The right answer is televised debates.
The 1960 election elevated the role of images over substance. Both campaigns hired sophisticated marketing specialists to shape the media coverage of the candidates. Television played a crucial role. During the first of four debates, few significant policy differences surfaced, allowing viewers to shape their opinions more on matters of appearance and style. Some 70 million people watched this first-ever televised debate. They saw an obviously uncomfortable Nixon, still weak from a recent illness, perspiring heavily and looking pale, haggard, uneasy, and even sinister before the camera. Kennedy, on the other hand, appeared tanned and calm, projected a cool poise, and offered crisp answers that made him seem equal, if not superior, in his fitness for the nation’s highest office. Kennedy’s popularity immediately shot up in the polls.
