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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Oct. 10, 1960
Guest Editorial
Nixon Image Improving
Friday night's Great Debate must be viewed as number two of a series of four. Therefore, we must recall that in the first debate of the series Senator Kennedy took the lead. Although Mr. Kennedy didn't augment the dominant Rooseveltian image he projected in the earlier debate, neither did he do anything to contradict it.
ALTOUGH THE CANDIDATES SPOKE on a variety of questions, it was obvious Friday night that the era of agreement was over. Nixon, who on September 26 made a point of frequent agreement on main issues with his opponent and of differing only in method, was more anxious in the latest debate to clash with Mr. Kennedy directly and forcefully.
WHEREAS, KENNEDY MERELY MAINtained his position. Nixon advanced his. How? (1) He changed his appearance; through makeup Nixon looked healthier. The infrequent cutaway shots never let us see the lip-chewing Vice President of September 26. (2) He changed his approach: through his projected attitude he looked unharried. In comparison with the last debate, Nixon's approach was crisp and positive. He avoided the traps of generalization and sentiment (save for the Civil Rights issue) and concentrated on specific answers. Vice President Nixon's image was stronger in all dimensions.
Friday night's format differed from the earlier debate in the lack of central theme. On September 26, both men spoke on domestic policy, on October 7, they answered whatever questions were put to them. Last Friday night the candidates were forced by the question format to be relatively specific. However, the question format produced fragmentation and a lack of cohesiveness. The viewer was hard put to organize the material presented. We feel that topic limitation produces a more acceptable totality, for when dealing with a single issue, similarities and dissimilarities in the candidates' approach to a larger question are more recognizable.
Two dominant positions emerged from the clash. Kennedy called for advancement on all fronts — military, economic, and social — in order to adequately combat the Communist menace and to regain lost American prestige. He compared his position to Theodore Roosevelt's "speak softly
and carry a big stick," calling for more actual power and less verbal bluster. He stated, "I don't confuse words with strength." Nixon denied the charge of America's lost prestige and endorsed fully the Eisenhower administration's position and performance on all questions raised during the debate. These positions might be dramatized as Kennedy's "Big Stick" in motion versus Nixon's defensive status quo.
BOTH MEN WORKED HARD AT IMAGE projection. As mentioned above, Nixon took two giant steps forward in terms of image. His makeup, obviously much improved, helped the audience see a man who was young and at the same time mature; who was knowledgeable and at the same time willing to learn. Compared to his earlier performance, Friday night the Vice President appeared both seasoned and sophisticated.
Senator Kennedy's rapid delivery made it difficult to follow him closely, while at the same time, the viewer was impressed with his facility for quoting factual material. He gave the impression of hurried assurance. Throughout, Kennedy exhibited a debater's anxiety to reply to his opponent's charges.
WE ARE CONCERNED WITH THE question of the ethics of image-projection. What responsibility does a presidential candidate have to project a direct, accurate image of his person and his philosophy rather than to construct an image of appeal?
Winsomeness, humor, and smiles were conspicuously absent from this debate. They were replaced by a sober earnestness which communicated struggle. Both men obviously desired the projection of this direct clash.
We are pleased with the series and feel that such television debates will do much to prevent the elections of future Grants and Hardings.
Final expert comment on the first debate gave Kennedy the lead. We feel in the second encounter Mr. Kennedy was unable to hold the initiative and it resulted in a closing of the gap. From this viewpoint, we suggest that the next debate will be one of the most crucial in the series.
Will Linkugel and Frank E. X. Dance Assistant Professors of Speech
The Republican Answer Editor
I just concluded reading the "Political Differences" letter printed in the UDK, and I can only sigh and reply, "A Typical Democrat". Have you ever met one who wouldn't try to tnd me most petty, nebulous, minor differences and try to start a really big argument? Unfortunately, I haven't! But, to clarify the issue for our prevaricating author and for the readers, I might say that I finished enrolling on Thursday,
September 22, at approximately 4:45 p.m. and stopped by the KU Young Republicans booth to inquire about membership—and they were still quite active and operating! Since the Republican Party is not the party of Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa, they can damn well close-up when they please, for the labor union doesn't maintain a time-clock in the Union
You know, friend, if you and your Democratic buddies wouldn't spend quite so much of your time
spreading slander and digging into the annals of history, trying to find out why you exist as a party and what you have done in the last 50 years, and do a little worthwhile work once, maybe your little drive in Lawrence—asking people for money—tomorrow night wouldn't be necessary. Perhaps Nixon's slogan, "Experience Counts" isn't the best, but at least the party does manage its finances quite well and doesn't include door-to-door stops in addition to taxes.
“Miss Republican”
Daily Hansan
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Managing Editor Carol Heller, Jane Boyd, Priscila Burton and Carrie Edwards, Assisting managing Editors; Pat Sheley and Suzanne Shaw, City Editors; John Macdonald, Sports Editor; Peggy Kallos and Donna Engle, Society Editors.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
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BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Mark Dull Business Manager
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Miss Republican (Editor's note; Last week the UDK inadvertently printed an unsigned letter headed "Political differences". Today we are printing another unsigned letter in answer to the first. We are doing this because we feel that comment both pro and con on this matter is required. However, we are again reminding our readers that all letters submitted for use in this column must henceforth identify the author by his actual name. No pseudonyms can be used.)
UDK Reprimanded
***
I think that the Daily Kansan owes its readers an explanation for its policy which allows an employment ad specifying white females only to be printed.
Editor:
It may often be convenient to admit of prejudicial categories to avoid misunderstanding, but we should not contribute, even indirectly, to an acceptance of these categories.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
Judson E. Tiax Jr., Oil City Pennsylvania
"SAY DIDJA NOTICE THAT NEW CHICK SERVING TH' DESERTS?"
Art in Review
By James Gohl
(Gohl was a member of the KU Brigadoon traveling group which toured the Far East this summer. He is majoring in the history of art.)
Walking through the new exhibit of Japanese prints at the Museum of Art was like reliving the two weeks I spent this summer in the wonderful country of Japan.
Although these Ukiyo-ye prints are from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, they are pictures not only of Japan's past but are also of its unique present. Ukiyo-ye means the paintings of the floating world, but this art is certainly of the present.
THE JAPANESE PEOPLE of today may have abandoned their traditional costumes and wigs, but these are not the things a traveler in Japan remembers. Rather it is the character and attitude of a people which are remembered, and these have not been changed by the new western influences. It is precisely this character and this quality that these artists have captured.
Three prints by Utamara, perhaps the greatest of the more traditional artists, show the upper-class Japanese women of the eighteenth century, but their eyes are the eyes of all Japanese women, soft, quietly contented with life. Shopping in the great western-style Takashimaya Department store in the heart of Tokyo, you find these same qualities in the eyes of the sales-clerks and elevator operators.
Perhaps the best known of all the Japanese artists of any period is Hokusai. James A. Michener has written a book about him, and no exhibition of Japanese art would be complete without at least one example of his work. The current exhibit contains seven prints by this master of rural satire.
Unlike Utamara, Hokusai finds his inspiration in the charming life of the Japanese peasant. Today the Japanese country-side has the same rustic atmosphere Hokusai created in his prints.
One of the most interesting parts of the exhibit is the progressive display of how a "work-shop" print is produced. From these nine prints you can follow the process from the original line drawing to the final, full color print. In the various print shops found all over Tokyo and even in Kyoto, you can see the Japanese using much the same equipment and working in much the same manner as the men who produced this eighteenth century work.
SIX OF THE SEVEN prints in the show are from his "Thirty-six Views of Fuji" which provide a graphic record of provincial life near the symbol of all Japan, Mt. Fuji. He views these people with much the same wit as Toulouse-Lautrec views the late nineteenth century Parisian, often comically, but always lovably.
THE WHOLE EXHIBITION has been arranged chronologically from early masters of the late Seventeenth Century like Moronuba and Kyionaga to the beginning of the European influence in the late nineteenth century.
As an interesting side-light to this exhibition there is a small display of ceramics which are and always have been so important to the Japanese. They provide not only an interesting contrast to the prints of the Ukiyo-ye, but also give further evidence that the art of Japan is an art of beauty, elegance, simplicity, and humor.
The exhibition, which opened yesterday, will run through October and November.