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Syllabus: https://gov124.blogspot.com/2022/08/cases-in-american-political-leadership.html

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

1960, Part I

For Tuesday, Matthews 15-18, Nelson ch. 1.

As Matthews explains, Nixon did not look his best because of his recent hospitalization.

JFK looked good -- in fact, he looked much better than he had in the early 1960s.


Why?  He was taking cortisone for his Addison's Disease. So his illness forcedhim him take a medication that filled out his face and made him look much healthier than he was.

Watch the first 10 minutes of the first debate.



Note how JFK reframed domestic policies as  Cold War issues

JFK v. Hoffa: "I’m not satisfied when I see men like Jimmy Hoffa – in charge of the largest union in the United States – still free."  Think about that:  a presidential candidate called for the imprisonment of a specific individual.

Teamsters backed Nixon in 1960 and 1968.  As president, Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence.

FOURTH DEBATE.  JFK called for arming anti-Castro Cubans.  Nixon thought that JFK knew about the CIA's plan to do just that.  To protect the secrecy of the plan, Nixon argued against it in the debate. 

By taking sides against his own position, Nixon proved to be prophetic. He predicted what would happen at the Bay of Pigs

Dogs that did not bark, or issues that never came up in the debates:
  • Crime
  • Abortion
  • Supreme Court
And a deeply ironic moment:



A Nixon ad:


A Kennedy ad (notice a difference from  Nixon?)



Ike throws an interception:


The Hispanic vote was growing, and the Spanish-speaking Mrs. Kennedy made a spot:



Remember the scene in Blackkklansman where an elderly man recalled the history of lynching?  That was singer-actor Harry Belafonte.  In 1960, a very young Belafonte made a spot for JFK


Eleanor Roosevelt was still alive.  Her endorsement got people's attention:  after all, it was only 15 years after FDR's death.



Lest anyone miss the point, Henry Fonda drove it home:


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