In 1967 Richard Nixon appeared on The Mike Douglas Show, and Roger Ailes helped prepare him. “It’s a shame,” Nixon told Ailes, “a man has to use gimmicks like this to get elected.” Ailes replied: “Television is not a gimmick.”
In the 1968 campaign Ailes produced live televised discussions for Nixon, with a studio audience. He handled the set, the lighting, the makeup and the camera positions. In November 1968 he said: “This is the beginning of a whole new concept. This is it. This is the way they’ll be elected forevermore.” He added: “The next guys up will have to be performers.”
Joe McGinniss’s The Selling of the President 1968, an exposé, became one of the most influential books on American presidential campaigns.