This NBC Nightly New Report looks at the 1968 Presidential race, in which three Democratic candidates vied for the nomination. When Robert F. Kennedy won the California Primary, he emerged as the party's front-runner; but his victory was suddenly cut short by tragedy.
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Historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Carl Sferrazza Anthony discuss little-known facts about past presidents like Harding, Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces President Theodore Roosevelt's selection of his good friend William Howard Taft as his successor. However, Taft turned out to be a disappointment to Roosevelt Progressives.
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On the eve of the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the intense deliberations that went into two historic Court decisions: Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and the Dred Scot decision of 1857.
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Every four years, television programs break for ads for those most American of products—the U.S. president and the ideals of democracy. For more than half a century, presidential candidates have used television ads to communicate their platforms and criticize their opponents. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. The advertising executive who planned the first candidate television ad campaign had previously created the Coca-Cola "Passport to refreshment" campaign.
False. Advertising executive Rosser Reeves had previously created the "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" campaign for M&Ms. The campaign he planned for Eisenhower—20-second spots designed to run before or after popular television shows like I Love Lucy—featured "normal Joe" citizens asking Eisenhower questions about taxes, foreign policy, and other issues. Eisenhower answered in a brief, blunt, homey fashion, with the format giving the campaign its name: "Eisenhower Answers America." Prior to this campaign, presidential candidates had brushed off the potential of television advertising; following it, ads became an accepted and increasingly central aspect of campaigning.
2. In 1960, John F. Kennedy's television ad campaign included non-English-language advertisements.
True. JFK's 1960 campaign for the presidency, run by two different advertising agencies, included a multitude of television advertisements and a dizzying array of techniques and appeals. Several of the ads spoke out to specific demographics—including a spot in which Jackie Kennedy, speaking in uneven Spanish, assured voters that, in the face of the danger of communism, "Mi esposo siempre vigilará los intereses de todos los sectores de nuestra sociedad que necesitan la protección de un gobierno humanitario" (or, "My husband will always watch over the interests of all sectors of our society who are in need of the protection of a humanitarian government"). Other ads spoke to the African American community, assuring the public that Kennedy's Catholicism would not compromise his presidential duties.
3. As the Vietnam War continued despite his promises to end it, Richard Nixon's 1972 presidential ad campaign depicted him as stern and focused entirely on withdrawing troops from Vietnam.
False. Nixon's 1972 campaign for reelection cast him as a man of "compassion, courage, and conscience," concerned about many issues, including environmentalism and international diplomacy, as well as withdrawing from Vietnam. President Nixon, one ad declared, was willing to press for change, because "without change there can be no progress." The ads crafted the argument that Nixon, far from being cold and unapproachable, was personable and personally interested in a global push for peace and wellbeing nationally and internationally. Nixon won the campaign against South Dakota Senator George McGovern by a landslide.
4. A 1984 ad for Ronald Reagan's reelection used the threat of a bear in the woods to suggest the need for better gun control laws.
False. Though most of Ronald Reagan's ads stressed the economic wellbeing of the U.S., using montages of small-town Americans engaged in rituals such as weddings and buying new homes, one stuck out. The unusual ad showed a bear lurking in the woods; the accompanying narration suggested that the bear might or might not exist and might or might not be dangerous, but "since no one can really be sure who's right, isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?" Though the ad never explicitly states what the bear stands for, the advertisement's creators intended it to symbolize the Soviet Union. The ad's watchers, however, took it as commenting on any number of issues, including gun control and the need for change in environmental laws. Despite its ambiguity, the ad gained attention and later served as inspiration for an ad in George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
To watch all of the ads mentioned in this quiz, check out the Museum of the Moving Image's website The Living Room Candidate. Featuring more than 250 ads from all presidential campaigns since 1952, the site also presents commentary on each ad campaign, as well as detailed critical commentary on 15 ads selected as exemplary by the collection's curators and eight lesson plans for high school teachers.
For suggestions on using advertisements in the classroom, refer to Making Sense of Advertisements, a guide to primary source analysis by historian, professor, and author Daniel Pope.
From the U.S.'s earliest elections through the present day, no presidential candidate has campaigned without criticism. Accusations of conspiracy, crime, and corruption dog the footsteps of anyone aiming for the position of Commander in Chief. Identify the candidate who received the following criticism:
1. Accused of adultery, gambling, bigamy, drunkenness, theft, lying, and murder:
Andrew Jackson. During the 1828 election, a pamphlet was circulated: Reminiscences; Or, an Extract from the Catalogue of General Jackson's Youthful Indiscretions, between the Ages of Twenty-three and Sixty, listing his fights, duels, brawls, and shooting and cutting affairs.
2. Accused of using his father’s money to buy votes during the election. He responded publicly in a speech with these words: “I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy: ‘Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary. I’ll be d*** if I’m going to pay for a landslide."
John F. Kennedy. In Wisconsin in 1960, someone once joked to Kennedy, "I hear that your dad only offered two dollars a vote. With all your dough, can't you do better than that?" "You know that statement is false," replied Kennedy. "It's sad that the only thing you have to offer is your vote, and you're willing to sell that."
3. Accused of being a despot, liar, thief, braggart, buffoon, usurper, monster, ignoramus, scoundrel, perjurer, robber, swindler, tyrant, fiend, and butcher:
Abraham Lincoln. Of the election of 1864, Lincoln said: "It is a little singular that I, who am not a vindictive man, should have always been before the people for election in canvasses marked for their bitterness."
4. Accused of cheating creditors, robbing an old widow of her pension, behaving like a coward during war, being an atheist. It was said that if he became president, surely he would confiscate all Bibles in the land and have them burned, tear down all churches, and dissolve the institution of marriage:
Thomas Jefferson. The Federalists struggled to keep their party alive and even set forth a rumor that Democratic-Republican Jefferson had died and that it would be a waste of time to vote for him.
5. Accused of being a fool, hypocrite, criminal, tyrant, bald, blind, crippled, toothless man who aimed to become King of America and align with Britain:
John Adams. Opponents claimed that he wanted one of his sons to marry one of King George III's daughter, forming an Anglo-American dynasty.
During modern presidential campaigns and elections, red-and-blue maps dominate reporting on politics, tracking the success of candidates and their parties state by state. Check out these older maps, drawn from 19th-century presidential elections. The colors indicate Electoral College results for each state then in existence. Figure out what year each election occurred.
1. 
1848
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Whig Zachary Taylor beat Democratic candidate Lewis Cass. Third party Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren did not get one electoral vote.
2. 
1856
Blue: Democrat
Red: Republican
Yellow: Know Nothing
Democrat James Buchanan won with 174 electoral votes over Republican John C. Fremont's 114 and Whig-American Millard Filmore's 8.
3. 
1852
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Democrat Franklin Pierce beat out Whig candidate Winfield Scott. The popular vote was much closer than the electoral vote: 50.8% to 43.9%.
4. 
1860
Red: Republican
Blue: Democrat (Southern)
Yellow: Constitutional Union
Green: Democrat
Sectional divide split the nation prior to the Civil War when Republican Abraham Lincoln won the election. John Breckinridge led the Southern Democrats, John Bell ran for the Constitutional Union party, and the northern Democratic candidate was Stephen Douglas.
5. 
1844
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Democrat James K. Polk won over Whig candidate Henry Clay.
6. 
1840
Blue: Democrat
Orange: Whig
Whig candidate William Henry Harrison beat Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren with 234 electoral votes to 60.
7. 
1864
Red: Republican
Blue: Democrat
This mid-Civil War election map reflects the separation between North and South. Republican Lincoln beat Democrat George McClellan.
Congress in the Classroom® is a national, award-winning education program now in its 16th year. Developed and sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. The Center joins with the new Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service to conduct the workshop.
The 2008 program pays special attention to the upcoming congressional and presidential elections. Participants will gain experience with The Dirksen Center website which features online access to lesson plans, student activities, historical materials, related Web sites, and subject matter experts. The workshop consists of two types of sessions: those that focus on recent research and scholarship about Congress or elections and those geared to specific ways to teach students about Congress or elections.
"With a presidential election just around the corner, this workshop will focus on how presidents are packaged according to the most winnable personality, prepared in minute detail for every public appearance, and promoted as viable candidates and chief executive. Educators will look at examples and methods of how presidential image has been portrayed in the public sphere from George W. to George W. The evolution of presidential campaigns will be examined by comparing and contrasting early, short, and inexpensively-run campaigns to the grueling more than year-long marathons and multi-million dollar campaigns of the present. Educators will also examine the art of campaign buttons, banners, and broadsides of the past to the fire-side chats of FDR, the television ads, sound bites, and Internet of today."
"Howard Fineman, Newsweek’s chief political correspondent, visits the National Constitution Center in the thick of the election season to discuss politics, candidates and his new book, 'The Thirteen American Arguments,'" looking at the historical origins and evolution of the arguments that he believes define American politics.