SO WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO REACH THE WORLDS MOST POWERFUL OFFICE
LADIES AND GENTLEMAN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IS ON.
WE'VE HAD BITTER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS FOR CENTURIES.
HOW FAR ARE YOU PREPARED TO GO? LINCOLN DID SOME DEVIOUS THINGS.
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A CANDIDATE LIKE ANDREW JACKSON. WILL YOU TURN FRIENDS IN TO ENEMIES?
IT'S NOT A TIME TO BE POLITE BILL CLINTON. YOU JUMP OUT THERE NOW.
KENNEDY HAD A MAJOR FOE. WILL YOU BREAK YOUR OWN RULES?
YOU ATTACK YOU OPPONENTS STRENGTH. WHO'S THE RISK HERE?
DO THE ENDS EVER JUSTIFY THE MEANS?
WHAT IS THIS DOING TO AMERICAN DEMACRACY?
POLITICS IS NO HOLDS BARRED. THESE ARE THE BACK ROOM DEALS ,
PUNISHING ATTACKS, AND RUTHLESS DEEDS
THAT SEAL VICTORY. SON OF A BITCH. YOU WANNA WIN OR NOT?
RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE SUNDAY MARCH 6TH ON CNN.
NOW A SNEAK PEEK OF THE NEW CNN ORIGINAL SERIES
RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.
[NARRATOR] FOR 8 YEARS,
YOU'VE BEEN A HEARTBEAT AWAY FROM THE OVAL OFFICE...
...A LOYAL VICE-PRESIDENT...
[John F. Kennedy] 'We will carry the fight and we shall win!'
[Cheering]
...BIDING YOUR TIME, WAITING YOUR TURN.
YOU KNOW THE PATH TO POWER...
[Jingle] ♪ ...Kennedy! Kennedy!...
AND YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE RULES.
♪ Kennedy! Kennedy! Kennedy! Kennedy! Kennedy! Kennedy!
♪ Kennedy!
BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DISCOVER
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME?
[Siren wails]
1960, AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE,
IS TERRIFIED OF THE RED MENACE.
[Man] 'America was very unsettled.'
The Soviets hd the bob
and because of tht
there ws uncertainty ther,
there was fear.
AMERICA HAS CONFIDENCE IN ITS PRESIDENT,
FATHER OF THE NATION IN WORLD WAR II,
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER.
BUT EVEN PRESIDENTS HAVE TO RETIRE.
WHO CAN STEP INTO HIS SHOES?
MANY THINK THIS IS THE MAN,
EISENHOWER'S VICE PRESIDENT FOR EIGHT YEARS...
...RICHARD MILHOUSE NIXON.
Richard Nixon is well knon to the American peopl.
NIXON'S NOT SCARED OF THE RUSSIANS,
AS SOVIET PREMIER
NIKITA KHRUSCHEV FINDS OUT AT A MOSCOW TRADE FAIR.
[Man] It wasn't supposed to be much.
It was supposed o be just a meetin.
But it turned ino a confrontatio.
There must be a fre exchange of idea.
Capitalism versus communism.
[Indistinct]
Back and forth and back and forth, jabbing with the fingers.
The words didn't matte. It was the images that mattere.
[Naftali] 'He was presidential.'
He seemed reay
for te White Hous.
MEANWHILE, TRAVELING THROUGH THE BLEAK WISCONSIN LANDSCAPE,
THERE IS ANOTHER MAN
WHO BELIEVES HE'S DESTINED FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.
HE'S YOUNG, HE'S INEXPERIENCED, AND HE'S ALMOST UNKNOWN.
[Man on loudspeaker] Senator Kennedy... [Indistinct]
HIS NAME IS JOHN F. KENNEDY,
AND HE AIMS TO WIN THE WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.
[Man] 'You would go to a plant gate...
'And would stand right there.'
My job ws
to shake hans with Jack Kenned.
Shake hands with Teddy.
Bobby.
We worked hard.
I come here today
as a candidate in the Wisconsin primary.
KENNEDY IS SMART.
HE KNOWS THAT IF HE CAN PROVE HIMSELF A VOTE-WINNER
HERE IN THE PRIMARIES,
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WILL HAVE TO TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY
AS A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT.
This was a new wy of campaignin.
This was a new wy of becoming the nomine.
[Brennan] 'First of all,
he's going to have to beat Hubert Humphrey.'
HUBERT HUMPRHEY, DEMOCRAT SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA.
IS CONFIDENT HE'LL WIN WISCONSIN HEARTS.
Let me tell you, I've been working for the dairy farmer
ever since I set foot in the Senate of the United States.
[Brennan] 'So, we knew we had a tough job to win.'
It was a monumental challeng.
KENNEDY DOES HAVE ONE ADVANTAGE...
...BEING A KENNEDY.
HIS FATHER JOSEPH, RICH, POWERFUL,
AND THE FORMER AMBASSADOR TO GREAT BRITAIN,
HAS ALWAYS WANTED A SON FOR PRESIDENT.
Politics was definitely a family affair.
You had a large famiy
who was ot there sayin,
"We ae
supportig our brothr
"or or brother-in-la"
...and that, I think, was a very compelling picture.
AND IF THE MIGHT OF THE KENNEDYS ISN'T ENOUGH,
THEN THERE'S J.F.K.'S EVER-PRESENT,
EVER-GLAMOROUS WIFE, JACKIE.
You put the two together and people are just in awe.
'Really, they were the Beatles before the Beatles.'
AND FOR THE ICING ON THE CAMPAIGN CAKE,
FRANK SINATRA SERENADES WISCONSIN
WITH A SPECIAL VERSION OF "HIGH HOPES".
♪ 'Cause he's got high hopes
♪ He's got...
♪ High hopes!
So, I started singing..
[Indistinct]
...and Kennedy sai,
"It's never been sug like that before"
♪ Vote for Kennedy Vote for Kennedy... ♪
[Naftali] Doesn't happen very often,
when a Billboad
No. 1 singer decids to use his talens
to sell a political campaig.
♪ Vote for Kennedy!
GLAMOR, SHOW BUSINESS AND FAMILY.
WHO CAN COMPETE WITH THAT?
♪ So it's Hubert...
...NOT HUBERT HUMPHREY.
♪ ...the presidet for you and me♪
[Sabato] 'Humphrey recognized what he was facing.'
He calld
himself te corner drugstor,
compard to a chai.
'The Kennedys were a chain, powerful, big.'
How do you do, ma'am?
And he was passing out palm cards on the streets.
I'm Senator Humphrey.
This doesn't work too good either.
It just didn't work.
A DESPERATE HUMPHREY LUNGES FOR KENNEDY'S ACHILLES HEEL.
J.F.K. IS A CATHOLIC
AND NO CATHOLIC HAS EVER BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT.
There was a very strong anti-Catholic feeling.
J.F.K.'S TEAM FIGHT BACK.
IT'S BARE-KNUCKLE TIME,
AS KENNEDY AIDE PAUL CORBIN COMES OUT SWINGING.
How are we doing?
[Evan Thomas] 'Paul Corbin was a political hack.'
We got all we need here?
He ws
also a diry trickste.
He woud stop at nothin.
'Corbin arranged to have a lot of anti-Catholic literature
'shipped into Wisconsin,'
so right away a lot of votes are offended..
'...and they think that the awful bigoted stuff
'is coming from Hubert Humphrey.'
CORBIN'S DIRTY TRICK WORKS.
THOUSANDS OF INCENSED CATHOLICS GET UP AND VOTE FOR KENNEDY.
[Brennan] 'We won. It was tough.'
But we wo.
AFTER VICTORY IN WISCONSIN AND A LANDSLIDE IN WEST VIRGINIA,
KENNEDY HEADS STRAIGHT FOR THE NOMINATION...
...BUT THE DEMOCRATIC BOSSES ARE OUT TO GET HIM.
THE FIRST KNIFE IN KENNEDY'S BACK
IS PLUNGED BY FORMER PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN.
Senator Kennedy,
are you certain that you are quite ready
for the role of Presidet in January 1961?
Do not think
it was a foregone conclusion
that Kennedy would be
the nominee after West Virginia.
'He was the dark-horse candidate. He was the outsider.'
He was not Washington's choice.