national chairman from 1990 to 1991, and he aligned his rhetoric closely with that of the DLC during his campaign. For example, he advocated to "end welfare as we know it" and failed to mention race at all in his campaign book Putting People First, except while denouncing racial quotas. Clinton, while serving as governor of Arkansas, refused to pardon a brain-damaged black man on death row named Rickey Ray Rector who had been convicted of killing a police officer. This was a widely publicized event that may have been influenced by Clinton's desire to not be painted "soft on crime," as failed Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis had been by the notorious Willie Horton ad. Clinton also visited the Stone Mountain Correctional Facility in Georgia shortly before Super Tuesday to promote his "tough on crime" message. The location of the prison, Stone Mountain, Georgia is notable for its ties to white supremacist movements. Stone Mountain was the birthplace of the second rendition of the KKK and was a "white supremacist mecca." It is home to Stone Mountain Park which features a massive monument to the Confederacy carved onto the face of Stone Mountain. Clinton's press conference at the prison was organized to have a group of inmates, mostly black, present in the background. The image of "white political leaders in business suits in front of subjugated black male prisoners in jumpsuits" conveyed a message summed up by another contender for the Democratic nomination, former California governor Jerry Brown: "Two white men and forty black prisoners, what's he saying? He's saying we got 'em under control, folks, don't worry."After the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Clinton attended a summit conference of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. During Clinton's speech, Clinton strongly criticized Jackson, who was sitting next to Clinton, for hosting Sister Souljah at the event. Clinton claimed that the comments Sister Souljah made were anti-white. The shocking denunciation was carried extensively by the media and gave Clinton's campaign a boost at a time when he was trailing Bush and Perot. Mary Matalin, Bush's campaign director, called Clinton's speech "a stroke of genius" by dealing with "the Jesse Jackson factor" by "publicly humilat[ing] him." President Bush's approval ratings For most of 1991, the incumbent president, George H.W. Bush, was extremely popular after the Persian Gulf War, with approval rating at times reaching as high as 90 percent. That war had helped erase