Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 4, 2009



The Checkers speech was an address made by United States Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon on television and radio on September 23, 1952. Senator Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. With his place on the Republican ticket in doubt, the senator flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half-hour television address in which he defended himself, attacked his opponents, and urged the audience to contact the Republican National Committee to tell it whether or not he should remain on the ticket. During the speech, he stated that regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift—a black-and-white dog which was named Checkers by the Nixon children, thus giving the address its popular name. Nixon got the idea for the Checkers reference from Franklin Roosevelt's Fala speech. Nixon's speech led to an outpouring of public support for him. He was retained on the ticket, which swept to victory in November 1952, keeping Nixon on the path which would lead to his own election as President sixteen years later. The Checkers speech was an early example of a politician using television to appeal directly to the electorate, but has since sometimes been mocked or denigrated. (more...)

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