It would become the best known of all presidential debates, but nobody seemed to appreciate the impact that the first clash between candidates Richard Nixon and John Kennedy would have. Newspapers had barely mentioned it beforehand. Networks didn't promote it. Nixon didn't even prepare for it.
But in one hour on Sept. 26, 1960, the new medium of television went from operating as a mere player to being the dominant force in political campaigns. "It's rare to find one moment that so demarcates one era from another," says Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University professor and author of Presidential Debatesâ??Forty Years of High-Risk TV.
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