Richard Nixon - "Checkers" Speech 

.. up to a point.

Evil genius

​@@davidrawlinson1262First comment, 11 years, second comment 1 year, third comment 1 day. Wtf is that coincidence.

@@Milwaukee_Woman are you really asking?

@@davidrawlinson1262liar. Fool.

Remember what the dormouse said

+sirscrotum "one of the greatest political speeches in US History" lmfao absolutely not

Anarkayy I was blown away by it and so was the American public in 1951. Nixon came out of that speech sure he was going to have to resign his VP bid, and maybe even his Senate seat, but the US public was so moved by his speech they demanded he take the VP slot for Eisenhower's presidential run and the rest is history.

sirscrotum it's also cited as the reason he lost in 1960 and has been cited by one of his speech writers as committing a large base against him. not that it matters. saying it's one of the best in AMERICAN POLITICS is fucking absurd. american political speeches are the standard by which all other speeches are judged. it's a tough fuckin field to crack. this speech isn't nowhere near the heavyweights you can pick from american politics.

Anarkayy My dad grew up just in time for television and saw this speech live on tv. When he recalls upon great political speeches of all his years, the Checkers speech comes up more than any other speech I can think of in the 30 years I've lived in the United States. Reason I looked up the checkers speech is because he told me what a great speech it was and the American public thought so too in 1951. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

sirscrotum oh you're one of those people. really influenced by your dads opinion. i have friends like that. some people liked it. a lot ridiculed it as a joke. reactions were mixed.

FIWEN 96 i don't even know

Checkers says that all the time.

They cutoff the reference to checkers at end of speech

They cutoff the reference to checkers at end of speech

They cutoff the reference to checkers at end of speech

Look up the text and go to the last paragraph and that will answer your question!

He does at the end of the full speech of the video.

@@carnmarth334 I’m no apologist for Nixon, who sanctioned the illegal burglary of the Democratic Party Campaign HQ, known as ‘Watergate.’ It was a criminal act and his resignation was totally justified. But after 45 years, I believe its time to reassess Nixon’s presidency and not just dismiss him as a worthless ex President. Richard Nixon was a complex and painfully shy individual, who had few friends and natural allies. His defeat by Kennedy in 1960 left him an embittered man. Added to this defeat was his failure to become Governor of California in 1962. Yet, like a ‘political Phoenix’ he rose from the ashes. When assessing Nixon, he seems to be a man of contradictions. For example, he was only as conservative as he could be and only as liberal as he had to be. He took credit for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, while privately noting that if he had not taken this liberal step, the Democratic Congress would have forced more liberal environmental legislation on him. This was a President who could philosophically oppose wage and price controls and privately express the conviction that they would not work, while still implementing them for election-year effect. Still his tactical flexibility should not obscure his steadiness of political purpose. He meant to move the country to the right, and he did. Nixon's most celebrated achievements as President-nuclear arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and the diplomatic opening to China-set the stage for the arms reduction pacts and careful diplomacy that brought about the end of the Cold War. Likewise, the Nixon Doctrine of furnishing aid to allies while expecting them to provide the soldiers to fight in their own defense paved the way for the Reagan Doctrine of supporting proxy armies and the Weinberger Doctrine of sending U.S. armed forces into combat only as a last resort when vital national interests are at stake and objectives clearly defined. His diplomatic manoeuvres to reach out to China was seen as a courageous and pragmatic move from a man who had castigated ‘Red China’ a decade before. But sadly, Nixon’s fear of losing the 1972 election led to a paranoia, which in turn prompted him to be at the centre of a spying operation which he orchestrated prior to the 1972 election. By sanctioning the Watergate crime he forfeited his integrity, moral authority and the respect of the American public!

He looked 50

Seriously?

he said he wasn't a crook when he stole from democrats....

+Ryan Brothers He wanted to find out who was leaking information to the media from the Democrat party. So he was trying to get even.

sarcasm?

Come on, when he was in Congress, he was taking money from Pepsi and making sure they got cheap sugar.

YES

Enough to buy a pretty nice house

@Jeffrey Gillespie But was he a STABLE genius??

What lie to the media for political gain, oh i think they would.

?

@@sssqqq64d It was not exactly a lie. He just did not tell the entire truth.

Imagine how history would have completely changed.

WGOOO

Trump and Nixon would be political friends not enemies don’t get it twisted.

@@eugenewithm1630 I doubt that. Nixon was before the right-ward spin of the Republicans, and while his policies are complex, he was primarily a 'west coast first' candidate, who was defined by his anti-oil and 'manage and mandate' business policies. He also has no time for 'opulent' behavior, and considered people who are in the same circle as Trump as 'a bunch of corrupt f*****ts', directly accusing the big-eastern businessmen (especially real estate and oil) of being literal devil-spawn. Part of why he had a dislike of JFK was over it. Mind you, they had a positive relationship when they did know each other, but this was a very, very old Nixon who was considering moving and settling down and was rather well known for trying to influence and talk to businessmen around the country, which Trump was definitely one of. I hate to say this but JFK is actually closer in character to Trump's. Just Trump is somewhat anachronistic and was for more flagrant in his lack of etiquette. This isn't to say they would be friends, but they do share more characteristics. Nixon's a lot more like a Biden. For better and for worse. But Nixon was pretty much widely despised in the political world for his flagrant anti-east-coast opinions and behaviors as well as his staunch opposition to the oil industry.

@@WereScrib trump and Nixon has a lot of commonality economically because they are both populists you could say. Socially, Nixon was of the centre right side similar to trump. Also the rightward spin of republicans began in 64’ and a conservative faction always existed. Nixon got elected in both 68’ and 72’ with the approval of the right wing faction of GOP.

​@@eugenewithm1630 Trump would have called Nixon a RINO.