Between now and November 3rd, I will be reviewing some of the Presidential elections of the past sixty years. Using, of course, the historical brilliance instilled in me at Kennesaw State University (motto: "Hey, we're just off of I-75") and my wonderful wit that has propelled this blog for the past eleven years.
I'm not going to review all of the them. Some of them were real snoozers, like 1984 when Reagan whipped Mondale or 1996 when Clinton returned the favor on Dole. I would like to note that Reagan basically wrapped up the election when in a debate with Mondale he said, "I am still younger than Joe Biden".
I am going to start with the first one: 1960.
Dwight Eisenhower was the President. Everybody liked Ike even though they didn't know why they called him "Ike". He was a General in World War II and defeated Hitler with a plan he devised called "D Day". This made Ike aces with everybody in 1952 and he easily defeated Adali "Bald Head" Stevenson to win The White House. In fact, Ike won twice because the Democrats nominated Stevenson again because nobody else really wanted to run. (History records Stevenson thought he was something special because he had read a book.)
But by 1960, Ike was seen as old (he was around 70, still younger than Joe Biden), out of touch, and dumb. Over the years, the entertainment/news/academic folks would use this template to describe Republican candidates and Presidents. Republicans are either out of touch (see Dad Bush) or dumb (see Kid Bush).
The culture was changing too. In the mid-50's a new style of music called "crap" "rock and roll" became popular with their challenging lyrics about falling asleep at the drive in which caused girls to scream. But by 1960, there was a new style of music called simplistic college drivel "folk" which was popular with a new creature called "Beatniks". Beatniks were sort of like hippies except they bathed twice a week and instead of clapping they snapped their fingers.
Folk music is epitomized by the song "Tom Dooley"
"Hang down your head, Tom Dooley.
Hang down your head and cry.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
I like saying Tom Dooley.
Tom Dooley, Tom Dooley, Tom Dooley"
In 1960, the Democrats resisted the urge to one more time go with Stevenson and selected John Kennedy of Massachusetts as their nominee.
Kennedy was around 42 at the time of the election, the same age Joe Biden was in 1985.
He (Kennedy, not Biden) ran on a platform of getting America moving again, because we had grown lazy in the Eisenhower years of peace and prosperity.
Kennedy had some problems. One was his youth. Back then, people expected their Presidents to have some gray in their whiskers. Two, he was a Roman Catholic and people expected Roman Catholics to follow the precepts of the Church unlike today where you can be a Roman Catholic and believe in abortion and animal sacrifices.
Kennedy handled the religion question by saying he was going to nail every woman he met, kind of like that hot shot ad guy, Don Draper. He didn't say that exactly. He basically said, "Don't worry about it" and because he was so handsome and charismatic people gave him a pass.
Because of the 22nd Amendment (source: Wikipedia), Ike couldn't run again and the Republicans did the next best thing and nominated Vice President Richard "Tricky Dicky" Nixon.
Although Nixon was only a couple of years older than Kennedy, he was seen as more experienced having served as Ike's Vice President.
Whereas Kennedy was a rich kid whose dad bought his way into "Havarh", The House, and Senate. Dad Kennedy also bought a Pulitzer Prize for John's book "How To Score With Women" "Profiles in Courage", Nixon was a poor kid that worked his way up the ladder despite having the personality of a lizard.
Campaign 1960 was Kennedy running around making the girls swoon and promising to bring "vigah" back to the country. The compliant news media translated "vigah" to "vigor" even though in real life (IRL for you texting kids) Kennedy was sort of puny with all sorts of medical maladies.
On the other hand, Nixon made this goofy promise to campaign in all 50 states which took time away from the important states he had to win. Additionally, Nixon whacked his knee on a car door, which led to an infection which he had to be hospitalized for two whole weeks. (Only one of the weeks were paid for by Nixon's PPO.) This led to something important that we still have today, unfortunately.
THE DEBATES
History makes a big deal about the debates. Nixon, just coming out of the hospital looked wane and sweaty. Plus, his knee was still whacked and he had to adjust by shifting from one leg to another. This is important: Nixon refused to wear makeup.
Kennedy looked poised and healthy and almost spoke clearly enough where you didn't need subtitles. This is important: Kennedy wore makeup.
If you look at it now, on YouTube. Nixon doesn't look that bad and Kennedy doesn't look, as they say in the History lounge, like all that. In fact, Kennedy kind of cocks his head looking like a dad that is taking a selfie for Facebook.
The narrative through the years has The Debates as the deciding factor in the close election. That could be true if you discount rumors of voter fraud in Texas and Illinois. Kennedy won. Nixon internalized his defeat and would later comeback in 1968 a half a bubble off plumb.
 |
| Add caption |
No comments:
Post a Comment