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1972. the raging unpopular war in vietnam consumed the bitter campaign battle between president nixon and george mcgovern. suddenly on october 26th, 12 days before the election, vietnam negotiator henry kissinger made a surprise declaration believed to cement nixon's front-runner status. >> we believe that peace is at hand. >> reporter: it was the first so-called october surprise. a late in the game campaign event with a significant impact on the election. >> in order to win re-election for nixon in 1972, he needed to end the vietnam war. and this was sort of the definetive statement. >> reporter: the most famous october surprise was in 1980. 52 u.s. hostages held in iran were not released before the election despite president carter's efforts. instead they were freed as soon as rsh was inaugurated setting off democratic suspicion never proven that reagan elm sears back chanld with iran in delaying freeing the hostages and denied the troubled carter campaign a huge pre-election boost. >> it fed into the whole dynamic of the 1980 race in that jimmy carter was a stumbling ineffective pr
. that was 1960, where the jfk-richard nixon debates where richard nixon appeared sweaty and uncomfortable and then 2000 where al gore was seen as sighing and sort of dismissive of then texas governor george bush. so when you asked jen and barbara whether they were giving their candidates advice on things that are aesthetic, they should be. >> that's what we all remember, right, do you wear the gray suit on black and white tv, nixon. let me ask this, because you've done a lot of work on this. super pacs and the candidates are competing for money, which a lot of people might not realize. but the campaign can cover whatever it wants with the money, the super pac not linked to the campaign at all so not ideal for the campaign. the romney campaign, $86 million raised. the pro romney super pac, $41 million. and american ross kroeds, affiliate with karl rove, $58.7 million. so you can add that up and get a big number or say if karl rove doesn't like how mitt romney does tomorrow night, he could give a lot of that $60 million, the biggest chunk of change, to, i don't know, senate candidates, cong
announcer ] humana. lou: joining us now katie microlending holding the post under nixon ford and reagan. start with "the washington post" getting the next round of sensitive documents lying on the floor in the consulate of benghazi this is outrageous. >> three weeks later we cannot send in the fbi it is too dangerous but the reporters are picking up sensitive documents talking about the people in libya. three weeks later. lou: not securing a because we have no personnel i know people in the fbi and i have the highest respect one of my oldest friends is there. the idea they make them look like in the tent and even want to continue the description to make them look horrible. >> it was either a massive intelligence failure to not know the was a security threat to and if not then a massive security failure to not protect them. either way it is now a cover up. remember the youtube movie? they said the intelligence community said it was there fault. lou: one of the where does things i have never seen comes out with the statement on a friday and has not appeared in public he could be in a rive
that he gave while richard nixon continuously lost ground thereafter. the story goes that it was kennedy's tan, his youthful look that won him the first televised debate. do you think that's the full story? >> i think that's part of an lore. i think much more was this. before that first debate john kennedy was thought of as a young, not very distinguished absentee senator, junior senator from massachusetts debating against the vice-president of the united states who had stood up to kruschev. this marvelous debater. kennedy was able to not only match nixon but exceed him. people began to think of him as a possible president. >> are debates necessary for the democratic process? have the best debaters proven to be then the best presidents? >> they have in one sense. and that is one of the most important things you want from a president is someone who if he has to make a tough decision can go to americans and say, this may be unpopular with you but let me try to explain it, explain why it's the right thing to do. if a president doesn't have that he's not going to serve very well and the deba
to have you here. >> good morning. >> martha: let's start with the classic, which is the nixon-kennedy debate. and folks who watched it on television clearly thought jack kennedy was the winner, but that wasn't necessarily the response of people who didn't get to see it. >> yeah. there was actually four debates. it was the first presidential debate series. people that listened to it on the radio, which was the majority of radios, thought nixon won on substance. people who watched, thought kennedy did. kennedy was tanned and had make-up on. nixon did not. he came out of the hospital a few days earlier. he was gone. it showed. he sweat a lot and the impression people left with was he was shifty can kennedy was in command. >> martha: he refused make-up apparently, which is probably a candidate made that mistake. let's look at carter-reagan, a fascinating one to watch. we have a little bit of sound from it. we want to get your thoughts on that. let's play that. >> governor reagan, as a matter of fact, gone his political career campaigning around this nation against medicare. >> the
the first kennedy/nixon debate where kennedy defied the expectations that he was a rich light weight playboy and won the debate as much as nixon lost it. in 1980 reagan defies expectations because people -- there was a character that the carter campaign created of him of a nuclear cowboy. it is none of those things. >> carter also was asking about nuclear war. >> what romney has to do is forget the nonsense about it being about himself. if you are a 65-year-old man you are not comfortable in your own skin you never will be. he has to talk to the american people. he has to have a conversation with the american people and get them to see him as a president. >> has he? >> no he has not. >> why not? >> his convention speech he has run a personality campaign and nobody is going to out personality barack obama. >> for romney to just breakthrough what looks like an increasing race in which he has fewer chances to change the dynamics. obama has to just not make it and he wins. this is a tough situation for a challenger particularly on the first debate. the pressure is on domestic policy. and so this
f. kennedy and richard nixon squared off in the very first televised debate. while nixon was known for being a fierce debater on camera he looked nervous, sweating profusely under the hot camera lights, whereas kennedy looked calm, cool, collected. forces those that watched the debate, kennedy was the winner, but for those who listened to the debate on radio, they thought nixon won. in the end it was kennedy who won the presidential race. well, of course, humor can also have an affect on the debates. 1908 ronald reagan repeatedly attacked by president jimmy carter for his stance on health care, but reagan won fans with his response. check it out. >> governor reagan, again, typically is against such a proposal. >> governor, there you go again. >> all right. want to bring in presidential historian douglas brinkley. good to see you, as always. let's just start by seeing that moment. how significant was that between carter and reagan? >> oh, it was big. if you go back to 1980, you have jimmy carter, the sitting president, but he had double digit inflation, long gasoline lines, and iran
september leads can evaporate by election day. hubert humphrey was down 15 points to richard nixon. nixon won by less than 1%. jimmy carter had a lead over gerald ford. after three debates ford cut the lead to five points and led in the final gallup poll and narrowly lost. the final presidential debate changed everything leading to a regan landslide. >> with polls now showing president obama building a lead over mitt romney in key battleground states a democratic pollster and consultant who worked for jimmy carter says finding the right sample to survey can be tricky. >> we know from the exit polls and others is that republicans tend to respond to the polls less than often times particularly from news organizations less than do democrats. >> reporter: in 1988, george bush managed a huge swing. gallup had michael dukakis leading by 17 points after the convention. the loss to bush by 7%. a former are clinton pollster is questioning the assumptions being made in today's polls. >> these polls are assuming that you have the same high level of african american, latino and young people vote in 2

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