The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections) ReviewThis book's title is a reference to journalist Theodore White's book about the 1960 presidential election, *The Making of the President, 1960,* published in 1961. In addition to being a best-seller, White's book was the first in a series of books on US presidential elections and set the tone for the interpretation of the 1960 election, a tone which glamorized John F. Kennedy as the "good guy" and Richard M. Nixon as the "villain" and which viewed the outcome as the triumph of liberalism over conservatism. Now along comes historian W.J. Rorabaugh who wants to peel away the onion and get at the "real" 1960 election and to re-evaluate this contest and its significance. What, then, does he find?
Perhaps his most interesting observation is the key role played by the southern states in the outcome. JFK selected Lyndon B. Johnson as his V.P. for a simple reason: he needed him to win the election. LBJ campaigned effectively in the South and brought Texas' 24 electoral votes (and those of many other southern states), without which the Democrats probably could not have won the presidency.
Rorabaugh also believes Nelson Rockefeller would have run stronger against JFK than Nixon. And that the GOP's choice for V.P., Henry Cabot Lodge, was a disaster, as for example, when he pledged in a Harlem campaign speech that Nixon would name an African American to his cabinet.
Other important outcome factors, according to Rorabaugh, include: the Democrats' very effective use of videotape and television; JFK's access to a personal airplane; huge sums of money, thanks in part to Joseph Kennedy; JFK's early recruitment of a talented staff and superb organization; JFK's adeptness at manipulating and catering to the media; and of course the first of the televised "debates" between Nixon and Kennedy which helped the underdog JFK immensely.
Going way beyond White, we also learn that JFK's staff members were not always the good guys, that they sometimes used dark tactics ("dirty tricks") to their advantage. Just ask the Hubert Humphrey campaign people about what happened in the Wisconsin and especially the West Virginia primaries, primaries that were decisive in JFK winning his party's nomination. It's hard to say for sure which candidate benefited more from the religious issue, but Rorabaugh's conservative conclusion on this issue is that JFK's victory proved that a Roman Catholic could finally be elected to the highest office in the land, thus helping to break down barriers in the future for minorities. As for White's portrayal of JFK's liberalism vs. Nixon's conservatism, the author says neither candiate cared much about ideology.
Rorabaugh doesn't do much with JFK's sex life, in case anyone was wondering. He notes that both JFK and his campaign manager-brother, Bobby, played loose with the accusation that JFK was suffering from Addison's disease, a charge made initially by LBJ's friends. (JFK did have Addison's but not the common type of this disease, so this could have provided the technicality for their denial.) I found it interesting that the author talks very little about Jacqueline Kennedy's role in the campaign. One tidbit that I was not aware of is that Jacqueline had never voted before, and on election day 1960 voted, but only for her husband.
I suspect that this book will now be considered the "standard" work on the 1960 election. (But don't overlook Gary A. Donaldson's 2007 book titled *The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon and the Election of 1960*.) I also suspect that many readers will find this book a bit on the dry side. I did. But I'm aware that Rorabaugh has written a couple previous books on the 1960s, and I intend to read and comment on them.
Tim Koerner May 2009
The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections) Overview

Want to learn more information about The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election (American Presidential Elections)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now