ABSTRACT

Michael Dukakis was in trouble. Just two months earlier, the Democratic presidential nominee led Republican George Bush by 17 points in the Gallup poll trial heats. But Dukakis's lead evaporated as the warm air of summer turned into the cool, crisp breezes of fall. The separation of presidential politics from congressional politics remains one of the permanent legacies of the Cold War. Because presidential and congressional candidates posed different questions to voters, divided control of the government became a staple of the Cold War. In the four decades that have passed since Lyndon Johnson uttered these words, one or the other party controlled the White House and Congress simultaneously for a mere fourteen years—about one-third of the time. Parties have continuously clamored for total responsibility, but the weakened condition of the two-party system—a condition that the Cold War exacerbated—left voters suspicious.