Some help please, what does getting "Willie Horton"d mean?

[Rex]

It is a term I've seen used recently and my google searching has come up leaving me confused. :shrug: Whut it mean?

[buycitgo]

1. try googling 'lee atwater+willie horton'

this helps, too

http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/25/horton/index.html

[Mattforclark]

2. http://www.ammi.org/cgi-bin/video/years.cgi?1988,17,ss,,

http://www.ammi.org/cgi-bin/video/years.cgi?1988,17,ss,,

That's what it means.

[alcuno]

3. Willie Horton was a convict who Dukakis pardoned (I think it was a pardon)

while governor of Mass. When Dukakis ran for president, Bush I ran an ad against him because Horton later raped and murdered someone.

[coloradodem2005]

5. It was not quite a pardon.

Dukakis gave convicts weekends for good behavior, but they were supposed to return after the weekend. Horton never returned, but raped and murdered someone.

[Maeve]

7. Actually, Horton was out on a weekend pass from prison

Part of a Prison Furlough Program that never should have included violent criminals.

But the verb comes from the hideous ads that made it look like the terrible Democrat was about to release hordes of brutes upon an unsuspecting America. An example of the cultural warfare Bushies are capable of engaging in.

[cally]

4. A series of ads run against Dukakis

That showed a black man, Willie Horton, and that Dukakis had released him from prison. He went on to commit some horrific crimes. The ads used race baiting and racial stereotypes to defeat the Dem candidate and portray him as weak on crime.

I may be wrong that it was Dukakis.

[coloradodem2005]

6. IT was Dukakis

[TreasonousBastard]

8. One of the dirtiest politcal commercials ever made.

Bush I vs Dukakis.

Dukakis, while Governor of Mass., had some minor involvement with Willie Horton's release from prison, like signing the papers. I don't remember his invovement with the parole laws Horton was released under. Horton went on to kill someone, and they smeared Dukakis for letting him out.

The ad showed Horton, very black and very mean looking, going through a revolving door.

Very, very effective.