Five Things You need to know About the Presidential Election of 1960

1.  Was it a fluke that the first ever televised presidential debate won the 1960 presidential election for John F Kennedy? Hardly, John Kennedy effectively used TV to defeat Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, for the senate seat in 1952.  Lodge was a seventeen-year incumbent and assumed he could easily defeat this young upstart. Lodge spent too much time campaigning for the election of Dwight David Eisenhower and overlooked the rising tide of young women  and Gold Star Mothers voting for Kennedy.  

2.  If Richard Nixon won more electoral states why did he lose the presidency? He took his eye off the large electoral swing states promising early in his campaign to visit every state.

3. If John Kennedy lost Chicago could Nixon have won, the electoral college?  No.  But there is much to consider. A state here, a state there could have made this the closest electoral college vote ever won or lost by one vote.

4.Were the Irish votes instrumental in electing Kennedy?  About as much as being a Catholic was a deterrent.  There were 17 million more democratic registered voters; typical of the period. Yet, 16 million of the 109 million eligible voters were Catholic.  Generally speaking most political analyst believe that the Catholic vote was equally offset by as many Protestants that feared the Pope's influence on a Catholic president.   
This was the closest presidential election in 44 years.  Kennedy received 112,827, more votes than Nixon. Nixon won the popular vote contest by state, 26 to 22.  Learn on our tour why the states won and lost do not equal 50.

5.  Thirty-eight percent of eligible voters did not vote.  Yet more people voted than were registered.  Answers available on our tour.

Learn of the hundred and fifty years of combat between the Lodges/Cabot’s and the Fitzgerald’s and Kennedy’s, Protestants and Irish, national and local politics. Book our Kennedy tour for a ninety-minute, one mile walk through history.

Tour fees are $60 for one person and $7 for each additional person. 
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Phone 617-413-6998



 

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