The second presidential debate of 2024 is coming up on Tuesday, September 10^th, also very early. Presidential debates have become a big part of America’s selection process for the last six decades. Many iconic or ‘viral’ moments have both helped and hurt nominees. President Biden’s June 27^th performance ultimately drove him from the race.

            Words and actions have been used to pressure opponents. In 2000, Al Gore approached George W. Bush, which Bush’s campaign anticipated, and prepared a perfect response- a head nod that made the vice-president look foolish. Sixteen years later Donald Trump tried the same tactic on Hillary Clinton that rattled her. These are deliberate strategic tactics planned to throw their rival off their game.

            John. F. Kennedy employed some subtle stratagem against Vice-President Richard Nixon when they met on September 26, 1960, at the WBBM-TV studios on McClurg Court in Chicago. You may have walked near there, I have. Try the Chicken and Waffles at Yolk, just amazing.

The two men were veterans of the Pacific Theater in World War II. Both were elected to Congress from opposite ends of the country in 1946. There is a fine line between being an acquaintance and a friend; I think their relationship lies somewhere in between. Kennedy came from wealth and Nixon did not.

Coincidentally, the two men had already debated in McKeesport, Pennsylvania in April 1947 and shared a sleeper car on the train trip back to Washington. Nixon rose rapidly in politics, elected to the Senate in 1950 and vice-presidency in 1952. Kennedy also advanced to the Senate in 1952 and lost a bid to be the Democratic running mate in 1956. They had offices across from each other in the Senate Office Building.

Kennedy needed the debates as he was not as well-known as the vice-president of the United States. Nixon had TV experience with his 1952 “Checkers Speech” and “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev. Nixon had injured a knee beforehand which became infected and required hospitalization.

The two men had contrasting debate preparation. Kennedy sat on the roof of Chicago’s Ambassador Hotel enhancing his television tan while advisers peppered him with likely questions. Nixon, a loner (his favorite song may have been Neil Diamond’s Solitary Man), sat alone in a hotel room with his (in)famous yellow legal pads.

Kennedy arrived at the TV studio to analyze the set and question CBS (and future 60 Minutes) producer Don Hewitt. He wore a dark suit which contrasted with the gray background (Nixon was in gray) in the time before color television. Kennedy refused makeup in Nixon’s presence, which influenced the VP to decline it as well, but a product called “Lazy Shave” was applied to cover his perpetual five o’clock shadow.

Former MSNBC host and legislative staffer wrote Kennedy’s “plan was to let Nixon head out onto the set and sit there, all by himself, until the very last minute…Kennedy asked to pose with his rival, barely noticed him. His well-practiced Yankee chill froze the air between the two…They could have been strangers for all the interest Jack Kennedy showed in his colleague he’d known since 1947.” Whether Kennedy’s aloof attitude bothered his rival is debatable (pun intended). TV viewers thought Kennedy won, radio listeners preferred Nixon.

People forget that this election was remarkably close, at least in the popular vote. Kennedy won by only 118,000 votes. Kennedy won five states by one percent or less, and another seven states by three percent or less.

Kennedy’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet in 1963, and five years later Nixon would finally win the presidency, by another razor-thin margin of 0.7 percent. Curiously, he declined to participate in presidential debates in 1968 and 1972.