July 8, 1960: Times Political Editor Kyle Palmer, one of the powers behind Richard Nixon’s career, takes a look at the Democrats. He finds the competition narrowing to Sens. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Lyndon Johnson (D-Texas), with the respective campaigns advocating a Kennedy-Johnson or Johnson-Kennedy ticket.  This will be the last big race for Palmer, who died of leukemia in 1962 after a long illness. In fact, Palmer filed only a handful of columns after the November 1960 election.