As he spoke, one company executive asked another if Dukakis was aware of the plant's foreign ownership. Aides rushed to tell reporters that Dukakis was not criticizing Moog or its owners but was opposed to a growing trend of foreign investment in the United States.
For his part, the vice president used great detail to describe the story of Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who went on a crime spree in Maryland last year several months after being released from a Massachusetts prison on a weekend furlough.
He called Horton a "coldblooded killer" and said he had broken into the home of a Maryland couple, Cliff and Angie Barnes, torturing her and threatening to kill them both.
Bush said that when people tried to look into the furlough program, "the governor's administration stonewalled, citing--and this is no joke--the prisoner's right to privacy."
He said Dukakis should have apologized to the Barnes, but has not.
Leslie Dach, a spokesman for Dukakis, had this reponse:
"Michael Dukakis is not going to play politics with the victims of crime. He's said it was a tragedy and the law has been changed."