Nixon vs. Kennedy

Dwight Eisenhower easily defeated Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 election, and the two faced off again in 1956, with Eisenhower once again winning handily. As a result, Richard Nixon had the opportunity to serve eight years as Eisenhower's vice president, and he was chosen by the Republican Party to be its presidential nominee in the 1960 election. Nixon's Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy, a Massachusetts senator, and the two men campaigned for the White House at a time when television was now present in a majority of American living rooms.

As you learned in the previous Timeline, the 1960 presidential contest was the closest ever in American history in terms of the popular vote margin separating the two major-party candidates. Although the television advertisements produced by both the Nixon and Kennedy campaigns are worth examining for their content and style, they were overshadowed by the fact that this election was the first to feature live televised debates. Nixon and Kennedy faced off in a series of four debates in the fall of 1960. The first one took place on September 26, with approximately 70 million Americans tuning in to watch.

Just before the opening debate, Nixon had been in the hospital recovering from an illness. Because he refused to wear make-up, Nixon appeared pale and gaunt on television. To make matters worse, Nixon sweated profusely under the television lights and seemed in need of a shave to remove his "five-o-clock shadow." Constantly looking back and forth between Kennedy and the studio audience, Nixon appeared shifty-eyed as well.

On the other hand, the young and telegenic Kennedy appeared tanned and well rested. He had been coached to look directly into the television camera, and his relaxed and confident manner helped to allay the concerns of some voters that he lacked the necessary experience to serve in the Oval Office. In response to public opinion polls, those who watched the debate on television declared Kennedy to be the winner, whereas those who listened on the radio felt Nixon had done a better job in the debate.