What did the election of 1960 really come down to?
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the offset televised presidential debates in American history. The Kennedy-Nixon debates not merely had a major touch on the ballot's outcome but ushered in a new era in which crafting a public image and taking reward of media exposure became essential ingredients of a successful political entrada. They also heralded the central role tv has connected to play in the democratic process.
Background to the Kennedy-Nixon Debates
The U.South. presidential election of 1960 came at a decisive time in American history. The land was engaged in a heated Cold War with the Soviet Union, which had just taken the pb in the infinite race by launching the Sputnik satellite. The rise of Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime in Cuba had heightened fears near the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere. On the domestic front end, the struggle for ceremonious rights and desegregation had deeply divided the nation, raising crucial questions almost the state of republic in the United States.
At a time when the need for strong leadership was all too obvious, two vastly different candidates vied for the presidency: John F. Kennedy, a young but dynamic Massachusetts senator from a powerful New England family, and Richard Nixon, a seasoned lawmaker who was currently serving as vice president. With fiddling more than a single unremarkable term in the U.South. Senate under his belt, the 43-year-sometime Kennedy lacked Nixon's extensive foreign policy experience and had the disadvantage of being one of the first Catholics to run for president on a major party ticket.
Nixon, by contrast, had spent nearly eight years every bit the country's second-in-command after an illustrious career in Congress during which he cast crucial votes on a variety of domestic problems, became i of global communism's most outspoken critics and helped betrayal Alger Hiss' declared espionage attempt–all by the age of 39.
The rivals campaigned tirelessly throughout the summertime of 1960, with Nixon inching ahead in the polls to proceeds a slim lead. When the season began to turn, yet, so did the tables. Nixon took a major striking in August when a reporter asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower to proper noun some of his vice president's contributions.
Wearied and irritated after a long press conference, Eisenhower replied, "If you give me a week, I might recall of 1. I don't retrieve." (While the remark was intended as a cocky-deprecating reference to the president's ain mental fatigue, the Democrats promptly used information technology in a television commercial that ended with the argument: "President Eisenhower could not remember, but the voters will remember.")
That same month, Nixon bashed his knee on a car door while campaigning in North Carolina and developed an infection that landed him in the hospital; he emerged ii weeks later frail, sallow and twenty pounds underweight.
The Candidates Face-Off
On the evening of September 26, when the 2 candidates arrived at the CBS broadcast facility in downtown Chicago for the kickoff televised presidential debate in American history, Nixon's streak of bad luck continued. Stepping out of the car, he banged his bad knee and exacerbated his earlier injury. The vice president had recently suffered a tour of the flu and was still running a low fever; he had yet spent a grueling day on the campaign trail and looked drained. Kennedy, meanwhile, had been holed up in a hotel with his aides for an unabridged weekend, fielding do questions and resting upwardly for the first of iv "Great Debates."
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Despite Nixon's burnout and Kennedy's preparedness, the Republican and Democrat were more or less evenly matched when information technology came to substance. Each held forth skillfully and presented remarkably similar agendas. Both emphasized national security, the threat of communism, the demand to strengthen the U.Southward. military and the importance of building a brighter futurity for America; indeed, later Kennedy'south opening statement, Nixon said, "I subscribe completely to the spirit that Senator Kennedy has expressed tonight." And yet, while about radio listeners called the offset argue a describe or pronounced Nixon the victor, the senator from Massachusetts won over the 70 million television viewers by a wide margin.
Perhaps It'southward Lazy Shave
What accounted for this discrepancy? For one thing, telly was a relatively recent add-on to America's living rooms, and politicians were still seeking the right formula for interacting with the public in this new, more than intimate manner. Kennedy nailed it during the Great Debates, staring directly into the camera as he answered each question. Nixon, on the other manus, looked off to the side to address the various reporters, which came across every bit shifting his gaze to avoid centre contact with the public–a damaging blunder for a man already known derisively as "Tricky Dick."
The gap in the candidates' on-air presence was not just a affair of charisma; it was also i of cosmetics. Before the first debate, both men declined the services of CBS's tiptop makeup artist, who had been summoned from New York for the upshot. Bronzed and glowing from weeks of open-air campaigning, Kennedy was more than than prepare for his close-up–though sources afterwards claimed that the naturally telegenic senator still got a touch-up from his team.
Nixon, on the other paw, had a pale complexion and fast-growing stubble that together lent him a perpetually grayish pallor; during an interview with Walter Cronkite two weeks before the debate, the vice president had confided, "I can shave within xxx seconds before I go on tv and nevertheless have a bristles."
At his aides' urging, Nixon submitted to a coat of Lazy Shave, a drugstore pancake makeup he had used in the past to mask his v o'clock shadow. But when the candidate started sweating under the hot studio lights, the powder seemed to cook off his face, giving fashion to visible beads of perspiration. It didn't help that Nixon had chosen a low-cal greyness suit for the occasion, which faded into the backdrop of the ready and seemed to friction match his ashen skin tone.
Reacting to the vice president's on-air appearance, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley reportedly said, "My God, they've embalmed him earlier he even died." The following day, the Chicago Daily News ran the headline "Was Nixon Sabotaged by TV Makeup Artists?" The vice president cleaned up his act for the next three debates, but the damage had been done. Besides, Kennedy had a secret weapon in his quest to dazzle the American media: an every bit film-perfect wife who would before long charm the nation and the world.
Six months pregnant with the couple'south 2nd kid, Jacqueline Kennedy hosted argue-watching parties at the family's summertime dwelling in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Newspapers fawned over every last detail, from Jackie's fashionable maternity wear and distinguished guest list to her living room effects and choice of refreshments. When the offset debate concluded, the future first lady reportedly concluded, "I think my husband was brilliant." Meanwhile, Nixon's mother immediately called her son to ask if he was sick.
Legacy of the Kennedy-Nixon Debates
A month and a half afterward, Americans turned out to vote in record numbers. As predicted, it was a close election, with Kennedy winning the popular vote 49.7 percent to 49.five percent. Polls revealed that more half of all voters had been influenced by the Bang-up Debates, while 6 percent claimed that the debates alone had decided their choice.
Whether or not the debates cost Nixon the presidency, they were a major turning point in the 1960 race—and in the history of television. Televised debates accept go a permanent feature of the American political mural, helping to shape the outcomes of both principal and general elections. Along with distinguishing themselves from their opponents, candidates have the opportunity to showcase their oratory skills (or betray their inarticulateness), brandish their sense of humor (or reveal their lack thereof) and capitalize on their rivals' gaffes (or seal their fate with a slip of the tongue).
Two years later on the Kennedy-Nixon debates, the human being on the losing end acknowledged their importance–and his fatal misstep–in his memoir "Six Crises: "I should have remembered that 'a flick is worth a g words.'"
Source: https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/kennedy-nixon-debates
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