A memorable speech can turn around a faltering election campaign – as Nixon did along with his “Checkers” speech

20 years before WatergateThe national political ambitions of then-Senator Richard Nixon were in jeopardy. He was accused of using a personal slush fund of $18,000 to cover his expenses, and because the 1952 presidential campaign progressed, doubts concerning the legality of his conduct increased.

Nixon managed to proceed his long profession in national politics – and he retained the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket that yr – by delivering a speech on television and radio during which Checkers, his family's cocker spaniel, played a memorable role.

What Nixon’s “Checkers” speech was unprecedented and happened at a time when television was just starting to influence American political life.

Although the memory of that speech has faded, the episode offers a reminder, perhaps of little relevance to President Joe Biden as of late, of how political firestorms – and calls for a controversial Candidate resigns A national party list – can, under certain circumstances, be neutralised.

The “ladyThe case can also be a reminder that a touch of scandal doesn’t necessarily harm a political campaign.

Nixon on the crossroads

The Republicans of 1952, led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, won Landslide victory in 39 states concerning the Democratic presidential candidate, Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois. sweep of the Eisenhower-Nixon victory was a result that no pollster had expected, as I note in my 2024 book: “Lost in Gallup: Poll failure in US presidential election.”

But a Republican victory seemed anything but certain in mid-September 1952, when the New York Post reported that Nixon, then 39 years old, had benefited from a personal fund arrange by his supporters to cover expenses he incurred as U.S. Senator for California.

The then-liberal Post said the fund was backed by a California “millionaires' club” and was “dedicated exclusively to the financial well-being of Senator Nixon.” The nest egg enabled Nixon to live a lifetime of luxury far beyond what a senator's salary – $12,500 a yr, about $145,000 today – would allow, the Post claimed.

Nixon was taken completely by surprise and denied any wrongdoing. He was slow to comprehend that the Washington Post's revelations threatened his political profession. Not only did they forged doubt on the senator's judgment, however the report also appeared to contradict Eisenhower's promise to crack down on scandal, corruption and unethical behavior in Washington.

Nixon didn’t appear to be just “damaged goods,” as Tom Wicker put it in his Biography of NixonSuddenly he was “a liability” to Eisenhower, a five-star general and America's biggest military hero of World War II.

Calls for Nixon to desert his Republican candidacy quickly arose, even from throughout the party itself and its eastern establishment wing. Former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, a double loser throughout the election campaign for the US presidency, called on Nixon to resign.

Nixon soon became the goal of boos from the group at campaign rallies. Many reporters covering the candidate assumed that he would should resign, and calls to that effect began appearing in newspapers that supported Eisenhower.

The Washington Post, for instance, wrote that Nixon's resignation would “provide the Republican Party with an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate the seriousness of its campaign against rampant behavior and corruption in government.” The New York Herald Tribune, a mouthpiece of the established Republican Party system within the East, called on Nixon to “make a formal offer to withdraw from the candidacy.”

Eisenhower, however, reacted cautiously to Nixon's continued presence and gave only half-hearted support to his running mate because the controversy escalated. He demanded that Nixon disclose all details concerning the fund.

A turnaround with Checkers

Nixon's response was to present his perspective to Americans on radio and tv from a broadcast studio in Los Angeles. half-hour speech was paid for by the Republican National Committee and aired continue to exist September 23, 1952, five days after the New York Post's report on the fund.

Nixon was alternately adamant, self-pitying and partisan throughout the broadcast. His wife, Pat, sat in a close-by chair, mostly out of camera range, and appeared dismayed the few times the camera was on her.

Nixon emphasized his humble origins and lifestyle, mentioning that his wife didn’t own a mink coat, which was a luxury item on the time. Instead, Nixon said, she wore a “respectable Republican cloth coat.”

He described his assets and liabilities intimately, saying, “It's not very much. But Pat and I have the satisfaction that every penny we have is truly ours.”

Nixon said he had not given any “special favors” to the 76 donors who gave as much as $1,000 to the fund, which was established two years earlier. Its sole purpose, Nixon said, was to cover expenses “which I did not think should be charged to the taxpayers of the United States.”

The fund’s largest single expenses were displayed $6,100 for stationery and $3,430 for travel. “Not a single cent” was spent on personal use, Nixon said.

Little of what Nixon described appeared to support the New York Post's claim that a fund had been arrange for his “financial security.”

Nearly twenty minutes into his remarks, Nixon invoked the Checkers Act, a passage that helped secure the speech an enduring place in American politics.

A Nixon supporter in Texas had given the pet to Nixon's family after hearing a radio broadcast during which Pat Nixon said her daughters would love to have a dog.

Not long afterward, Nixon said throughout the speech, “We got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went to pick it up. Do you know what it was?”

“It was a little cocker spaniel in a crate … sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted. And our little daughter Tricia, the six-year-old, named him Checkers,” Nixon said.

“And you know,” he added, “the kids loved the dog, like all kids do, and I just want to tell you one thing now: No matter what they say about it, we're going to keep Checkers.”

A “political masterstroke”

The author George D. GopenIn Assessment of the speech years latersaid the reference to Checkers figuratively allowed Nixon's daughters to “burst unseen onto the stage and dominate our consciousness while playing with their dog.”

“This is great thinking and really well written,” he wrote.

Immediately after the speech Robert Ruarka columnist, wrote that Nixon had essentially “stripped naked in front of the world and brought his wife, children and dog into the picture.” Nixon had sided with the vast majority of Americans, which Wicker described as a “stroke of political genius.”

At the tip, Nixon invited viewers and listeners to assist resolve his political fate by sending letters and telegrams – to not Eisenhower, but to members of the Republican National Committee. “Tell them,” Nixon said, “whether you think I should stay or go. And whatever their decision is, I will abide by it.”

Tens of hundreds of Americans responded by expressing their support for Nixon, and members of the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to maintain him on the ballot.

The final result was perhaps helped by less sensational revelations on the time, namely that Stevenson, the Democratic presidential candidate, had supported supplemental income funds for appointed state officials in Illinois and that his running mate, Senator John Sparkman, kept his wife on his congressional payroll for 10 years.

The day after the speech, Eisenhower met with Nixon in West Virginia and declared his vice chairman justified. “But you're my boy!” the Herald Tribune quoted the overall as saying.

A political disaster had been averted. Nixon served two terms as Vice President in Eisenhower's administrations and won the presidency twice before Resignation in August 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.

Nixon’s self-rescue throughout the 1952 election campaign was remarkable and maybe instructive. It suggested that a creative, high-profile and timely response can prevent sensational accusations from harassed candidacylike they almost did with Nixon.

The lessons of 1952 are, after all, only superficially relevant to Biden’s predicament after his recent disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump. While the long-ago Checkers speech doesn’t offer a sure-fire plan for surviving a political crisis, it does provide an enchanting context for 2024.

It is definitely noteworthy that in recent days Biden has Diversity of goal groupsincluding that of a TV networkin an urgent move to secure his candidacy for re-election.

Although Biden rejects their Results, surveys clarify Biden’s not successfulthat a brand new edition like Checkers just isn’t in sight.