1. Richard Nixon, sick and sweaty, looks bad even though he
sounds good, 1960. The debate that made televised debates
famous. Radio listeners thought that Vice President Richard
Nixon was the better debater. Television viewers — and there
were many more of them — thought Sen. John F. Kennedy was the
superior communicator. That’s because radio listeners could not
see the Republican candidate, who was battling an illness and
looked uncomfortable and occasionally shifty. Historians say the
debate was a critical factor in Kennedy’s narrow victory.