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Edited on Wed Oct-27-04 10:39 AM by starroute
I was 13 and a diehard Adlai Stevenson supporter. When Kennedy was nominated, I wasn't thrilled, and when he chose Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, I felt betrayed. Some of my friends and I even made a figure with Kennedy's face on one side and Johnson's on the other and hung it in effigy.
Kennedy's support grew gradually through the late summer and fall. The debates were a really major factor -- it was the first time that had even been done, and people were just glued to their screens. I remember being at a school dance where a large chunk of the attendees adjourned halfway through to a room down the hall with a tv where we could watch one of the debates.
By that time, I was a strong Kennedy supporter. On election day, I stood out on a very chilly street corner two blocks from the polls (that was before global warming) handing out fliers. But the race was very tight and it seemed entirely possible that it might go either way.
When I went to bed on election night, the computer at whichever network my family was watching had predicted a Kennedy victory on the basis of early returns with the highest odds it was capable of showing, and I was exhilerated. (That was the first election for computer predictions, too.)
But when I woke up the next morning, nothing had been decided yet, and the final counting ground on and on. As I recall, Hawaii -- which had only been admitted to statehood in 1959 -- was a significant factor, and of course the polls there had closed hours later than anywhere else. It was real nail-biting stuff.
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