Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson.

This week American presidential history. We've got the man who told JFK he'd won in 1960.

I was sure that the senator would like to hear the latest and I went up the stairs.

I walked in and I said good morning Mr President.

Also the first black woman to make a serious bid for the top job.

Shirley Chism was a fireball, a wind machine, and a remarkable woman and the first African American to achieve so many

spectacular political victories.

Plus President Bush on the day of the 9-11 attacks,

the religious right as a promoter of presidents,

and of course there's Watergate.

The real issue is not what happened. The real issue is who

authorized it. When was it done and how was the president involved? That's all

coming up and we begin with the election of John F. Kennedy,

probably the American 20th century president who seemed to most embody the spirit of

his age. Young, photogenic, optimistic, but tragic also as he was assassinated in 1963

before serving out his four years in the White House.

In 2010, Lucy Williamson spoke to someone who knew JFK well, his former aid and speech writer Ted Sorensen.

It's November the 8th, 1960.

Roozing heavyweight boxing contest, with the two boxers slugging toe to toe right up to the

bell at the end of the 15th round and now they and we await the judges

decision the judges in this case being the American people who are at this moment still

casting their ballots across the continent. They are deciding which of two men

...