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Male: In 1960 five prominent democrats were candidates for the nominations. They would travel different roads in seeking the nomination. Two would battle it out in the primaries. Two would hope to be the choice by compromise and one hope to be drafted. Adlai Stevenson relied on a draft though he had twice lost the presidency through Eisenhower’s. He was still most popular with rank and file democrats. Lyndon Johnson of Texas had been majority leader of the senate for most of the Eisenhower years.
He was a strong possibility as a compromised candidate as was Missouri senators Stuart Symington, a man with no political enemies and the favorite of ex-President Harry Truman.
Minnesota’s liberal Senator Hubert Humphrey had farm and labor support in the winning record. He would enter the primaries against the front runner John F Kennedy. Senator Kennedy was burdened by many handicaps. He seems too young and inexperienced to be entrusted to the presidency and he was a Roman Catholic in a predominately protestant nation. In his favor he had great personal charm, a large family fortune and the best political organization ever put together.
The nucleus event organization was the Kennedy family led by Robert Kennedy and Larry O’Brien. In the Democratic Party the big city leaders are a special importance because they often have the power to swing the large blocks of delegate votes that are needed to win the nomination. It was chiefly to impress these leaders that Kennedy entered the primaries.
By winning, he would prove that Protestants would vote for a Catholic for President. JFK outlined a strategy when he was told how would win the votes of the major non-primary states of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
John Kennedy: It’s a comparatively useless to go to those three states today if they have primaries then I would think you could fight it out directly, lacking primaries it has to be won in New Hampshire and these other states.
By end of May when the primaries are over, the next candidate of the Democratic Party it would be very obvious. I would say that the road to Paris is through Pippin and the road to those delegations is through to the primaries and the states that do have them.
Male: Entering the primaries assured Kennedy of the coverage that would make him a national figure.
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