Candidate's Teams Opinion

Candidates' Teams React to the Debate

Kennedy's Team

Kennedy’s team was incredibly pleased with the results of the debate. In interviews, aides said Kennedy had “scored” more points and made a better impression than Nixon. Democratic leaders immediately pushed that Kennedy had “won”, though no winner was declared. When asked how the debate affected Kennedy's campaign, staff assistant and speechwriter Ted Sorensen said he believed the larger turnout at subsequent rallies was a result of Kennedy's successful debate appearance.

"We knew the first televised debate was important, but we had no idea how important it was going to turn out." ~ Ted Sorensen (TIME magazine)

Image of Kennedy and Nixon from before the debate. (History.com)

A Nixon campaign button. (Button Museum)

Clip of Nixon from first debate, sweating and stumbling in his speech. (JFK library)

Nixon's Team

While some may think that Nixon’s team was panicking after the debate, they were actually doing the opposite. They began making plans for future debates and appearances and talked about paying closer attention to the lighting. In a New York Times article, Nixon's aides said that he looked completely healthy in person as well as in previous TV appearances (while referencing the photo above), but that in the future "he will probably use a studio makeup man." Republican Senator Charles H. Percy, said he had no issues with Nixon’s appearance during the debate, but he felt Nixon struggled with the 3-minute time limit while answering questions.

Republican voters however, were not as optimistic. The New York Times reported that many people feared Nixon had been sabotaged by a Democratic crew member. Nixon’s team quickly brushed off those concerns, calling them “ridiculous”.

The party's willingness to remove any suspicion about Democratic sabotage shows that Republicans were not overly worried by Nixon’s performance, if they had been they could have exploited the rumor.

In an oral history interview conducted by the Nixon Library and recorded by C-Span, Nixon's former head of communications, Herbert Klein said this about Nixon's lack of makeup:

“…Our own television makeup guy, who was just instructed by him to put on just the cake makeup, I mean, the powder. The reason that he didn't want cake makeup was because when Humphrey had debated Kennedy in Wisconsin, Humphrey had appeared with too much makeup on, and Nixon felt that made him look like a sissy. And so Nixon's macho was part of why he didn't want to cover his beard much. And he was a little nervous, I could tell that, but felt that it would be cool. And the room had to be very cold because he wanted to have -- that was one of the our big arguments, very cold room so that he wouldn't sweat too much.”

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