GETTING THINGS GOING
The first presidential debates required an act of Congress.
The Communications Act of 1934 required that American broadcasters offer all candidates for public office — not just those from the major parties — equal time on air. In order to legally permit the 1960 presidential debates to be limited to Kennedy and Nixon, Congress temporarily suspended that provision of the law.
A 1975 revision by the Federal Communications Commission allowed presidential debates between the major party nominees to be staged without special acts of Congress.
Even though there were enormous audiences for the Kennedy-Nixon encounters, 16 years would go by before the next series of presidential debates. President Lyndon Johnson refused to debate in 1964, while Nixon did the same in 1968 and 1972.
Frank Gannon, chief editor of Nixon’s memoirs, had this to say about the first debate: “So the campaign wasn’t proceeding unsuccessfully from Richard Nixon’s point of view, but, as we now know, the die had been cast on Sept. 26 when people came away from that first debate admiring JFK, and thinking (even those who still had some reservations in this regard) that he had sufficient stature to become POTUS.
“Conversely, the impression of Nixon, which he was never able to outlive, was that he lacked energy and imagination. He was rooted (which, for many, meant mired) in the past, defending Ike instead of following his own vision. He knew all the right words and jargon (he used the word ‘programs’ 12 times in his opening statement at the first debate) but, unlike the charismatic JFK, he failed to excite or inspire.”
Earlier in the year, Nixon described his basic approach to the debate to his biographer Earl Mazo. He said:
“I think I am a pretty fair judge of political television. ... Above everything else, a candidate to be effective on television must know what he is talking about, believe deeply in the rightness of his cause and speak naturally and sincerely just as if he were carrying on a conversation with two or three people in a typical American home which he had happened to visit.”
• Kennedy arrived early and changed his suit to stand out against the background.
• CBS had a makeup expert (Frances Arvold) there, but Nixon and Kennedy refused her services.
• Kennedy had a heavy tan from open-car campaigning in California and some sunny afternoon time on his hotel rooftop before the debate.
• Nixon media adviser Ted Rogers had recommended he use a sun lamp as early as Aug. 15. There’s no record of Nixon ever using one.
• During an interview with Walter Cronkite before the debate, Nixon said: “I can shave within 30 seconds before I go on television and still have a beard.”
• When Chicago Mayor Richard Daley saw how Nixon looked on camera, he supposedly said, “My God, they’ve embalmed him before he even died.”
• The night before, Nixon attended street rallies and didn’t reach his hotel until 1 a.m. He was not feeling well and ran a temperature around 100. He rose early the next morning to address a hostile union audience. After that he hunkered down alone for cramming before the debate.
SOCIAL DISTANCE IN 1960
In the third presidential debate of 1960, the candidates were not in the same room. They were separated by nearly 3,000 miles.
Both men appeared behind podiums in similar-looking television studios, Kennedy in New York City and Nixon in Hollywood. The moderator and three panelists sat in a third television studio. There was no handshake at the end of the encounter.