Sixty Years Ago Today ...

Sixty years ago today, President Harry Truman delivered the first-ever televised presidential address.

There have been many memorable presidential addresses on TV since 1947 -- Ike warning the country of the "military/industrial complex," JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Richard Nixon telling the nation he would resign, Ronald Reagan after the Challenger explosion, even George W. Bush speaking to Congress in the aftermath of 9/11.

These were moments that, in their own ways, brought the country together, because they were shared experiences. And they were shared because of television.

That's not to say that radio addresses by Franklin D. Roosevelt didn't do their part to unite the country during the Depression and World War II. But TV gave us not only the voice of the president but his image as well -- which has seemed to make his involvement in the moment more personal.

Unfortunately, history didn't seem to record the subject of Truman's first televised address, only the fact that he gave one. But, in a way, that's appropriate. Most televised presidential addresses have been quite forgettable.

And some of the addresses before television were memorable, too.

The American people didn't see Roosevelt tell them that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself or that December 7th was a date that would live in infamy. But they did hear him say those words.

The experiences might have been even more meaningful if Americans could have seen their president during those times of crisis.

Television gave people the opportunity to forge a new kind of relationship with their president -- for better or worse.

These days, to be elected president, one must look good on television. Not necessarily great -- just better than the other guy.

It's hard to imagine some of our greatest presidents -- Roosevelt, for example, who was handicapped by polio, and Abraham Lincoln, who was perhaps our homeliest president -- succeeding in the era of television.

Perhaps it was better for them -- and for the country -- that they lived in the pre-television era.

In Lincoln's case, his eloquence seems to have been served better by printed reports. Although he possessed a brilliant mind, apparently he didn't have the speaking voice to do full justice to the words.

Accounts have it that Lincoln spoke in a high-pitched voice with a distinct frontier accent -- pronouncing words like get, there and chair as git, thar and cheer.