September 26, 1960: The 1st Televised Presidential Debate

September 26, 1960, 60 years ago: For the 1st time, the major-party candidates for President of the United States hold a nationally-televised debate, at the CBS studios in Chicago (home of WBBM-Channel 2). The moderator is Howard K. Smith, then of CBS News.

In this corner, at 5-foot-11, weighing in at 175 pounds, and wearing a light blue suit, the Republican nominee, and the current Vice President of the United States, from Yorba Linda, California, Richard Milhous Nixon.

And in this corner, at 6-feet-even, weighing in at 173 pounds, and wearing a dark blue suit, the Democratic nominee, currently a U.S. Senator, from Boston, Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

This was the 1st election with 50 States, and Nixon promised to campaign in all 50. He kept that promise, a bit too soon: He was exhausted, and he caught the flu. And, on black & white television, his light blue suit blended into the background, gray on gray, and he looked pale, except for his 5:00 shadow.

In contrast, Kennedy had rested up at his family's 2nd home in Palm Beach, Florida, got tan, and looked great in his dark suit.

Nixon was only 4 years older, and both men had started in politics 14 years earlier, elected to Congress. But Nixon had been elected Vice President the year Kennedy was elected to the Senate, so he was seen as having more and better experience. That actually worked against him: Kennedy's quick mind and good delivery made him look like Nixon's equal in facing the problems of the day – and, while looks shouldn't have mattered, that essentially broke the tie.

There would be a total of 4 debates, none of them remembered as much as the 1st one. Maybe the 1st one was all that Kennedy needed: On November 8, he won the election, the popular vote incredibly close, the Electoral Vote (which really mattered) much less so.

Years later, President Bill Clinton, who counted JFK as his all-time political hero, joked to an audience, "People who watched the debate on television thought Kennedy won, while people who listened to it on the radio thought, 'When am I gonna get a TV?'"