On September 26, 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon met at the studios of WBBM-TV in Chicago for the first of four debates, and about 70 million people watched. It was the first time the two candidates for the presidency had appeared together on television to argue with one another, and it is the most cited event in the history of American political television.
The circumstances were unusual. There had been no televised debates since the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and the equal-time rule, which required broadcasters to give all candidates the same access, had stopped them: in 1960 there were minor-party candidates who would have had to be included. Congress suspended the rule for the 1960 election, and the networks agreed to carry the series.
What people remember is the contrast. Nixon had been in hospital with a knee infection nine days earlier, had lost weight, had refused makeup for the first debate and had worn a grey suit against a grey studio background, and under the hot lights he sweated and looked unwell. Kennedy, who had been campaigning in California and had been briefed and rested, had been made up lightly, wore a dark suit, and looked composed.
The polls show the split. Surveys taken immediately afterwards among radio listeners gave the debate to Nixon, and among television viewers gave it to Kennedy, and the television audience was much larger. The finding has been argued over for 65 years: later research has suggested the radio-listener sample was small and unreliable, and that Nixon's condition may have mattered less than the fact that he was vice president defending a record.
The campaign itself was close. Kennedy won the popular vote by about 113,000 votes out of 68 million, which is 0.17 per cent, and the electoral college by 303 to 219. The results in Illinois and Texas, both of which Kennedy won narrowly, were disputed, and Nixon, who was advised to contest them, decided not to. There is no evidence that the debates decided the election.
What they changed is the campaign. There were no debates in 1964, 1968 or 1972. They resumed in 1976 and have been held in every election since, and they are now the central event of the autumn, with audiences in the tens of millions and formats negotiated in detail by the two campaigns. Nixon never debated again during his presidency.