elections, Atwater used race to smear Democratic candidates (the Willie Horton TV ads, which played everywhere, 24/7).

It may be that Atwater was trying to win Black votes to the R Party. For a couple of days Atwater was on the board of governors of Howard U until a huge student uprising against him forced his resignation. It is likely that Atwater was a racist, but even more likely that he was a bare-fisted brawler in the political arena, and he was the first to use implicit rather than explicit racism (dog whistles) to woo Southern votes. If you think it was accidental that Dixiecrats, who owned Southern politics, all converted to Republicans in less than a generation, you are fooling yourself.

The Atwater years may be coming to a close, with Trump's explicit racism. However, the art of the political smear as central to Republican campaign strategy is still with us, in spades. 

Thanks for the conversation, I'll have to reread the whole Lamis interview, also Bob Herbert's column.