CNN has begun a new six part series called “Race For The White House”, which will cover six Presidential elections over the next six weeks, each episode an hour in length, and narrated by actor Kevin Spacey.
On Sunday, the 1960 battle for the White House between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon was covered.
Future episodes in some order not known yet include chronologically:
1828–Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams
1860–Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
1948–Harry Truman and Thomas E. Dewey
1988–George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis
1992–Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush
It is not clear why these particular elections were chosen, as there are many others, many more interesting and significant, that were not selected, including:
1896–William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan
1912—Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft
1928–Herbert Hoover and Alfred E. Smith
1932–Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover
1940–Franklin D. Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie
1968–Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George C. Wallace
1980–Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, John Anderson
2000–George W. Bush and Al Gore
2008–Barack Obama and John McCain
This series is well worth watching, after having seen the first episode last night!