OK, DUers, another historical election (some may remember, some may not)

[Arkana]

1960. Kennedy v. Nixon. Who remembers it?

I certainly don't--I was born in 1985. What was the mood like going into the homestretch of that campaign?

[flowomo]

1. I remember.....

only 10, but I'm from Boston area. It was too close to call. Both sides had to steal some states and Kennedy's dad had more money to spend so he bought more. Nixon was urged to challenge the results, but, in one of his few acts of decency, declined to do so.

[yellowcanine]

3. Actually there is little evidence to back up what you say. And Nixon

did have his operatives investigate the charges of vote stealing. However, they came up empty - that is why Nixon declined to challenge the results. The only state where a credible charge of vote stealing that might have changed the electoral votes for that state can be sustained is in Illinois, which Kennedy won by 9,000 votes. However even if he had lost those 27 electoral votes he still would have beat Nixon 276 - 246. Furthermore, there was just as much evidence of Republican vote stealing in Illinois as Democratic vote stealing (which may be another reason why Nixon chose to drop it) so it is hard to say that Joe Kennedy's money made any difference (and no actual evidence that his money even played a role).

The whole "Joe Kennedy stole the 1960 election" meme was resurrected in 2000 as a way for the Republicans to distract from the curious set of coincidences and mishaps in Florida that just happened to benefit George W. Bush in a state governed by his brother and where the votes were certified by Katherine Harris, a co-chair of his election campaign in that state.

[flowomo]

5. lots of disagreement on this issue....

both sides were cheating.... but the Daly machine did some good work...

[mopinko]

2. funny, i was thinking about a different election

this morning. i was thinking about carter-ford. i was wondering how much people knew about the cleaning out that was about to happen. did people wake up the next morning and go "whoa, people were pissed, eh?"
i was around, but not that tuned in.

[Raven]

4. I remember... my Dad was a close friend of JFK and

campaigned for him. They first met when Kennedy came back from WWII and ran for Congress. He was thin and jaundiced and my Dad thought his chances of winning were slim to none! But JFK was a relentless campaigner and proved him wrong.

The 1960 election was very close...as I recall, there was voter fraud on both sides. Mayor Daley woke up alot of dead people and got them to the polls! Nixon's people did the same thing. I don't think there was as much disenfranchizement as there is today.

I think the TV debate turned the tide for Kennedy among people who watched it. People who listened to it on the radio tended toward Nixon.

[starroute]

6. Kennedy built slowly, like Kerry has

I was 13 and a diehard Adlai Stevenson supporter. When Kennedy was nominated, I wasn't thrilled, and when he chose Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, I felt betrayed. Some of my friends and I even made a figure with Kennedy's face on one side and Johnson's on the other and hung it in effigy.

Kennedy's support grew gradually through the late summer and fall. The debates were a really major factor -- it was the first time that had even been done, and people were just glued to their screens. I remember being at a school dance where a large chunk of the attendees adjourned halfway through to a room down the hall with a tv where we could watch one of the debates.

By that time, I was a strong Kennedy supporter. On election day, I stood out on a very chilly street corner two blocks from the polls (that was before global warming) handing out fliers. But the race was very tight and it seemed entirely possible that it might go either way.

When I went to bed on election night, the computer at whichever network my family was watching had predicted a Kennedy victory on the basis of early returns with the highest odds it was capable of showing, and I was exhilerated. (That was the first election for computer predictions, too.)

But when I woke up the next morning, nothing had been decided yet, and the final counting ground on and on. As I recall, Hawaii -- which had only been admitted to statehood in 1959 -- was a significant factor, and of course the polls there had closed hours later than anywhere else. It was real nail-biting stuff.