In today's post, regular contributor Denise Neary takes the political season into consideration and offers us selection to mark an important anniversary.
Today, November 8th marks fifty years since John F. Kennedy’s presidential election.
Everyone who cares about politics should read Theodore H. White’s Pulitzer prize winning book, The Making of the President, 1960.
Reading that book will make you feel that the 1960 campaign was a million years ago, not just fifty.
I know it is easy to make times gone by seem romantic----but one reporter with full access to a campaign, covering the story from primary to general, writing thoughtful coverage about the ideas behind that campaign. Both candidates being portrayed as credible, smart individuals with serious differences in approach.
No cell phones, no internet, no 24 hour news cycle.
I have to admit, it sounds pretty wonderful to me. (And I also admit to following every bit of the 24 hour news cycle!)
The idea that the public might have been interested in detailed campaign coverage---after all, there were only a few minutes devoted to politics each night on national news on just three television networks---was a pretty crazy concept at the time.
White was so good at what he did that he inalterably changed campaign coverage----and essentially precluded the same sort of story he told ever being told again.
TIME magazine called White the “godfather of modern political reporting.” See what you think!
If you never read the book, consider reading it now, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 1960 presidential campaign!
-- Denise Neary, Regular Contributor
