Debate

This fall you'll be talking about political leaders'

debates, so you might get some use out of
historical talking points. US Presidential
debates began in 1960. This was a huge, new
step with unpredictable results.
At a time when TV was new, the perfect storm
caused presidential debates to occur on TV.
There were four debates and one of them
featured the candidates in different studios in
different cities. Joe Kennedy, candidate John's
father had been a Hollywood producer with the
Machiavellian foresight to hire the best
photographers and cinematographers to
document his family's rise--especially his sons'.
Ted Sorensen was hired as speech writer,
comedian Mort Saul wrote jokes and Joe Jr's
classmate
Theodore White's wrote positively about Johns
Presidency. John's university essays became
best-selling and Pulitzer Prize winning books.
Meanwhile, Richard Nixon, the most effective
American Vice President in history, was known
as "the great debater." He'd been a young,
handsome congressman and senator who
travelled the world as VP.
On one trip to Moscow, he stood toe to toe
with Nikita Khrushchev and debated progress in
a mock-up kitchen at a trade show--hence the
term "kitchen debate." Nixon had used TV to
remain on the ticket when the 1952 controversy
arose over donations he'd received. Nixon went
on national broadcast to make his case,
including to reveal he'd received a gift from a
supporter. It was a little dog "Checkers" and
they were going to keep the dog--hence the
"Checkers speech."

So, both candidates and, at least one father,

thought they were made for TV. And, in 1960,
TV thought
TV was made for politics. The networks used
conventions and elections as a way to show off
their immediacy, new anchors and technology.
At the 1956 Democratic convention, John F.
Kennedy campaigned for VP and almost won.
He spoke well live and on film. He went from
being famous for being well known, to being
famous for apparently good reason.
TV was building on its success and ability to be a
king-maker.
All the major players were clear on wanting a
debate, but the outcome was not so clear.
Those who say the debates were the deciding
factor in the election, ignore the 120,000
questionable Illinois ballots,
Lyndon Johnson's formidable campaigning, and
questionable ballots in his home state of Texas.
It was the closest election in American history
to that date, decided by Electoral College votes,
not TV viewership. So there was no decisive
win.
The first debate pre-empted the Andy Griffith
Show, and was seen by 70 million or so people,
fewer than watched Milton Berle on Saturday
nights. In 1952 when there were far fewer TVs,
65 or so million tuned into Nixon's Checkers
speech. This is also about the number who
turned in to the three supper hour network
newscasts on many nights. It was lots of
people, but 10% of the population didn't own a
TV set, and most only had one set in 1960.
Nixon was not the sinister character that history
has made him out to be. He was the youth wing
of the

Republican Party when he returned from

honorable service in the Pacific and ran for
Congress and
Senate. He was a skilled political game player
with the California delegation to the 1952
convention, and was rewarded with the VP spot
on the Eisenhower ticket.
Nixon, at 47, was about four years older than
Kennedy and those few years were
indistinguishable on
TV. Kennedy appeared tanned, fit and had
plump hair. This was mainly jaundice and the
effects of a cocktail of medication including
steroids, used to control his various ailments, all
publicly attributed to his heroic war service.
Nixon ailment was just a trick knee from playing
football, which he favoured during the debate.
Both candidates probably took makeup, with
Nixon taking a more industrial variety. Nixon
perspired.
His mother called after one broadcast to ask if
he was feeling well. But something produced
darting eyes, fidgety hands, nervous shaking
and a mouth foaming up with spittle on
Kennedy. Kennedy also made the first huge gaff
in presidential debates. Kennedy referred to his
Senate committee work dealing with the
"country" of Africa. Although Kennedy was well
travelled in Europe and even in the old
Soviet Union, he could have been painted as a
dilettante who didn't know a country from a
continent.
How close was the debate? People who
listened on radio thought Nixon won. Nixon
was mobbed in airports and kissed by women.
But the Kennedy style allowed any equivocation
to be turned into a perceived Kennedy win.
This event has been mostly viewed in a rearview mirror as a Kennedy win, a matter
discussed by Gil Troy in his great book See How
They Ran.

This event was considered so politically

dangerous that Americans didn't hold another
Presidential debate until 1976. In 1964
challenger Barry Goldwater agreed that a
debate could cause a sitting president to reveal
accidentally some national security secrets, and
so agreed not to have one. In 1968 and 1972
the leading candidate, Richard Nixon, used
several pretexts to refuse to debate because it
would have helped his opponents.
By 1976 the League of Women Voters, using
donated money and with regulatory
encouragement from the Federal
Communications Commission, lined up a few
poorly watched democratic debates during the
primaries, and eventually enticed President
Ford and challenger Carter into the studios.
President Ford probably agreed to debate,
because, unlike Johnson and Nixon, he was in a
much closer race.
We Canadians started debates in 1968, and
toyed with the format by having the 4th party
Creditist leader come in part way through to
reflect his seat count in the House. Progressive
Conservative leader
Robert Stanfield's droopy eye lids, bushy
eyebrows and slow speaking style were not
made for TV. But
Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau would have won
by surfing on the zeitgeist of the times, with or
without the TV debate.
In 1979, PC Leader Joe Clark, 20 years younger
than Pierre Trudeau, looked like he didn't
belong and might have actually looked
stodgier. Trudeau mercilessly mocked Joe
Clark's nervous laugh. Moreover,
Clark, who towered over Trudeau in public and
on TV, shrunk in Trudeau's presence.
(Trudeau's official documents listed him
variously at 5'6" or 5'8").

So now you have more background and trivia

than the commentators you'll be watching, and

certainly more than the average voter you'll

encounter in a bar. Enjoy the election.