Was JFK the only Democrat who could beat Nixon in 1960?

[johnpressman]

To take your question one step further, JFK would have only won the election with LBJ as his Vice Presidential candidate.  There was a serious effort to deprive both candidates from an electoral college victory through slates of "unpledged" electors running in several southern states resulting in 15 electors voting for Sen. Harry F. Byrd.

LBJ was essential in limiting this quasi-Dixiecrat effort to throw the 1960 election into the House Of Representatives.  Without LBJ on the ticket, 1960 would look very different.

As to LBJ as the nominee, Nixon would have crushed him in a televised debate, and that was the whole ball game in 1960.

[johnpressman]

I disagree. Sen. Smathers, although JFK's pal, was a signer of the 1956 "Southern Manifesto" making him unacceptable as his running mate in 1960.

LBJ, a moderate who could keep the South from going to Nixon or to the unpledged electors scheme, was the perfect choice for JFK.  Without LBJ, Texas, the Carolinas and W. VA go Republican in 1960.

I don't see JFK's other potential VP candidates such as Symington (who was promised the nomination by Kennedy), Orville Freeman of MN. or Sen. Henry Jackson of WA making much of a difference.

I believe Nixon would have crushed LBJ in 1960, whether the TV debates are held or not.  JFK kept Johnson in the South, knowing his accent  and personality wouldn't play well up North.  LBJ might have won VA, TN, FL and KY from Nixon but would have lost most of the Northeast and Midwest  without the huge Catholic and Black turnout that put JFK over the top in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

[johnpressman]

JFK's people feared that Nixon would insist on at least one Vice Presidential debate.  LBJ's southern accent and coarse manner was anathema to the general electorate in 1960.  I remember that year well and it was a very different time than 2019.

 Watch the replays of the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates. The moderators followed strict debate protocol, with both parties obeying time limits and comporting themselves respectfully.  This is a far cry from what we have observed in our much more recent political history.  The very thought that a candidate for President  would mock or intimidate his rival on live TV would have been inconceivable in the year 1960. Ted Rogers, Tom Dewey and other GOP professionals urged Nixon to tone down his rhetoric and refrain from attacking Kennedy so as to appear "Presidential".

Nixon's shortcoming in the first debate were due more to his appearance than his debating skills. He was pale, sick with a fever and underweight from a hospital stay due to a serious staph infection. Kennedy appeared tan, handsome and vigorous in comparison.  Nixon looked much better in the later debates but you know what they say about first impressions.

If LBJ had somehow won the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination, my best guess is that he would back down from debating Nixon, an experienced debater from high school through college through his McKeesport, PA debate with JFK in 1947.  Nixon was also the first politician to make successful use of live TV; the 1952 Fund (Checkers) Speech.

No, LBJ would have never been nominated for President in his own right.  As much as he attempted to make himself out as a Westerner rather than a Southerner, he would go over like a lead balloon up North.  I agree that he would have won many Southern states but the loss of the Northern and Midwestern states that a 1960 LBJ campaign would engender give the GOP a significant win. Read David Pietruska's "1960" for an in-depth look at that years' Presidential campaign.