't just a high school fight song, but a warning.
Bob Paul, CBS News, Savannah, Georgia.
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You've heard plenty about this presidential election from the posters, the pundits, and
yes, the anchor people.
What about the pros, the politicians and workers who power any campaign?
Leslie Stahl looked for some answers on the battleground in Cleveland.
The midnight ride of Robert Hughes.
The Republican Party chairman in Cleveland is on his way to the board of elections where
absentee ballots are being opened.
In this predominantly Democratic city, Hughes has one job, create Bush Democrats.
I think it's going to be a landslide.
I think he's going to win it on the range of 10%, something like 55-45.
Probably the only person in the United States predicting that high.
Hey Larry.
NAM election day, Democratic Congressman Ed Fian also on the ballot.
Unlike Michael Dukakis, he makes a virtue out of being a liberal.
Mike Dukakis is going to carry Ohio today and this election he's going to carry nationally
for the presidency.
We need you to get out to the polls.
I'm calling for Bob Hughes and the Republican Party.
I'm calling to urge you to get out to vote today and especially to vote for Mike Dukakis.
At noon, both campaigns work their phone banks, get out their vote.
7.31 PM, one minute after the polls close.
Reading the returns from just 50,000 absentee ballots, Hughes calls the race in Ohio, long
before the network still.
George Bush is getting approximately the same absentee vote as Ronald Reagan got in 1980
when he defeated Jimmy Carter rather handily in this state.
I ought to be right once in 20 years.
The latest results have certainly taken the wind out of the sails for the Dukakis campaign
and Republicans are looking now at a possible landslide.
10 PM, post-mortem time.
Ed Fian, who has won re-election to Congress and some of his Democratic friends on Michael
Dukakis.
You have another liberal who just didn't quite pull it off.
Bush defined the campaign and he defined it in a way that was negative.
If the Republicans are that bad, if the Republicans are that dumb, they put up Bush, they put
up the wimp, they all went to jail, all except Bush and Reagan so far.
But the two survivors, one of the two is going to be your next president.
I think that a liberal can still win the presidency.
There's no question in my mind about that.
The Democrats are even split over why they lost.
The battle for the future of the party has already begun, not only in Washington, but
all the way down to the local level as well.
Dan?
Thanks, Leslie.
Former Nixon administration attorney general John Mitchell is reported in critical condition
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John Mitchell now is 75.
For his role in criminal activity that became known as the Watergate scandal, he became
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Jews and others in America and elsewhere, today marked the anniversary of a night of
killing and destruction that was really the opening outrage of the Holocaust.
For survivors, a memory as fresh as yesterday.
For other Germans, more tired old history.
In Berlin, Tom Fenton reports.
Today Germany is the center of Europe.
Its people are rich and confident, obsessed with the present.
Their past, the atrocities and crimes of World War II, have faded with time.
Something like very, very long ago, the terrible and curious thing, but not an exact.
Something like the dark ages.
Something like this.
But 50 years ago, it was real.
The final solution was still only in the Fuhrer's head, but soon it was to be in his grasp.
In November 1938 came the excuse he needed.
A 17 year old Jewish student shot a German embassy official in Paris.
That act sparked the night of terror the Nazis called Kristallnacht, the night of broken
glass.
All over Germany, more than a thousand synagogues and Jewish stores were sacked and burned.
Jews were beaten and murdered.
20,000 were arrested.
For a 14 year old Jewish schoolboy in Berlin, it was not history.
I heard something that synagogues were burning.
They opened the synagogue and they destroyed all.
And I saw Torah scrolls with human excrements on it.
That night, the Holocaust began for Europe's Jews.
But if the vicious events of Kristallnacht were where it all began, this is how it all
ended.
Where the German people ultimately paid the price for Hitler's ambition.
Berlin divided, the wall, and the no man's land beyond it.
Berlin before the Nazis was brilliant and successful, a city energized by a large Jewish
community.
But Hitler taught the German people they were the master race and whipped up a frenzy of
anti-Semitism.
As Jews at this time, we felt very alone.
Today in Germany, Jews are truly alone.
Once there had been more than half a million, now there are only 30,000.
But Germany is now teaching and discussing the lessons of the Holocaust, a nation trying
to come to terms with its past.
In my opinion, we have to feel a kind of guilt because of this event and because we inherited
it.
Not all young Germans feel this way.
There are no Jews in the mind of most of our pupils.
Do you have any Jewish friends?
I'm not sure.
I don't think so.
There are very few Jews living today in the towns and villages of Germany.
And there are even fewer reminders of the once thriving Jewish existence.
Abandoned cemeteries, synagogues replaced by apartment buildings, or parks, or plaques,
or just ignored.
Tom Fenton, CBS News, Berlin.
And that's tonight's CBS Evening News.
Dan Rather, I'll see you tomorrow.
Good night.
This is CBS.