The United States presidential election of 1960 marked the end of the eight years of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. It pitted Republican Richard M. Nixon, who had transformed the office of Vice President from its former status as "the most boring, insignificant job in the universe" into a national political base simply by giving a speech about his kids' dog, against Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose nomination was most certainly not the result of his father pulling strings within the Democratic party.