Report Outline
Special Focus
Overview
When Sen. John F. Kennedy set his sights on Pennsylvania's 81 delegates to the 1960 Democratic convention, there was not much question about how to win their support for the presidential nomination. Rather than setting up an organization in the state, publicly campaigning there or wooing political activists far and wide, Kennedy and his advisers simply went to the state's powerful Democratic leader, Gov. David L. Lawrence. After intensive personal negotiations, Kennedy won Lawrence's backing, and the legendary political boss delivered 64 convention votes to the Massachusetts senator.
Those were the old days of American politics, and they are long gone. While Kennedy sought support among big-city Democratic machines and union locals, today's candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations are haunting the living rooms of a few thousand party activists in Iowa and New Hampshire, the sites of the crucial first contests in the nomination struggle. While Kennedy wooed backers with the customary blandishments of politics—federal patronage and support for other candidates on the party ticket—the 1988 hopefuls are lining up allies by voicing interest-group concerns and striking up personal relationships with activists in the two early states, where the rewards of victory are modest in terms of delegates but immense in terms of momentum and publicity.
The jump from Los Angeles' Biltmore Hotel, where Kennedy cemented his alliance with Lawrence, to the coffee klatches of Iowa symbolizes the dramatic changes that have reshaped the nation's system for selecting major-party presidential nominees in the past two decades. In short, the nomination system has been opened up in a way that Lawrence and others of his time might scarcely have imagined. It has been transformed from a process in which a handful of leaders exercised a dominant voice, if not outright control, over their party's nomination choice, to one in which thousands of party workers and millions of primary voters decide the outcome. |
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Presidential Candidates and Campaigns |
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Jan. 15, 2021 |
The Biden Presidency  |
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Jan. 31, 2020 |
Presidential Primaries |
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Nov. 16, 2018 |
The Presidency |
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Jan. 06, 2017 |
Trump Presidency |
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Mar. 06, 2015 |
Presidential Power |
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Feb. 03, 2012 |
Presidential Election |
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Jan. 30, 2009 |
The Obama Presidency |
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Aug. 08, 2008 |
Political Conventions |
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Jul. 18, 2008 |
Race and Politics |
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Apr. 20, 2007 |
Electing the President |
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Dec. 30, 1988 |
Promises vs. Problems |
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Jul. 10, 1987 |
Presidential Nomination Process |
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Feb. 03, 1984 |
Choosing Presidential Nominees |
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Jun. 06, 1980 |
Choosing Presidential Candidates |
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Apr. 09, 1976 |
Presidential Campaign Coverage |
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Feb. 23, 1972 |
Political Conventions |
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May 27, 1964 |
Foreign Policy Issues in Election Campaigns |
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Sep. 21, 1960 |
Voting in 1960 |
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Jan. 06, 1960 |
Presidential Primaries, 1960 |
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Jan. 04, 1956 |
Campaign Smearing |
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Nov. 30, 1955 |
Presidential Possibilities, 1956 |
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May 09, 1952 |
Open Conventions |
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Jan. 16, 1952 |
Presidential Primaries, 1952 |
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Oct. 12, 1949 |
Modernization of the Presidential Election |
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Jan. 14, 1948 |
Presidential Primaries |
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May 01, 1944 |
Foreign Policy in National Elections |
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Jan. 01, 1944 |
Choice of Candidates for the Presidency |
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Apr. 08, 1940 |
Republican Candidates for the Presidency, 1940 |
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Apr. 01, 1940 |
Democratic Candidates for the Presidency, 1940 |
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Jun. 19, 1939 |
Selection of Nominees for the Presidency |
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Aug. 19, 1938 |
Nomination by Primary |
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Mar. 11, 1936 |
Voting in Presidential Elections |
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Feb. 18, 1936 |
Presidential Candidates, 1936 |
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Mar. 03, 1932 |
Decline of the Presidential Primary |
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Aug. 25, 1931 |
Presidential Candidates, 1932 |
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May 05, 1928 |
National Nominating Conventions |
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Sep. 03, 1927 |
Presidential Candidates—1928 |
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Jun. 14, 1927 |
Patronage Influence in Nominating Conventions |
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Sep. 11, 1926 |
The Future of the Direct Primary |
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Jul. 02, 1924 |
Proposed Reforms of Presidential Nominating Methods |
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Jun. 04, 1924 |
The Machinery of the Political Conventions |
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Mar. 15, 1924 |
Presidential Candidates and the Issues |
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Sep. 05, 1923 |
The Passing of the Second Term |
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