The 1960 Democratic Convention - Part 2

Now that the 2008 Democratic National Convention has finished, I thought I would go back into my old film clips & kinescopes and give everyone a sample of what old-time politics was like 48 years ago!
The 1960 Democratic Convention was held from July 11-15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The primary candidates were John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson.
Part Two covers the nominating of all the contenders: John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, as well as Stuart Symington and Adlai Stevenson. The delegates vote and the you'll see the winning moment as John Kennedy captures the nomination. Finally, you'll see JFK as he gives part of his acceptance speech.
I hope you enjoy this look way back into US political history.
July 13-15, 1960

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• Lyndon
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• Stevenson

[freddylubin]

Once upon a time, when a convention held real drama. Watching Gene McCarthy nominate Adlai Stevenson is really moving.

[LandingCraft1969]

This was innocence!

[David50s]

You could get half votes because states increased the size of their delegations by having double the delegates with a half vote each.

[msynman]

Does anyone know how Stevenson won 79.5 votes?

Why not 79 or 80?

Are the convention delegates allowed to split their votes or something?

[glm15jul]

If Kennedy had not won the nomination in 1960, The party would have been split apart and Nixon would have easily won that election and would have been our president 8 years earlier than he actually was.

[glm15jul]

Senator Kennedy asked Senator Symington of Missouri to be his running mate. Johnson did not want the vice presidency anyway. Those are truths! But IF it was Kennedy-Symington, instead of JFK-LBJ, Kennedy probably would have not won the election. He would not have carried Texas. ( He barely won it with LBJ on the ticket. ) And if Kennedy did win the election with Symington, most likely November 22, 1963 would not be a historical date today.

[presidentbren]

I wonder what it would have been like had Kennedy not received the nomination. What if Symington, or Johnson, or Jackson, or Stevenson had been nominated? Would they have one?

[Nostalgiaantes]

thank you for great footaage!

[Freenbean]

JFK picked Johnson because he wanted to win. Johnson helped Kennedy where he was running the weakest- the South and the West. At this time the polls gave Nixon a slight edge.

The question is why did LBJ accept? Everyone figured he would turn the offer down. There is some evidence that LBJ thought that as VP he could continue to run the Senate as if he were still Majority Leader. He found out otherwise.

[Freenbean]

briefly starting at 4:45 you see Ted Kennedy with the Wyoming delegation. His assignment was the Western states, and he had gotten the chairman of the Wyoming delegation to agree to cast all his state's vote for his brother if necessary. As you can tell they were needed, so Ted was there to make sure that promise was kept.