Was it the Nixon debate that started the practice?
It got the DEM’s pretty boy in front of American TV—and the U.S. into Viet Nam—and the Cuban Missile Crisis/Bay of Pigs...
Yes.
It got the DEM’s pretty boy in front of American TV...
Supposedly those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon won while those who watched it on TV thought JFK had won. The power of the camera.
I think Nixon Kennedy was the first televised debate. Those that listened on radio thought Nixon won. Those that watched on tv thought Kennedy won.
I think Lincoln and Douglas might have had something to say about that. ;)
Nixon-Kennedy was the first televised debate. I watched it; Nixon needed a shave, Kennedy was a pretty boy.
I think that was a major political wake-up call to the value of optics.