Mad Men: Nixon vs. Kennedy

Air Date

Thursday October 11, 2007

Production Code

112

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  10 Perfect

  I was waiting for an episode to blow me away, here it is! hide show

  After this episode I'm really glad I decided to give Mad Men a chance. A lot of interesting events culminate in this episode and I found it to be my most favorite yet. Finally, Don's story about his previous identity, Dick Whitman, is revealed. It was kind of what I expected it to be, but told in such an interesting way. His story could serve as it's own film. Peter's ambition finally pushes him to do something stupid and he attempts to blackmail Don when he learns of his hidden identity. He takes the information to Mr. Cooper and in an awesome scene, Cooper tells Peter to forget about it. This episode would have served great as the season finale but alas, it's not. One more left, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

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  chriseternal Added Feb 15, 2009 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Brynn Horrocks Abigail Whitman
  • Morgan Rusler Mark Johnson
  • Cassius Willis Sergeant
  • Dared Wright Army Chaplain Lt. Mitchell
  • David Garen Kronenberg Young Adam
  • Heather Seiffert Mae
  • Kevin Symons Doctor
  • Stewart Skelton Colonel
  • Troy Ruptash Lieutenant

• Recurring Roles

  • Mark Moses Herman "Duck" Phillips
  • Kiernan Shipka Sally Draper
  • Julie McNiven Hildy
  • Stephanie Courtney Marge
  • Alexa Alemanni Allison
  • Alison Brie Trudy Campbell
More Episode Cast and Crew »

• While getting a massage, Bertram Cooper makes a comment about Daley having the dead vote for Kennedy. This is reference to Mayor Richard J. Daley and the vote fraud that took place in Chicago and Texas that helped swing the tight 1960 election to Kennedy. Daley was the political boss of a large Democratic machine that could deliver the vote in Chicago wards, precincts and large areas of Cook County via patronage, party loyalty, graft and voter fraud. The situation got so bad that the then Republican Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen discovered that some Republican voters, who had died, were now registered Democrats with addresses that were empty lots in Chicago and voting straight Democratic tickets. Using the Senate’s free mail privilege, Dirksen wrote some of the dead Republicans asking why they were now alive and registered as Democratic. After Dirksen displayed the cancelled envelopes with the PO’s “No Such Address” stamp, the machine in Chicago accused Dirksen of abuse of his franking privileges. In the 1980’s one machine hack exposed the fake vote system when a promised patronage job was not delivered to him. Nixon wisely did not call for a recount or comment about the vote fraud that took place in Texas or Illinois. Illinois elected Kennedy by only 8000 votes, but Cook County delivered a 450,000 Democratic majority that supplied Illinois’s 27 electoral votes to Kennedy. Nixon lost the national election by only 112,000 votes.
  
  Theodore White revealed in The Making of the President 1968 that Hubert Humphrey did not expose the fact that Anne Chennault, a Republican of Asian decent, played a crucial role in the wrecking of the 1968 Paris peace talks by the Nixon campaign. She had advised then South Vietnam President to kill the peace talks and wait for better times under President Nixon and arranged a meeting between Nixon and the South Vietnam ambassador. This event helped elect Nixon in the 1968 presidential election that was also a close election. [edit]

• Featured Music:
  Gopher Mambo by Yma Sumac
  Metro Polka by Frankie Laine [edit]
• This episode was included on the 2008 Emmy Awards 'For Your Consideration' DVD. [edit]

• Bert Cooper: (to Peter) The Japanese have a saying: a man is whatever room he is in, and right now Donald Draper is in this room. [edit]
• Pete Campbell: What are you doing? Where are you going?
  Don Draper: I'm going to take care of this right now.
  Pete Campbell: Is this some sort of thing like in the movies where I have a gun and you don't think I'm going to shoot you? I will shoot you. [edit]
• Pete Campbell: Why can't you give me what I want? I've earned this job. I deserve it.
  Don Draper: Why? Because your parents are rich? Because you went to prep school and have a $5.00 haircut? You've been given everything. You've never worked for anything in your life. [edit]

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