Season 1: Episode 12 - Nixon vs. Kennedy
"It never should have been this close..."
Season 1: Episode 12
“Nixon vs. Kennedy”
Directed by Alan Taylor
Written by Lisa Albert, Maria Jacquemetton, & Andre Jacquemetton
Setting: November 8-9th, 1960
Here it is, the reason why I got into the show.
No, it wasn’t because I wanted to see sexy people ruin their lives. That was just a bonus for history freaks like me who want to see those sexy people watch the actual NBC TV coverage of the 1960 election.
Mad Men isn’t just good television, it is a time machine (get it). That aspect of the show is clear and utilized to perfection in “Nixon vs. Kennedy.” The entire season has been building to this, the true moment where the 1950s die and the way the world is supposed to be… isn’t the case.
The world is changing which doesn’t matter for the busy bees of Sterling Cooper. They still wake up with a hangover in the morning no matter who ends up in The White House.
Duck Phillips, in his first appearance, even knows that the election is “meaningless” to a man like him. He states that no matter who he says he voted for, Sterling Cooper will still want to hire him. These men will drink liquid lunches and sleep with their secretary before noon, having a new President won’t change that.
The ones who get affected in this world are the lower employees like the innocent security guy who is fired when Peggy complains about the party. There is a different America on their skyscraper floor. For the boys partying and guessing panty colors as polls close and precincts report who the leader of the free world will be, the path of history is a game that ends with a bra on the floor.
This is the funniest episode since Roger chucked oysters because, Hell, politics are hilarious. Everyone dances and drinks crème de menthe while a tiny TV they barely notice reports on states that none of them have been to. The most memorable scene of the party is when Sterling Cooper puts on an impromptu production of Paul Kinsey’s play they find in his office, which is of course horrible.
Joan is in her element here. Kissing boys for fun and showing old lovers just what they’re missing. Of all the characters, she is the one who adapts most to the moment she is in. The girl knows how to have a good time and it would be just as big of a party for her were there no election happening at all.
Don is subdued in this episode until the shocking close when all is revealed about Dick Whitman. He takes almost no interest in the ongoing election and won’t even explain the Electoral College to his daughter when she asks. His only concern is in how it affects his work and if he does not have to be at a work election party, he won’t be.
Don Draper doesn’t vote and he certainly won’t spend a minute of his day glued to a TV broadcasting results that he knows Nixon could have changed with a well-run campaign. Even if the Nixon camp had fully gone with Sterling Cooper, Don wouldn’t have watched. It’ll still be the same country in the morning. What Don cannot directly affect is beyond him and that is why it is so easy for him to abandon life as he knows it.
Unlike Nixon, Pete’s next career step wasn’t even a close call. Don never considered him for the accounts manager position he is hiring Duck Phillips for. While Nixon refuses to contest the results of the election after possible voter fraud in Illinois, Pete uses everything he can to destroy Don Draper and his lies.
Nixon could have done the same thing to Kennedy and he chose not to in part because he shared Cooper’s mantra. You live to fight another day and chaos is no substitute for what one man considers justice.
This episode serves as a condemnation of Kennedy’s worst traits (a supposedly family man who had affairs and nearly destroyed his promising life numerous times) and as a praise of Nixon’s best traits (a rigid man who chose to gracefully accept defeat so that he may one day know victory). Richard Nixon was a man who knew when he was beaten. Pete Campbell has never accepted a defeat in his life.
Account manager going to Duck is the first defeat he will acknowledge and Pete will be better for it. He is now on the road to understanding his worst traits and utilizing his best. That is a long road. No one deserves anything, be it a promotion or the Presidency. Timing is everything. 1960 was Kennedy’s and 1968 would be Nixon’s time.
A strength and weakness of every character is that they are American. The United States is “THE” nation of the world, the one all look to. It is the example of nations just as Don Draper is the example of men.
It is also built on lies, evils, and a history that TV would have you believe is full of great men without blemish. America was still wearing a Davy Crockett fur cap and manifesting its destiny.
America becomes stronger when it admits its flaws and analyzes the full history of the nation with honesty and reflection. I remember being taught as a child that America had never lost a war and there was clear pride in being told this. It is false, the Vietnam War soon approaching in Mad Men proved that America and her people need to learn from defeat as well as victory.
“Nixon vs Kennedy” is about accepting reality. Don delusionally runs to Rachel Menken and pleads with her to go to LA with him. He has no plan besides wanting to leave with her. The past is easier ignored than reckoned with, even when that past includes a wife and children who wait for him to come home each day.
Rachel sees him as a coward and ends their relationship.
In the end, no one comes out of this episode looking good except for Cooper… and Richard Nixon.
Sometimes the greatest lesson in victory or defeat is not to care.
You live to fight another day.
Don Draper lives to “not fight” another day in the shocking flashback where we finally see how Dick Whitman became Don Draper.
His life is built on a lie to the point that it has now become his reality.
If Don Draper became Dick Whitman again, he would be lying to you.
The party is over.
What’s done is done and you do not belong in the past. Learn from it, but do not become it or make it your home.