You want to know who won the debate that just ended? Relax. In a matter of minutes, every media outlet in your time zone — from the local weekly shopper to the all-weather station — will have just conducted its very own voter "focus group" or quickie poll and will be telling you who won and who lost the big debate.

In 1960, when the nation held its first-ever presidential debate, there were no focus groups or overnight polls. The press, with no agreed-upon standards by which to determine the outcome, was reluctant to name a winner. Enter Dick Tuck. The day after the first Kennedy-Nixon debate — which 60 percent of the nation's adult population had watched or listened to — Republican Richard Nixon flew to Memphis, Tenn. In the greeting party on the airport tarmac (in those pre-assassination days security around presidential candidates was much more relaxed) was an especially friendly matron, sporting an oversized Nixon button. She consoled the GOP nominee with words that could be overheard by reporters nearby: "Don't worry, son. Kennedy beat you last night, but you'll do better next time." Nixon uncomfortably thanked her.

This was a classic Dick Tuck production. He had recruited the woman and had written and stage-directed the airport prank.

I reached Tuck in his Tucson, Ariz., apartment this week. Now 84, he is still, in spite of a recently diagnosed heart condition, full of the joy and antic spirit that was his signature contribution to California and national campaigns in the '50s and '60s. It actually began, Tuck reminded me, after his discharge from the Marines, when he somehow got on board President Harry Truman's 1948 campaign train as it whistle-stopped through California on its way to a historic upset victory.

While at the University of California at Santa Barbara, even though he was a supporter of Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas in her 1950 Senate campaign, Tuck managed to be named the "advance man" for a visit by Douglas' opponent, Nixon, to Santa Barbara. Tuck hired a big hall and deliberately did not publicize the event. Nixon arrived to face nearly empty seats and a tiresome introduction from Tuck, who announced, to the candidate's surprise, that Nixon would speak on the International Monetary Fund. According to Tuck, after the debacle, Nixon asked him again for his name and, when told, announced, "Dick Tuck, you have just made your last advance."

But 12 years later, while working for California Democratic Gov. Pat Brown, Tuck did "advance" a visit to Los Angeles' Chinatown by Brown's Republican opponent, Nixon. The press had reported on a largely unsecured (and un-repaid) $205,000 loan from Hughes to then-Vice President Nixon's brother Donald, which had been followed by a favorable IRS ruling for a Hughes enterprise. Nixon was photographed under a sign in English reading, "Welcome Mr. Nixon," to which was added in Chinese characters: "What about the Hughes loan?"

I met Dick Tuck in 1968 when we both worked in Robert Kennedy's campaign. Dick traveled on the candidate's plane raising spirits and offering political advice. During the Oregon campaign, when Kennedy's dog Freckles was on the plane and got loose on the grounds of an airport, Tuck was seen chasing and capturing the terrier. He was loudly needled by reporters about the indignity of such a shrewd political pro being reduced to dog-sitting. Tuck's rebuttal: "It may look like a dog to you, but it's an ambassadorship to me."

There was to be no ambassadorship nor any Kennedy administration. An assassin's bullets guaranteed that. Tuck is today rooting hard for Barack Obama, whom he met at the 2004 Democratic convention. Politics and the campaign trail are less fun without him. But if you see somebody with an outsized McCain button telling the Arizona senator — within earshot of a microphone — after a debate: "Don't worry. Even though he thumped you last night, you'll get him next time," you'll know where they got the idea.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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COPYRIGHT 2008 MARK SHIELDS