Kennedy v Nixon TV debates

Politicians seem incapable of resisting a microphone or television camera although many have learned to their cost that there have been occasions when they would have been better advised to avoid them.
Gone are the days when our politicians travelled the country and climbed up onto walls to address the crowds coming out from church – the way the country has gone those crowds would be rather small anyway. Everything is governed by the press release or the judicious photo opportunity and is timed to meet evening news or newspaper deadlines. Some politicians tried to change the way our votes are counted. The main reason for doing away with the peann luaidhe and having instant results seems to have been to satisfy the need for instant news.
As the inevitable election draws nearer ,arguments will rage whether the ‘leaders’ debate’ will feature two or three party leaders and what format the debate will take. Those debates will be seen as the highpoints of the campaign. The final rallies in each constituency are long gone and the final national rallies not even a distant memory.
One of the great early series of debates took place in 1858 when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas ran for the US Senate. There was a debate in each of the States’ seven districts. Each debate lasted for three hours, with the candidates allowed an hour and a half each. Some politicians have gone through their entire careers without speaking that long.
The advent of radio changed the way in which politicians reached out to the voters and the United States led the way. In 1924, radio broadcast the speeches of President Calvin Coolidge and his challenger, John Davis. The speeches were separate but it took off from there and very soon arguments arose about the length of time that different parties were given.
Nowadays, that is governed by strict guidelines. Broadcasts took on another format in the ’40s with Roosevelt’s fireside chats from the White House and in Ireland people still recall Dev’s reply to Churchill. The 1950s saw the arrival of television coverage.
The first US election covered extensively on television was the 1960 election in which Kennedy defeated Nixon. In the final weeks of the campaign there were a series of four debates watched by an estimated 60 to 70 million viewers.
Each debate was an hour long. Some had questions and answers while in others the candidates faced a specially chosen panel. The third debate was unusual in that the candidates were not even in the same studio. Kennedy was in New York and Nixon in Los Angeles. The final debate and probably the clincher for Kennedy, focused on foreign policy and relations with Russia and Cuba.
Undoubtedly those debates decided the outcome of the election. In total, 68 million people voted. The final margin in the popular vote was only 112,000, roughly one-fifth of 1%. National pollsters estimate that as many as 3.5 million voters made their choice based on the televised debates. In spite of arguments about the marketing of candidates, election coverage would never be the same again.
The fourth and decisive television debate between Kennedy and Nixon was broadcast on ABC on October 21, 1960 –50 years ago this week.
Michael Torpey