Newton Minow, who as a 35-year-old Federal Communications Commission chairman in 1961, delivered his famous “vast wasteland” speech, is baffled by this election year. (Photo by George Castle)

Newton Minow has been involved in presidential elections since 1952 and televised presidential debates since 1960.

At a very aware and active 90, Minow’s political resume is as long as anyone’s.

An asterisk will go on the entry for 2016. He has never witnessed a campaign quite as bizarre as this year’s.

“I thought I had a pretty basic understanding of American politics until this year,” Minow said in his cluttered, but historically spectacular Loop law office. “This year has totally baffled me, totally shocked me.

“The country’s obviously badly divided. There’s not a consensus here. The parties have become totally bitter toward each other. The other thing that’s happened is politics used to have a lot of humor. Adlai Stevenson had a lot of humor. Jack Kennedy had a lot of humor. Ronald Reagan had humor. Today there’s very little humor in politics. It’s nasty.

Minow once astounded an entire industry, if not the whole country, by labeling television a “vast wasteland” in 1961 during his fourth month as 35-year-old Federal Communications Commission chairman. But the political process was anything but a desert in the first year of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. Social and civil-rights progress was hardly linear and smooth, but both parties had diplomatic relations across the aisle.

“Congress worked with the president, even if one party had a (strong) majority,” Minow said. “Somehow they worked together. People had dinner together, had lunch together. Families knew each other. Today, they’re in session a couple of days a week. Otherwise, they’re either home or raising money. That’s the biggest problem. Congress is constantly in the business of raising money rather than dealing with the issues.”

Minow can conduct a classroom for lessons in an American history in which he has played both a supporting and centerpiece role.

The longtime Glencoe resident who now splits his time with wife Jo between Winnetka and Chicago residences literally has been a Chicago area-based Renaissance man in his many incarnations.

Now senior counsel at his longtime Sidley Austin firm, Minow once was a junior law partner of Adlai Stevenson. While FCC chairman, he was an early proponent of communications satellites and all-channel TV receivers. He sat in on the “ExComm” meetings with Kennedy and his military brass that held the fate of the world in their collective hands in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

After assisting Stevenson on his advocacy of a presidential debate system that led to the Kennedy-Nixon video duels in 1960, Minow helped revive the debates on behalf of the League of Women Voters in 1976 when the FCC changed the governing law. He has been involved in the quadrennial political show ever since, the latest as a board member on the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Newton Minow holds a photo show (from left) Minow, President Barack Obama and Abner Mikva. (Photo by George Castle)

Although he was a longtime Democratic activist, Minow has to be officially neutral in talking about the two major candidates. However, he was eminently partisan when time-tripping about a speech he wrote, but was never delivered, at the strife-torn 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

“Hubert Humphrey asked me to draft a speech for him,” Minow said. “It was the best speech I ever wrote in my life. He never gave it. It started off: ‘Eight years ago, I ran for the Democratic nomination for president against Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy defeated me. Then all of us helped Jack Kennedy defeat Richard Nixon. Jack Kennedy’s gone. Richard Nixon is still here. And I’m not going to see the man Jack Kennedy defeated eight years ago become president of the United States. And neither are you.’

“You tell me (why Humphrey declined to give the speech). He would have been elected. The country did not want Nixon. But they didn’t want the Democrats more than they didn’t want Nixon. I regret that because it led to Watergate and everything else.”

Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 eventually led to Nixon’s election and a number of presidencies to follow, all of which had negative effects on the country. But history would have taken a different turn had Kennedy lived. Minow cited the example of Kennedy’s refusal to invade Cuba as a strong hint of how he would have handled the concept of sending 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away to Vietnam.

Newton Minow has been involved in presidential elections since 1952 and televised presidential debates since 1960.

At a very aware and active 90, Minow’s political resume is as long as anyone’s.

An asterisk will go on the entry for 2016. He has never witnessed a campaign quite as bizarre as this year’s.

“I thought I had a pretty basic understanding of American politics until this year,” Minow said in his cluttered, but historically spectacular Loop law office. “This year has totally baffled me, totally shocked me.

“The country’s obviously badly divided. There’s not a consensus here. The parties have become totally bitter toward each other. The other thing that’s happened is politics used to have a lot of humor. Adlai Stevenson had a lot of humor. Jack Kennedy had a lot of humor. Ronald Reagan had humor. Today there’s very little humor in politics. It’s nasty.

Minow once astounded an entire industry, if not the whole country, by labeling television a “vast wasteland” in 1961 during his fourth month as 35-year-old Federal Communications Commission chairman. But the political process was anything but a desert in the first year of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. Social and civil-rights progress was hardly linear and smooth, but both parties had diplomatic relations across the aisle.

“Congress worked with the president, even if one party had a (strong) majority,” Minow said. “Somehow they worked together. People had dinner together, had lunch together. Families knew each other. Today, they’re in session a couple of days a week. Otherwise, they’re either home or raising money. That’s the biggest problem. Congress is constantly in the business of raising money rather than dealing with the issues.”

Minow can conduct a classroom for lessons in an American history in which he has played both a supporting and centerpiece role.

The longtime Glencoe resident who now splits his time with wife Jo between Winnetka and Chicago residences literally has been a Chicago area-based Renaissance man in his many incarnations.

Now senior counsel at his longtime Sidley Austin firm, Minow once was a junior law partner of Adlai Stevenson. While FCC chairman, he was an early proponent of communications satellites and all-channel TV receivers. He sat in on the “ExComm” meetings with Kennedy and his military brass that held the fate of the world in their collective hands in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

After assisting Stevenson on his advocacy of a presidential debate system that led to the Kennedy-Nixon video duels in 1960, Minow helped revive the debates on behalf of the League of Women Voters in 1976 when the FCC changed the governing law. He has been involved in the quadrennial political show ever since, the latest as a board member on the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Although he was a longtime Democratic activist, Minow has to be officially neutral in talking about the two major candidates. However, he was eminently partisan when time-tripping about a speech he wrote, but was never delivered, at the strife-torn 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

“Hubert Humphrey asked me to draft a speech for him,” Minow said. “It was the best speech I ever wrote in my life. He never gave it. It started off: ‘Eight years ago, I ran for the Democratic nomination for president against Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy defeated me. Then all of us helped Jack Kennedy defeat Richard Nixon. Jack Kennedy’s gone. Richard Nixon is still here. And I’m not going to see the man Jack Kennedy defeated eight years ago become president of the United States. And neither are you.’

“You tell me (why Humphrey declined to give the speech). He would have been elected. The country did not want Nixon. But they didn’t want the Democrats more than they didn’t want Nixon. I regret that because it led to Watergate and everything else.”

Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 eventually led to Nixon’s election and a number of presidencies to follow, all of which had negative effects on the country. But history would have taken a different turn had Kennedy lived. Minow cited the example of Kennedy’s refusal to invade Cuba as a strong hint of how he would have handled the concept of sending 500,000 troops 10,000 miles away to Vietnam.

“I believe that if President Kennedy had not been assassinated, we never would have made the huge commitment to Vietnam,” Minow said. “He would never have done that. He was feeling his way on that. But I believe we would have never gotten involved. I’m not a foreign policy expert, but when I look what we did in Vietnam, what we did in Iraq, what we did in Afghanistan, we’ve made terrible, terrible errors.

“I was a U.S. Army sergeant in World War II in Asia. I came to the conclusion that Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur was right, that we should not have U.S. troops on the ground in Asia, period.”

His close encounters with Democratic heavyweights continued into the 1980s and beyond. Minow played unofficial matchmaker for Barack and Michelle Obama. Sidley Austin hired star Harvard law student Barack Obama as a summer associate in 1989, working under staff attorney Michelle Robinson, a native South Sider. The pair soon became a couple, their initial courtship portrayed in the new movie “Southside With You.”

One movie scene shows the dating couple attending a movie and running into their firm’s law partner. The incident actually took place. Newton and Jo Minow did bump into the Obamas at a movie. Michelle was embarrassed to be seen dating someone who reported to her at work. The Minows told them to think nothing of it. Hollywood fictionalized the Minows, calling them “Thompson” instead.

“Whenever I see the president, he thanks me for introducing him to Michelle,” Minow said. “I said, I didn’t introduce you to Michelle. He said, Yeah, but if I hadn’t been at your law firm, I wouldn’t have met Michelle.”

As Obama rose through politics, he stayed in touch with Minow and fellow mentor Abner Mikva. As he contemplated taking the final step upward while a second-year U.S. Senator from Illinois in 2006, Obama asked to talk to the pair of respected elders.

“He said, ‘I tell you what I’m worrying about,’” Minow said. “’If I run for president, I’ll never be home. Can I (still) be a good father? I know each of you has three daughters. Each of them has turned out pretty well. If I do this, can I still be a good father?’

“Abner and I said if you’re lucky enough to be elected, you’ll be living above the store, and you’ll see them more than if you’re a senator. We weren’t sure if he had a chance to be elected. But I think he took us seriously because he kept writing down what we were saying. I said, ‘Barack, I’m not a psychiatrist. But I believe a father’s greatest influence on their children is not when they’re small, but when they’re teenagers. That’s when you can help your kids.’ He said he would tell this to Michelle. He ran, and he won.”

Minow will stay in public life as long as both his law firm and family say it’s OK. He has no plans to retire.

“I would say more than anything is good luck,” Minow said of his longevity with good health and his wits about him.

“Good genes and more important than that, even, is a good family.”

— Former FCC chairman baffled by 2016 election   —