Hyman Raskin was the little known JFK aide who was given the task of managing the Kennedy political machine in the years preceding the run for the Presidency. He was also reportedly given the reins of the day-to-day political operation at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angelos.
Hyman Raskin was a Chicago lawyer who entered the political scene when he helped manage the 1952 and 1956 Presidential campaigns of Adlai Stevenson. He was recruited into the Kennedy effort by Joe Kennedy in 1957. He slipped back into relative obscurity and his old life at his law practice after the 1960 election. He died in 1995 in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 86.
After leaving the Kennedy campaign, Raskin wrote a memoir of his time in the campaign entitled A Laborer in the Vineyards, which was used as a source by Semour Hersh in his book The Dark Side of Camelot
At the convention, Raskin ran the communications center which, in an technical political innovation for which the Kennedys’ were known, was located in a leased trailer outside of the convention building. This enabled the political team to keep in constant contact with the state delegations.
In his book, as quoted by Hersh, Raskin reported that the Kenendy machine had done its work well and was confident of the nomination,
“We were confident that the numbers which the state reports produced would closely approximate those we had before the initial [convention] meeting was held…. It appeared impossible for Kennedy to lose the nomination. The votes merely needed to be officially tabulated; therefore, in my opinion, if he failed, it would be the result of some uncontrollable event.
[250,p.90-91]