With all the comparisons being made between Obama and JFK, I decided to rewatch the first Kennedy-Nixon Debate. Man, there's a lot in those 30 minutes -- I think I could watch them a hundred times and still learn something on the hundredth view. I've always found it interesting that, as the story goes, most people who watched the debate on TV believed Kennedy had won, while most who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon won.
If you're interested, the TV footage is available online:
There's also a full transcript.
1 comments:
Being only 12 years old during this debate, I was amazed at how different Nixon and JFK appeared on TV. Nixon was pasty white with a 5-o'clock shadow while Kennedy looked nicely tanned and fit. I learned later that Nixon, who also showed beads of sweat along his upper lip, refused makeup, thinking it wasn't manly, while JFK did whatever made him look good. The difference was astounding and Nixon never recovered from that visual. However, on radio, Nixon had a better command of world events, and listeners thought he won the debate, but it didn't matter. Sadly, the visual media is everything!
Post a Comment