Answer:
On the morning of September 26, 1960, John F. Kennedy was a relatively unknown senator from Massachusetts. He was young and Catholic — neither of which helped his image — and facing off against an incumbent. But by the end of the evening, he was a star.
Step-by-step explanation:
It's now common knowledge that without the nation's first televised debate — fifty years ago Sunday — Kennedy would never have been president. But beyond securing his presidential career, the 60-minute duel between the handsome Irish-American senator and Vice President Richard Nixon fundamentally altered political campaigns, television media and America's political history. "It's one of those unusual points on the timeline of history where you can say things changed very dramatically — in this case, in a single night," says Alan Schroeder, a media historian and associate professor at Northeastern University, who authored the book, Presidential Debates: Forty Years of High-Risk TV
Kennedy's aide and speech writer, Ted Sorensen remembers prepping the candidate for the big night. They were on the roof of their Chicago hotel, running through a pile of note cards, quizzing Kennedy on the likely debate topics while he worked on his tan. "We knew the first televised debate was important, but we had no idea how important it was going to turn out," Sorensen told TIME. After hours of practice and a speech before a labor union, the senator went in to take a nap. "The story I like to tell is of when they delegated me to go wake him up," Sorensen said. "I opened the door and peaked in and there he was, lights on, sound asleep, covered in notecards."