Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

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He used every trick and played “the hardest of hardball.” He was Karl Rove’s mentor.  He developed the infamous and racist Willie Horton ad that destroyed Michael Dukakis in 1988. He devised coded language and showed how to use emotional issues to get through to people. Ed Rollins, a former Reagan campaign manager, recalls: “There was something about his eyes. They were the eyes of a killer.” In 1972, while in college, he became Republican leader for Richard Nixon and served an internship under the racist senator Strom Thurmond.  Raised in South Carolina, he used his Southern charm and a little guitar playing to sleaze his way to power and help Reagan and both Bushes win election. Watching this, you see the beginnings of a man who degraded the political process and paved the way for Roger Ailes, Sara Palin, and our current president. Originally a Frontline production, Boogie Man is a sobering history of dirty political gamesmanship.