Kennedy Meets Nixon before first televised fall Presidential debate

[bigtree]

Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC
Kennedy meets Nixon before first televised fall Presidential debate, Chicago, 56 years ago Monday night: #Getty

[gopiscrap]

1. Kennedy doesn't look all that happy

I was a little kid in Germany when this happened but my parents watched clips of it

[MADem]

2. Actually, Nixon was in pain. He had an infected knee and he banged it getting out of the car.

They knew each other--it wasn't their first meeting by a long stretch.

[gopiscrap]

3. that's right I remember reading about that

but wasn't Kennedy in pain also because of his Addison's and his back

[MADem]

5. JFK had very good "medical support." He had a quack doc who

pumped him full of "B12" shots that also included a dose of amphetamines. He could be plenty peppy and energetic when needs must....!

The popular 'wisdom' is that viewers of the debate said JFK won, and listeners of the contest on radio said Nixon won. I don't agree. I think JFK won no matter what way you received the debate.

I acknowledge my longstanding party bias, but there ya go!

[roamer65]

6. "Show me an man without vice, and I will show you an man without virtue."

- Abraham Lincoln

[MADem]

8. Oh sure--and no one talked about vice back then...at least not in "mixed company."

Now, it's the main topic of newmagazine and info-tainment programs.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. I remember watching that debate, though I was a kid at the time.

JFK definitely won it. He was relaxed while Nixon was visibly sweating. And then there was the makeup thing that made Nixon look extremely bad. Maybe he should have tried speed.

Of course, my family was predisposed to JFK, but I recall his arguments sounded far more rational and less scary than Nixon's.

[roamer65]

4. God bless John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

He stopped nuclear war in 1962 and died for doing it. We owe that man more than we will ever know.

[NBachers]

7. I was 11 years old. My opinion at the time was that Nixon's experience with Ike made him my choice.

It didn't take me long into the Kennedy administration to develop respect and admiration for him. I was in ninth grade when he was assassinated. I still miss him, and the feel of those times.

I was nineteen when Nixon was elected. He's still the biggest political nemesis of my life.

[Johnny Noshoes]

9. This picture shows..

This picture shows one reason why Nixon was perceived as the loser when you SAW the debate on TV. He is wearing a light
colored suit and tie and he looks pale. Kennedy is wearing a dark suit and tie and is tanned. So on black and white TV Nixon just sort of blends into the background.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Interesting dichotomy re Kennedy-Nixon debates

The consensus was whoever listened to the debates on the radio thought Nixon won them; the ones who watched television thought that Kennedy won them.

[book_worm]

12. This is the image all remember of Nixon from that debate