cHECKERS
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Richard Nixon's Checker's speech was a bold and shrewd demonstration that saved a man's career, but there have been a few critics who have called the speech "the most pathetic public appearances ever made by a public figure" (Simon 1). Nixon, a U.S. senator from California, was making political progress as the vice presidential running mate of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 (AP 1), when Democrats charged that Nixon was accepting gifts from a group of California businessmen. Eisenhower's advisers began urging the World War II general to drop Nixon from the ticket as a political problem (Checkers 1). An emotional Nixon accused his critics of trying to discredit him and directly discussed his family's rather simple finances pointing out that his wife, Patricia, wore a plain respectable republican cloth coat, not a mink. Nixon also explained during the speech that the money were contributions to him and his campaign and he used it on money he felt should not be charged to the American taxpayer. But, charming his way to an emotional public, he also said he had received one gift that he was going to keep. The gift was a black and white cocker spaniel that arrived in a crate from Texas and was promptly named Checkers by his daughter Tricia (Nixon's other daughter, Julie, eventually married Dwight Eisenhower's grandson David). Nixon said this about the gift, "And you know, the kids love that dog, and I just want to say right now that, regardless of what `they' say about it, we're going to keep it...