The First Ever Televised Presidential Debate

In late September of 1960, two presidential hopefuls met to discuss national issues on a relatively new medium. The incumbent vice president, Republican Richard M. Nixon, sat in a Chicago television studio with John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, participating in the first ever televised presidential debate.

When I studied U.S. History my junior year of high school, we were taught that Nixon choked under the pressure of being on live television very much a new and novel thing. That belief is still widely purported today. Despite his advantage as the sitting vice president, Nixon was hugely uncomfortable on camera, nervous and fidgety, and chose not to use the make-up so many television presenters wear to avoid sweat and shine on camera. The younger, more savvy Kennedy, meanwhile, seemed to relish his time on screen, cool, collected and comfortable before a live audience of 70 million Americans. Looking at the photo above, taken from that historic debate, you can see the evident difference in posture and ease between the candidates.

The September 26, 1960 debate was only the first of four debates between that election's major candidates, and though Nixon would improve through the subsequent meetings, Kennedy would indeed maintain his edge and win the election by one of the narrowest margins ever: 49.7% to 49.6%. There's no doubt that television had forever impacted American politics.

Nixon would return to pursue the presidency several years later, this time abstaining from the debates. He would win the office in 1968 only to be ousted by scandal in 1974.

The debate has been a regular and necessary part of our political process from the beginning. But in our nation's infancy and through much of its political history, the comings and goings of the government were always distant and almost separate, especially to citizens living on the far-flung frontier.

With the advent of radio and television, however, Americans living outside of the sphere of Washington, D.C. could hear and experience debates for any number of political races from the local to the national level. From the 1970's on, televised debates have been very much a part of the system, and a contemporary presidential candidate could not, like Richard Nixon, decline participation in debates and be elected. Political careers have always required public appearances and personas, and now that public access has grown even more demanding.

Would Nixon be elected today? Would Kennedy? It's fascinating to think how our connectedness to the world via television in 1960 and the Internet today affects our place in it.

You can watch the first Kennedy/Nixon debate in its entirety on YouTube: