In 1950, John F. Kennedy went to Richard Nixon to donate $1,000 to his campaign for U.S. Senate against Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. The donation was sent to Nixon by JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, who admired Nixon’s anti-Communist fervor. Little did the two men know that nine years later they would face off in the first televised presidential debate in U.S. history. That night would change the course of American history.
The first televised presidential debate was broadcast live on September 26, 1960. It was the first televised debate between two presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Richard Nixon.
Prior to the televised debate, JFK asked President Nixon not to make the 1950 exchange public. Nixon kept his promise. But the televised presidential debate changed both of their lives, seemingly overnight.
The incident influenced televised presidential debates for decades to come, and its effects are still being felt today, despite the Democratic victory. Joe Biden will face off against Republican rival Donald Trump on June 27th. CNN will broadcast the first presidential debate live from Atlanta, Georgia.
Kennedy vs. Nixon: How Everything Changed Overnight
Vice President Richard Nixon and his Democratic opponent, Robert Kennedy, appeared on air to broadcast to the nation: Kennedy was firm, confident and sharp; Nixon was sweaty, nervous and looking unwell.
“This is one of those unique moments in history where things changed so dramatically — in this case overnight — that it was a big change,” Alan Schroeder, a media historian and associate professor at Northeastern University, told TIME.
The odds were against Kennedy: he was young and Catholic, at a time when age and experience are important factors in the pursuit of the highest office in Protestant America.
But the televised debate decided the fate of America, and many experts claim it swayed the election in JFK’s favor.
“When Nixon lost a televised debate to John F. Kennedy in 1960 and lost the presidency, it was because he had a sweaty upper lip,” writes Max Frankel of The New York Times.
Kennedy was prepared to face the cameras and the lights. In contrast, the cameras were harsh on Nixon.
Kennedy’s speechwriter, Ted Sorenson, told Time magazine that he helped the president go through stacks of notecards and asked him typical questions while he was sunbathing on a hotel terrace.
“We knew the first televised debate was important, but we had no idea how significant it would become,” he said.
The first presidential debate had a major impact on the US presidential election, but it also left a lasting impact.
Even today, presidential candidates prepare for debates with great seriousness, especially in this day and age of social media scrutiny.
Public Opinion and the Nixon-Kennedy Debate
Nixon was sweating under the hot studio lights. He’d just returned from the hospital after being ill and losing weight. Kennedy was confident and calm. Appearances mattered. People were taking notes.
Americans who listened to the debate on the radio believed that Nixon had won, but those who watched it live on television believed that Kennedy had won.
The crucial difference is that the majority of Americans first watched a presidential debate on television in 1960, by which time roughly 88% of American households owned a television.
Kennedy’s team quickly realized they had won, and won big.
The next day, at a campaign rally in Ohio, “his motorcade drew the largest crowds ever. That’s when you knew Kennedy had, at least, solidified his support within the Democratic Party,” said Sorensen, the John F. Kennedy speechwriter.
Nixon performed much better in the next few debates, but the perception had already been built.
Kennedy was quick to acknowledge the role the debate played in his victory.
“It was television, more than anything else, that turned the tide,” JFK said.
“The Nixon-Kennedy debates made televised debates between candidates the most heated campaign event since the election button,” said a 1979 US Task Force report.
In a debate, your appearance, voice, body language and how you connect with the audience will be crucial, Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told TIME.
These are facts that every presidential candidate will keep in mind, and likely will keep in mind Joe Biden and Donald Trump. In the first televised debate of the 2024 election.
Commentators say the cameras were harsh on Nixon.
Not all commentators at the time agreed with today’s understanding of the Kennedy-Nixon debate, with many pointing out that both candidates were nervous in front of the cameras and studio lights, according to The Conversation.
“Of the two performances, Mr. Nixon was perhaps the smoother, a polished debater with a professional edge and a slightly condescending air of a master instructor,” The Washington Post reported at the time.
Even the debate moderator, ABC News’ Howard K. Smith, said afterward that Nixon was slightly better than his opponent.
But some critics pointed out that the cameras were harsh on Nixon.
The television cameras “were very hard on Mr. Nixon, making him look sick when he was not, making him look older and more worn out than he really was,” wrote the prominent commentator Walter Lippmann of the time.
The overwhelming consensus among experts is that the televised debates tipped the election in JFK’s favor, and that only happened on the night of September 26, 1960.
American politics changed forever. Television brought it about.
Campaign historians agree that the 1960 presidential televised debates had a lasting impact.
“Until the cameras were pointed at the senators and the vice president. [Nixon]”Kennedy had been a boy, criticized and attacked by the Vice President as immature, young and inexperienced. But now, physically and behaviorally, he was clearly his Vice President’s equal,” Theodore H. White wrote in his book “The Birth of a President, 1960.”
In no time, Kennedy was matching Nixon in the debates and eventually became President of the United States, all thanks to television.
The impact of television and televised debates was not limited to the 1960 election. A change of fortune led presidential candidates to move away from televised debates. In the next four presidential elections (a 16-year span), there were no televised debates.
Lyndon B. Johnson did not want to face Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was frightened by the outcome of the Nixon-Kennedy debates.
Nixon himself refused to face the scrutiny in 1968 and 1972. Televised debates finally returned in 1976, when then-President Gerald Ford decided to go head-to-head with Democratic opponent Jimmy Carter.
“The perception of television’s influence has transformed American politics, shaping the behavior of leaders and candidates for decades,” historian David Greenberg writes.
