Once upon a time, presidential debates were a civilized matter.

At the very first televised presidential debate between Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Robert Nixon on Sept. 26, 1960, the two presidential hopefuls donned suits and ties in a Chicago studio to present their domestic policies in subdued voices to the American people. (READ MORE: Thoughts on the Debased Debate)

They did so in an orderly fashion. Each man had an eight-minute opening statement. They each had two and a half minutes to respond to questions, an optional rebuttal period, and then each closed with a three-minute statement.

The moderator, Howard Stowe of CBS, had just one job: Ask questions. There was no shouting, no interrupting, no crowd booing — in fact, there was no live audience. It was just two men and their minds jockeying for the favor of the American people listening in.

It may sound boring to a modern audience used to the shallow soundbite-style debates of contemporary politics. But for the 70 million Americans who tuned it — two-thirds of the country’s population — it was exactly what they wanted to spend their evening doing.

That didn’t mean the debate went without hiccups; it was the first time anything like it aired on television, and there were undoubtedly some minor mishaps. (READ MORE: INTERVIEW: Speaker Gingrich Reveals America’s Current Crisis)

Nixon, who had almost no experience with cameras and stage lights, declined to wear makeup. While he sounded confident enough, he was apparently nervous, and his sweat-soaked gray suit made him appear pale and sickly — so much so that his mom allegedly called after the debate to ask if he was all right.

Kennedy — ever an actor — had no problem wearing makeup and chose a black suit that set him apart from the gray-colored background of the set. He was also comfortable in front of the cameras and exuded an air of confidence. The result? Those who tuned in to the debate on television were convinced Kennedy had won, while those who listened in on radio favored Nixon.

Nixon learned from the experience — in the second debate a few weeks later, he donned a black suit. Changing outfits wasn’t quite enough, though: Nixon, who had led Kennedy by six points when the Republican and Democrat conventions had closed, lost by 0.1 points in the general election. (READ MORE: China’s Bid for a Place at the Table)

The whole experience seems to have left a rather bad taste in his mouth, though — in the 1968 election, Nixon declined to debate his opponent. It wasn’t until 1976 that presidential debates became a standard part of a presidential campaign.

If there was one entity that didn’t appreciate the civilized nature of the Kennedy–Nixon debate, it was the media. The Guardian published a headline the following day lamenting that the debate had been “killed by courtesy.”

This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way, on Sept. 24, 2023.