1960 Presidential Debate Analysis: John F. Kennedy Vs. Nixon

Kennedy vs Nixon
1960 Presidential Debate Analysis

by Claudia Guigou
Florida International University
SPC3540

Abstract

In the presidential election of 1960 the candidates were able to be part of the first televised debate in the nation. John F. Kennedy, although quite inexperienced was able to win the election due to his charisma and confidence whilst on TV. He seized the presidential position due to way he executed in a sequence of the broadcasted debates against his Republican adversary, Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy-Nixon debates stand out as a remarkable moment in the nation’s political history, not only because they impelled an improbable candidate to supremacy, but also because they ushered in a period in which television greatly influenced the electoral procedure. Remembering the nineteenth-century tradition of “front porch” campaigns in which divisions of citizens traveled to a presidential candidate’s home to meet him and inquire about the social issues, CBS News declared that Kennedy’s skill with the advanced method helped to make television the nation’s modern “front porch.”

When contemplating the primacy and recency concepts on persuasion one may think that the second message will be
stronger than the first if its more influential. However, if two messages are presented sequentially, the first message would be more persuasive because it would impede the second message from being properly processed. Once a message is out, if it is substantial enough it’ll also be hard to compete with. Although the second messenger may have made good points, the first message will always be more persuasive due to the standards it set. Recent analysis has advocated that circumstantial elements, such as people’s ability and incentive to handle the persuasive communication, are vital determinants in whether primacy or recency will prevail.
As for the Kennedy-Nixon debates, there hadn’t been anything like them in history. They were the first nationally televised presidential debates, which allured an amount of viewers of an unprecedented size. Just about seventy-seven million Americans watched the first exchange. The four debates were transmitted in September and October and introduced in a presentation that has since grown well known, with commencement and concluding statements proposed by each contender and doubts presented by a console of
journalists. The discourse made Kennedy look like the winner of the debate. His application of staring at the camera while answering the questions—instead of at the journalists like Nixon did—made the audience view him as someone who was speaking immediately at them and who gave them forward answers. Kennedy’s staging displayed not only that he was educated and believable, but also that he just looked better than Nixon. Most people believed that polls taken after the first debate displayed that most people who listened to it on the radio perceived Nixon to be the winner, while most who watched it on television stated Kennedy as the victor. A polished public speaker, Kennedy appeared handsome, athletic, young, and poised. Nixon was wearing a gray suit that blended with the television backdrop, and he was thin and pale after he had just recently been hospitalized from the flu, he seemed tired, pasty, and sweaty. For the following three debates he cleaned up his appearance but he never recovered from the first debate. More important than Kennedy’s attendance, yet, was the way that he used TV to structure issues and honest denigration. Conscious of the public’s uncertainties in regards to a “stature gap,” at the opening of the fall campaign period Kennedy used President Eisenhower’s own arguments to address elector apprehensions. Eisenhower and Nixon had had a cold association nearly from the start; shortly after designating Nixon as his running opponent in 1952, the President almost kicked him off the ticket once allegations of a Nixon campaign slush fund was brought to light. Merely Nixon’s extremely calculated “Checkers” dialogue protected his profession. Eisenhower did not even validate Nixon till late in the 1960 campaign. Spiraling the two Republicans’ tense affiliation to their benefit, Kennedy consultants competently worked a piece from one of Eisenhower’s media sessions into a campaign announcement. Asked at the media what assistances Vice President Nixon had made to his eight-year government, Eisenhower responded that, assumed a week, he might think of something. The replay of that witticism, and the reporters’ boisterous amusement subsequently, emptied the implication of Nixon’s overhyped experience. Once in the side-by-side evaluation later afforded by the arguments Kennedy presented that he was knowledgeable and articulated, he prospered in placing the matter to rest entirely. Eventually, Kennedy triumphed a squeaker of an election by a perimeter of barely one-tenth of one percentage. His proficient usage of TV, nevertheless, has had permanent effects. In the late twentieth century, TV relocated newspaper and radio to develop by far the greatest means of political interaction. Television converted the main foundation of political intelligence for maximum electorates, and the requirement to endorse on television pushed the contenders to dedicate massive vigor to fundraising. Nominees since 1960 have had to encounter at minimum a threshold level of facility alongside the medium, and the maximum expert television speakers, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, converted the most prevalent and most influential leaders.