Making of the President '68

At 8:30 on September 29th, 1968, the previous show, the third in a series of new, educational specials called "The History of Drama: From Tragedy to Farce," faded and disappeared from the television screen. After several seconds of advertising, the picture dissolved to the three men who were part of America's second great presidential TV debate, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon and Howard K. Smith, the moderator. This was true American drama: the two nominees in the presidential contest representing the two major parties debating live before the entire nation the vital foreign and domestic issues affecting the country.

The planning for this program had begun many months before. In early July of the election year Nixon had suggested that he debate with Humphrey, or as he said then, "the Democratic nominee," and after the post-convention electioneering got under way the debates were arranged by a Nixon aide, who proposed that the debates be held in the homes of each of the nominees with the whole family of each candidate participating. The arrangement quickly fell through, however, when Nixon arranged for a rush marriage of his daughter to the Eisenhower boy and then declared Ike "an intimate member of his family."

Humphrey, who had already come under pressure from his staff to get assurances from Nixon that he would not put his dog on camera, had plans for the debates to be held at different historic parks around the country, but eventually both sides agreed to stick to the same format as the historic Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960.

The debates began with an eight-minute statement by each candidate which turned out to be only seven minutes on air-time because Howard K. Smith who timed the statements had obtained his stop watch through a small shopkeeper who, it turned out, was a vigorous supporter of George Wallace and because his man had been shut out of the debates decided to take his revenge by setting the clock fast. Therefore the first two statements were abruptly cut off at seven minutes although they had been planned for eight. The error was discovered but the harm had been done. Especially for Richard Nixon.

Nixon was the first to speak. He had decided at a strategy meeting earlier in the day to initially speak of his qualifications for the office of the Presidency; he wanted to show that he was a versatile and experienced man, he wanted to show the nation a fresh Nixon. So his initial speech was taken up with an explanation of how he had been on the Johnny Carson show and had spoken of his childhood desire to be a concert pianist at which point Mr. Carson suggested that he play the piano for the people now, an offer which was taken up, and then how he felt a thrill of excitement as he played and then more of a thrill as the people in the audience applauded him louder than he had ever heard before. Unfortunately, Mr. Nixon was suddenly cut off and did not have time to draw from this incident the conclusion that it proved his qualifications for the highest, most responsible office in the United States.

Mr. Humphrey, recognizing himself to be at a distinct advantage at this point made a decision to abandon his prepared statement. Speaking of himself in the third person, as is his wont, he described Hubert Humphrey in highly animated terms as the son of a small-town druggist who had graduated from high school first in his class.

Evaluations of the debate followed endlessly. What were the issues in the debates, and how far did these affect the final decision of American voters about their choices in November? Dr. George Gallup, in his comprehensive and scholarly poll found that most Americans were evenly divided as to who they thought won the debates. He also found that the main issue on which Americans thought they could and should make their decision in view of the debates, was essentially which candidate had a more typical upbringing for an American boy to admire and which man used more "homey" language, filled with folksy metaphors and phrases. It was only in the debates that this factor was brought out, when both Nixon and Humphrey were speaking directly to the nation, and when they chose to talk at length about boyhood and their personal lives.

Dr. Gallup made lengthy conclusions about this striking phenomenon. He first recognized that Americans would often be listening directly to the president, as they had in the debates, and that because of this fact the debates had been helpful in allowing all Americans to choose the man they wanted to have to listen to for the next four years, maybe eight.

When in November Richard Nixon fell to defeat for what must have seemed to him an unbearable last time, he broke out crying to the press the reason for his loss. He did not cite Humphrey's brilliant "folksiness" on the debates. Instead he quoted from a scholarly work by a Harvard professor which documented in 700 pages America's unkind feelings towards musicians (long-haired, sexual deviates...) and announced that he was entering a career as a concert pianist.