It would be highly unpredicted that by the end of September 26, 1960, an unknown senator from Massachusetts would become a star. The young, Catholic senator was John F. Kennedy. It is now common knowledge that without the nation’s first televised debate that Kennedy would have never became president. But beyond securing his presidential career, the 60-minute duel between the notable Senator and Vice President Richard Nixon fundamentally altered political campaigns, television media, along with America’s political history. “it’s one of those unusual points on the timeline of history where you can say things changed very dramatically- in this case, in a single night,” stated by Alan Schroeder, media historian and associate professor at Northeastern …show more content…
Kennedy polled only about 100,000 more votes than Nixon out of over 68 million votes. The electoral college awarded the election to Kennedy by a 303-219 margin, despite Nixon winning more states than Kennedy. On November 12, 1960, four days after Kennedy winning the election, he stated “It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide.” Post-debate, candidates could no longer afford to ignore the potential power of the television. The next televised presidential debate wouldn't take place for 16 years, largely because candidates became wary of their influence. Lyndon B. Johnson was too intimidated by the medium to take on Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Nixon, having been burned before, refused to debate on TV in both 1968 and 1972. Televised debates reemerged 1976, when incumbent president Gerald Ford agreed to take on his Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter. They've been standard practice in each campaign season since. After the big debate, how you presented yourself, how you looked, and how you sounded all mattered based on the television. “Before the television debates most Americans didn’t even see the candidates- they read about them, they saw photos of them” said Larry Sabato, political analysis at the University of