The scene in which Peggy is in the hospital is a flashback. Her child would be about two years old in the newer episodes.

@videocake: the people at Sterling Cooper were for Richard M. Nixon, the Republican party candidate.

John F. Kennedy, the Democratic party candidate, won the presidential election of 1960.

They were still celebrating late into the night because they didn't know Nixon had lost yet.

In those days, the general public (even with the use of television), usually did not know the results of the presidential election until the next morning because the votes from all the states were being counted all night. Voting for the presidential election takes place on the first Tuesday of November, every 4 years.

Peggy had her baby in November 1960 around Thanksgiving. She correctly answered that Dwight Eisenhower was still the President.

The newly elected President of the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy, will not take office until January 20, 1961 when the new president's term begins. So, Eisenhower is still the effective President of the US until January 20, 1961.

@videocake: quite often early in the polling, the results will show that one candidate is ahead in the votes. Nixon was ahead early in the tallying of votes, and that's why the Sterling Cooper people were celebrating. Not all the votes had been counted by the time they shut the tv off.

That's why, as often happens, you can wake up the next morning and check the tv or paper, and once all final counts are in, find that the candidate who looked like they were winning, has actually lost.

Good question, videocake!...
You helped clear some things up for a few Americans, too! Great answers, everyone...

The Maidenform episode was over Memorial Day weekend 1962 so Peggy's son would be about 18 months old.

Shoulda noticed it was all you jamm54...kudos!

It would be really hard to figure out the timeline if someone didn't say something.

Now how explain those votes that get "lost" or hijacked somewhere, and show up "after" the polls are closed?!!!

That's why, as often happens, you can wake up the next morning and check the tv or paper, and once all final counts are in, find that the candidate who looked like they were winning, has actually lost.

That's because they always count the Dead votes last in Chicago.

I hate to rain on this parade, but the writers definitely took some dramatic license on this issue. Kennedy won most of the eastern and southern states, and thus had opened up a large lead by the time the polling stations in the western states closed. Kennedy ended up winning the electoral college by 84 votes. Illinois alone would not have accounted for the Kennedy victory, since it only had 27 electoral votes. If anything, Kennedy appeared to win by a wider margin, since California ended up going to Nixon after the late-arriving absentee ballots were counted.

So, history shows it was actually Kennedy with the early lead, and Nixon closing the gap. The popular vote was close (a difference of only about 100,000 nationally), but the electoral college was a clear victory.

For more fraud & controversy, see the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

The thing to remember is that the popular vote only really elects the electoral college. Two electors for each Senator and one elector for each representative, winner of the state election gets all of the electoral votes for that state. For each candidate there is a slate of electors pledged to vote for that candidate if he or she wins. A total of 538 votes. (with three extra votes for DC.)

Theoretically, okay, in fact, a president could be elected by only winning certain high-electoral vote key states and not winning the popular vote. In both of his elections, President Clinton received the plurality of the popular vote, not the majority.

As I mentioned above, the electors are pledged to vote for a particular Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate selected by their state's popular vote. *However*, as recently as 2000, there have been electors who have voted for a different candidate. It hasn't affected the overall situation. Yet...

As an example, let's say Barak Obama won the coming election and then someone documented that Obama had given aid and comfort to Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 terrorists. Or McCain won the election and then had a fatal heart attack or stroke. The electors are pledged but are still free agents.

I'm not very political, but just barely know enough to understand our election process. I wish they would toss the electoral votes out, and make the popular vote the basis for electing the president. The electoral college just drives me batty.

It's the fact that the electors can basically renege on their pledge that bothers me.