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The four Kennedy-Nixon debates were the first presidential debates ever, also the first held on television, and thus attracted enormous publicity. Nixon insisted on campaigning until just a few hours before the first debate started. He had not completely recovered from his hospital stay and thus looked pale, sickly, underweight, and tired. His eyes moved across the room during the debate, and at various moments sweat was visible on his face. He also refused makeup for the first debate, and as a result, his beard stubble showed prominently on the era's black-and-white TV screens. Furthermore, the debate set appeared darker once the paint dried up, causing Nixon's suit color to blend in with the background which reduced his stature. Nixon's poor appearance on television in the first debate is reflected by the fact that his mother called him immediately following the debate to ask if he was sick. Kennedy, by contrast, rested and prepared extensively beforehand, appearing tanned, confident, and relaxed during the debate. An estimated 70 million viewers watched the first debate.

It is often claimed that people who watched the debate on television overwhelmingly believed Kennedy had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) thought Nixon had ended up defeating him. However, that has been disputed. Indeed, one study has speculated that the viewer/listener disagreement could be due to sample bias in that those without TV could be a skewed subset of the population.




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The 20th Century Time Machine takes you back in time to the most important historical events of the past century. Watch documentaries, discussions and real footage of major events that shaped the world we live in today.
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