The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The Nixon-Kennedy TV Debates AS AN OLD debater in high school and college and on down through 60 or 70 years of reform movements, I was very much excited about...
...They could see how sure of himself each felt, how certain each seemed of his position...
...Senator Kennedy earnestly believes in investment of public capital to supplement the flow of private capital in encouraging productive industry and, naturally, in corresponding public control...
...Some of the smartest commentators in this country pretend to be disappointed because our two young men did not produce masterpieces comparable with those delivered to their audiences by a certain Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas back in 1858...
...The two 1960 debaters were in a quite different situation, trying to do a quite different thing...
...Daniel Webster and a whole generation of Southern spellbinders were only recently past...
...If you see a man, you will see through him...
...As I wrote then: “If a man is a fool, his foolishness will appear for all to see...
...The question before each listening group from now on is: What use shall we make of the remaining discussions...
...Which seems more sympathetic, more imaginative, more likely to understand the troubles of other people in situations different from his own...
...If Nixon and Kennedy had talked in the style of 1858, there would have been serious alarm as to their mental state...
...In the TV debate he was trying to say, with great care, that he believes in the same things as his Democratic rival —but not so heartily, not so unguardedly...
...his ordinary experience, his own common sense...
...It did not turn out to be as epoch-making as I had anticipated, but it may yet be a turning-point in the history of political campaigning...
...But watching and hearing these candidates for 60 minutes you can come by important information about them which you can get in no other way...
...That is, which is more evidently using his own words, talking independently from his own mind rather than using stuff handed him by his ghost-writers...
...But those giant debaters did...
...Which candidate seems to have more courage, more manhood, the sort of gumption which enables a man to stand on his own legs and do what he thinks is right...
...If, in explaining the advantages of such a connection between government and business affairs, he were to utilize emotional eloquence, it would sound rather silly and might, in the end, lose votes faster than win them...
...His attention must be kept riveted on whether or not he is saying exactly the right thing...
...I have read a lot written by disappointed listeners...
...And there were no loudspeakers...
...And the sharper you are, the more information you will gather...
...In those days the candidates addressed what were, for the times, enormous audiences—10-15,000 people...
...Vice President Nixon, on the other hand, believes in the same general policy in the conduct of domestic affairs, but only as far as he is forced to by his alliance with Governor Nelson Rockefeller and other progressive Republicans...
...They could see each bouncing back after the other’s attack...
...Speeches could not yet be effectively delivered but the candidate the voter was interested in could be seen almost in the flesh...
...A man talking on such a subject and in such a situation cannot be expected to throw up his arms and let out his voice...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The Nixon-Kennedy TV Debates AS AN OLD debater in high school and college and on down through 60 or 70 years of reform movements, I was very much excited about the great Nixon-Kennedy campaign debate...
...In the hour which the candidates will have at their disposal each evening, you cannot expect them to give you fresh information about history or economics...
...People were used to eloquence...
...His advocacy of public investment and the accompanying public control must be stated with great discretion if he is to stay out of serious trouble...
...When television was first used in a Presidential campaign, we had no idea of how wide a development this amazing instrument would have...
...Here are a few questions which may help you in the remaining debates : • Which candidate shows himself more self-reliant...
...Lincoln and Douglas were, according to the standards of their time, comparatively easy-going and rational...
...will tell him what he needs to know...
...I foresaw then the great good the general public would eventually receive from this little screen...
...All of us now know them more deeply, more variously, than we realize...
...after all, belong to their time, and both tried obviously to carry their listeners by every emotional trick at their command...
...Lincoln, in particular, made use of humor which would be effective in any age before any audience...
...The articles you have read have covered all the domestic and international problems far more fully than can be gone into in any vocal performance...
...His character would shine out in every look and gesture...
...A man had to hold his audience with his wit and his lungs...
...The citizen watching need not be a magician...
...Millions of citizens saw these two candidates reacting to one another for an hour...
Vol. 43 • October 1960 • No. 39
