Aarons had watched the Democratic convention on TV. It was now between Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was nominated on the first ballot and Aarons was impressed and moved by the man and his acceptance speech that spoke of “the New Frontier.”
Richard Nixon was nominated at the Republican convention and the Gallup poll gave him a lead of 51 to 49 which became 53 to 47 in the following week.
The first opportunity that the public had to judge the characters and capabilities of the two rival candidates was the all-network coverage of their first public debate on September 26. It was a Kennedy triumph. Despite Nixon’s high-office and debating experience the Republican candidate looked drab and uneasy compared with his handsome sun-tanned rival. Nixon had spent two weeks in hospital because of a knee injury and that was possibly responsible for his rather haggard appearance.
Despite Nixon’s firm instructions one of his close supporters tried to stir up religious bias, but the most damaging incident came when Martin Luther King was arrested in an Atlanta store restaurant for refusing to leave the restaurant when he was barred from entering. King was sentenced to four months’ hard labour. When reporters asked Nixon’s opinion on the sentence he told them that he had no opinion, but privately he called the Attorney General and asked him to set up an inquiry. The Attorney General did as he was asked but Eisenhower made him drop the matter. Kennedy rang through to King’s wife to express his sympathy and said he wanted to help. His brother Robert phoned the judge who had sentenced King and King was let out on bail the following day. King told the other black leaders of Kennedy’s action and the word spread quickly through the black communities all over the States. The polls showed that the candidates had equal support. Communism, the high standard of living, the Cuban threat, Communist China were all proffered by the Republicans as reasons for getting the country’s votes. Sneers at Kennedy’s inexperience and Nixon’s promise to start up atom bomb tests again played their parts. But somehow the Senator for Massachusetts seemed to draw people to him and his policy of a new start, a new look at America. He looked and sounded as if he meant it and could do it. A new word—“charisma”—was creeping into the language of political commentators.
Malloy was surprised when he got the call from Truman’s old friend, Abe Karney. And even more surprised when, at a meeting the next day, Karney asked him to work for the Kennedy election team. Malloy was only marginally interested in politics and his own politics shared little with the Democrats. But old China-hands like Karney were shrewd pickers of people and a meeting with the top people at the Democrats’ New York operation, followed by a couple of evenings with the bright young movers and shakers of the Kennedy circus were enough to make him realise that both he and Kathy would enjoy their time with such lively people.
There had been an organised visit to Washington for a brief meeting with the candidate and Malloy was impressed by the man. Not just the handsomeness, not just the obvious charm, but the words. They weren’t a politician’s words, they were poets’ words, dreamers’ words. They made you glad to be alive.
As election day drew nearer the charges and counter-charges became more and more virulent. Kennedy’s aim to make a better America was dismissed as running America down. And Kennedy himself was not above gaining some affectionate female smiles by referring to his pregnant wife.
The day itself was unusually bright and the closeness of the contest led to the heaviest turnout in history. Nearly sixty-nine million people cast their votes that day. The candidates themselves relaxed in their own ways. Nixon drove a few friends down the California coast roads to Tijuana, and Kennedy played touch ball with the family at their compound in Hyannisport.
The TV news networks had to fill in the time between the closing of the polls and the counting of the votes, so they used a big IBM computer to forecast the results. By 7.15 p.m. the magic box predicted an overwhelming Nixon win: 459 electoral votes to Kennedy’s 68. By 10.30 p.m. a lot of actual results had come in and now it looked like a disaster for the Republicans. Kennedy was well ahead of his rival.
All through the night Robert Kennedy had watched the teletypes and the television sets tuned to the different networks. Phone call after phone call to people of influence sent the Kennedy phone bill up to 10,000 dollars for that night alone. The candidates were still neck and neck but by 9.30 a.m. Michigan’s Republicans threw in the towel and the Chief of the Secret Service put through a call from Washington to his team of agents holed up in Hyannis’ Holiday Health Inn and they moved in on the Kennedy compound. Senator Kennedy was now President-elect Kennedy. But he had won by a margin of less than one per cent. In the euphoria of the campaign and the victory only politicians gave any thought to the Vice-President-elect, Lyndon B. Johnson. Because he was one
