Nixon's "Checkers Speech" - Part 2 of 2

[teamstermurph]

Checkers was a Democratic Party spy!

[NYanarchy08]

I'm in awe that he managed to get through this entire speech with a straight face.

[Hexissray]

@agzso ha yeah.....all of 3 steamy vice-presidential minutes....

[furdiebant]

Fantastic politician. 

[adjhd1]

0.24 when he shakes his head despite the positive statement.

[432F01]

I too hafve a respectable Republican cloth coat.

[HeavenandHell1776]

Go get em Dick. Get those Commie Bastards

[ckim4evr]

Although I don't particularly like Richard Nixon, I admit that this speech is amazing. It made me forget all the hate I had for him. Even though I know about 50% of this speech is probably phony, it is beautifully spoken. He appeals to the common man by speaking about his dog and acting like he is poor. If I lived back then, I would have voted for him just because of this speech.

[bernalor1]

Richard Nixon was truly a great American!

[user6826]

They don't make presidents like that anymore...

[agzso]

He probably had amazing sex afterwards with Pat.

[rogermwilcox]

What did he mean by "600 million people lost to the Communists"? Was he referring to Mao's takeover of mainland China?

[HanorHun]

@rogermwilcox quite sure about it. though he is smart enough to see the bigger picture instead treating bother USSR and china as enemies.

[Bonsaifriend]

Anyone else creeped out by the wife in the corner?

[noodlesmealey]

is he insane?  -what a load of trans-parent (aliens) horsefeathers

[fistfulofknowledge]

How to become vice president by Richard Nixon

1. Talk about a dog

2. Vice Presidency

[killer600000]

Let me say this about that!

[tedayrom]

may GOD bless president RICHARD M.NIXON he was the only president who knew the value FRIENSHIP.

[TroyOi]

Wow, I'd never heard this speech in its entirety before, only the most "infamous" parts - about Checkers, and Pat's "respectable Republican cloth coat". But I must say that it was a very effective speech, and Nixon deserves some credit for it. He probably gets some credit for pioneering the idea of a politician appealing to the masses on the broadcast media as just a "regular guy". I wonder how Eisenhower felt about the speech.

[xenoepist]

This is "Checkers", but it looks like he is playing "pool" with his left hand XD

[ourglasslake]

Man was good at what he did, for what that's worth.

[Maximo20009]

what's wrong with his wife? she looks fake... like a human size doll...

[1066anglophile]

@Maximo20009 Perfect woman for the time period, eh?



[IncredibleGoliath]

@Maximo20009 That's because dicky never hit her in the face.

[nnlamb25]

@AC6RH Militarily, we won Nam. Long story short: North surrendered. We left. North attacked again. Hippie congress didn't want to go back. So we won militarily, lost our objective (or lost politically). So our military has never lost a war. Our politicians have. I fear were ganna see the same thing in Iraq. We won, but obama wants to leave. The terrorrists will just attack again, and do you think a congress would want to go back? Even though we won?

[AC6RH]

Although this red scare anti communist rhetoric is frankly a little too "tea baggie" for my tastes, I believe he was a sincere man. At the risk of being labeled a conspiracy nut, I believe the Watergate break in was designed and executed by the CIA to discredit Nixon because he would not take "No" for an answer when he demanded all documents relating to the Bay Of Pigs invasion.

[rainrain1410]

nixxy prob hired his lil fellow watergate peeps to go buy a dog and name it cheeckers

[rainrain1410]

nixon you lil weasel hehehe

[Dresdenfolife]

Poo Poo?

[Dresdenfolife]

Poo Pooed?

[rockdots]

That dog was a Commie and I have the microfilm to prove it!

[RockaRollaZombie]

Sheesh, he made the EPA , opened trading with China, started the SALT talks, and was one of the first presidents to imply Universal Heath Care, and just because he tried too hard in Watergate he's a scum for life.

As for Vietnam, thanks to the poor handling of JFK and LBJ, there was no way to make that work.

[AC6RH]

@RockaRollaZombie I doubt that anybody could have pulled off a victory in Vietnam.

[TheShamelessGeek]

@RockaRollaZombie You may want to watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" re: Nixon's approach to healthcare..

[RockaRollaZombie]

@TheShamelessGeek you do realize I'm referring to the main demographic of people who extremely dislike Nixon also are big fans of such a thing as I described, right?

[psytransiant]

A much better actor than Reagan.

[sweetcurmudgeon]

Pat Nixon looks like she's shackled at the ankles during this whole shameful fiasco. Even then, she seemed ashamed at what Tricky Dick was dragging them through.

[joerouleau54]

Oh no. Communists.

[jokingpants]

hang on...600 million communists???

[jusproc]

He was a criminal, and a piece of shit, and prefigured Reagan and Bush II to come, who both proved even worse than him.

[lahadc]

3:04 ! he looks right upwards ! He's lying and being controlled by the government! water gate scandal?!

[EcoRover]

Nixon scolding others about corruption is like Hitler scolding others about genocide.

[posteriordepression1]

good foreign policy record (SALT 1, China, vietnamization, etc.)

detached dollar from gold standard

improved civil rights reform

improved comp health insurance

initiated environmental legislation and EPA

easily greatest of the past 50 years.

[LordAmbitious]

@posteriordepression1 tainted the office of the presidency

abused his power

destroyed public faith in the president

committed unknown number of crimes while president..

I'll take Kennedy and LBJ any day of the week.

Although if we wanna go over the entire 20th century, Teddy and Franlin Delano Roosevelt all the way across the sky!

[ts53shea]

@LordAmbitious You can have your Dems.

I like Ike and Nixon, too!

[Delsanar]

@LordAmbitious

Ended the draft, instituted environmental policy, gave major advance to desegregation efforts in public schools, supported many social policies, instituted a revenue policy, instituted health policies that are still in effect today for the care system, and of course, was an advocate of woman rights a long with so much more, such as easing tension with the Soviet Union and China as well.

Such a horrible person. Yes, he did something deceiving, but that's dead and gone.

[xCarpeJugulumx]

Nixon was easily the last great president. Reagan wasn't fit to wash his dishes. 

[presidentbren]

My goodness, he is such a slime ball. I hate him. Why did anyone vote for him?

[Cakerolled]

He is a terrible public speaker on TV, but that's what makes him endearing.

[faithplusone01]

If only republicans wore "respectable republican cloth coats" instead of being racist assholes nowdays...

[Theblizzardking]

I love his body language towards the end.

[maxpowers518]

@Theblizzardking You should see the way he crosses his arms right after he said "I'm not a crook."

[rainer1980]

@Theblizzardking

I agree. The only body language he used that suggested that he was really uncomfortable was when he put his hand between his eyes and pinched his nose.

[icontre881]

Great speech... I liked the captions! 

[pnutbutrncrackers]

A great and effective speech. Nixon at his very best.

[geekorthodox9]

The Conrad Black biography is all I know of this incident 'so called' and it is interesting as a sidenote that Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower had more questionable financial situations than Nixon had at the time--though the 'fund' question was fallout and retribution from the Earl Warren entourage after the Republican primary in 1952.

[kansaskid91]

Did you know that a few seconds after his time ran out that he got so into his speech that he ran into the camera? lol thats funny but seriously, nixion rigged the telegrams that kept him on the ticket most of which he had paid for using illegal funds (the very thing he's denying in this speech!)

[skywalkeranch]

Television saved his skin.

[Colapopx18]

@skywalkeranch This one time anyway. The televised debate with him and JFK didn't really work out for Nixon.

[jellybearster]

this speech saved his candidacy

[NikolaiYezhov56]

President Nixon was a good man, the last real President.

[IanEColeman]

The 50's were pretty backwards anyway.

[ScottFerrante]

You can hate nixon but that speech was textbook amazing

[samdiego]

poor guy guy cut off at the end. i liked nixon. he made some mistakes but i believe that there were more great things about him as a president than negative

[LeuyGeneral]

RON PAUL for President 2012!!!

[The6000Sabre]

Dwight Eisenhower ended the Korean war 6 months after becoming president in 1953.

[LeuyGeneral]

amen

[daffyphack]

"We do not detect any desperate impoverishment in a man who has bought two homes, even if his Oldsmobile is two years old."

[Allocator2008]

This is sad in 2009, C.E.. Nixon was a great man who could never be elected by the GOP now because it has been hijacked by the extreme right who would never allow a fiscally conservative, social and foreign policy moderate on the ticket. Nixon was the last great GOP President. The GOP used to stand for fiscal responsibility and human freedom like the Tories. Now it is just a sounding board for nutcases. I will vote for President Obama in 2012 because he is more fiscally responsible than the GOP.

[monarch243]

you are literally retarded

[davevankerr]

Nixon had some admirable accomplishments aside from his more well remembered legacy. Nixon was a flawed, dishonest sort of man more interested in his own rise than anything else. He was a disgraceful example for young people interested in public service. He was also a scar on the image of conservatives around the world.

[jimmbo13]

He was one of the great moderate republicans. I admire Reagan, though his fiscal conservatism was awful. Nixon is too often forgotten for his moderate policies such as environmental protection, racial equity, guarenteed wages etc.

[The6000Sabre]

Obama is fiscally responsible??????????????

He just added 3.5 trillion to the deficit in his first year.

Calling Obama fiscally responsible is like calling Bill Clinton a faithful husband.

[mktmajor2003]

@Allocator2008

Obama Fiscal responsibility? Govt run healthcare, Bank Bailouts, Bribes. He has asked for an increase in the spending cap on the national debt. Fiscal responsibility...ok. Seriously what we need is a legit third party to rise seperate from the Apollo alliance, SEIU, Acron, and Big Oil. We need a libertarian who believes in the values of the constituion and its people not Progressive policies of the Rebublican and Democratic party. This is the real change we look for.

[mikeace]

Nixon was the extreme right.

Ask a 1950s Communist whether or not Nixon valued their "human freedom"

Nixon going against Alger Hiss was as dangerous as McCarthy going against the Army. But McCarthy failed terribly while Nixon was triumphant.

[Tokijin25]

:'( Boohoo :'(

[Il00OOll]

This speech truly disgusting and embarrassing. What a demagogue! Nixon was a truly immoral and dishonest scumbag

[valglass12]

If I were alive back in '52, I would've voted for him. Checkers that is, not Nixon.

[stephyau215]

There's no denying his great ability to appeal to the American people using words.

[drillvoice]

What a shameful moment for the nation.

[Nickoval18]

What a scam artist. This only gave a hint of the corruption and shenanigans to come.

[kingdickthefirst]

Nixon was an American success story. Go to his presidential library in Yorba Linda, California and you can see the shack he grew up in. He came from nothing, worked hard, and became leader of the free world. That, not Watergate, is the true legacy of Richard Nixon.

[aweiss]

@kingdickthefirst mhm

[RawwInc]

@kingdickthefirst ur retarded. u just tried to make that sound good. theres tons better success stories and life achievements then richard nixon's. and his coming from nothing is definetly nor will it ever be his legacy. watergate, his criminal activity, and the fact that he DID have a slush fund while lying to the american people during this interview is his legacy. if u werent alive then dont talk.

[jonvincent12]

@RawwInc Can you spell, or are you just 6?

[RawwInc]

@jonvincent12 well checking my spelling i found little to no errors but hopefully your autistic 6yr old can manage better than you.

[Aeranlaes]

@kingdickthefirst I like nixon a lot too. it was the apology on frost/nixon also, where he admitted watergate was wrong. that showed real integrity

[Ruffneckization]

@kingdickthefirst lol maybe for you but not the 0ther 99.99% of society

[Dallasdeckard]

@kingdickthefirst Like all men, Nixon wasn't all good or all bad. He was a severely flawed human being, who had great qualities and great faults. He did some great things while he was President, and he did some terrible things. His greatest flaw was his own self-doubt, his lack of a strong self-esteem. He couldn't rely on his own character, his accomplishments and skills to succeed, and so he acquiesced to doing underhanded and illegal things to assure his success - to his own downfall.

[robnum1]

nixon was more liberal than lbj...

[djackmanson]

Is this the greatest piece of political bulls**t ever? (I say that with admiration).

The po' boy resentment of the rich, the "I make no judgement on my opponent [for VP] for putting his wife on the payroll", the cloying emotionalism of Checkers - what a brilliant manipulator!

Also interesting is the camera work (crude by today's standards), Nixon's awkward physical gestures and Nixon getting faded out at the end (he went overtime, as described in his memoirs).

[courtabeth]

thesie politics sound like the same dogmantic lies of the politics of today.

[greenunseen]

"She'd look great in anything." Shudder.

[EinsteinasRobinHood]

I have a good libertarian wool sportcoat, and goshdarnit, i'm gonna keep it whatever they say

[mark111491]

a great president

[hegemonymony]

Why not? He's politically ambiguous (like Abe) He was a small town lawyer (like Abe) He was trying to hold the country together under extreme duress (like Abe) He committed questionable actions (like Abe)(Abe did much worse) He was 'assassinated' [by the left wing press] He was trying to be the peacemaker between East & West (like Abe was trying to do between North & South) Both suffered from depression Both were fighting against slavery in some form And Both had black hair

[XanderFallon]

you're a spastic, you could also say he eats food for all the relivance of your lincoln/nixon comparison, he's a filthy carpet bombing, village napalming, constitution raping asshole. do you not find it rich for him ti talk down on korea whhille he's gonna loose more in vietnam, or him talking about coruption in washington

[hegemonymony]

in 2109, Nixon will be considered the 20th century's Lincoln. Not Reagan.

[PumaKing16]

wow. I hope you're joking because that's ridiculous. Neither Reagan or Nixon can be compared to Lincoln. at all.

[thundaman100]

reagan's rep is already being hurt

i am a democrat but i do like nixon. i agree.

[Qong]

As Dave said below:

Communism absolutely was a threat. To argue otherwise simply shows your ignorance. The fact is that Communism killed more people and caused more strife than Nazism and every other type of Fascism combined.

We were absolutely right in fighting Communism both here and abroad.

[IamSnickers]

Just because they called themselves communist doesn't mean they were communist. Karl Marx would be spitting in his grave to hear someone call someone like Stalin, who raised himself at a level above his countrymen, killed tens of millions of them, and enforced conscription and forced labour on a level never seen before... a communist.

[dafaton3]

But Marxist-Leninist, lead by a dictatorship of the proletariat were most certainly a treat.

[rokevella]

Ike woot woot. I wish more politians would do that - confront people straight on and just say what you mean, good on you for that Nixon. Lol, I just wanted to share this: at Coney Island there's a spray painted wall that reads: "Don't change dicks in the middle of a screw : Vote Nixon 72"

[bucknorm]

No the commies were not a threat

just like the terrorists are not a threat

today. 911 was an inside job.

Keep the war machine going nothing is going to

change.

[Cybrggame]

Were communists even a real threat? All I ever hear about is McCarthy...

[cookiedrandan]

McCarthy was the dweeb that went around prosecuting random actors(Lucille Ball of example) and people as communists, spreading fear and hate across America. And yes. After we found out that Russians knew we had nukes without telling them, we found out they were spying on us, explaining the paranoia and the "red scare". McCarthy used the fear of the people to promote himself as leader.

Correct me if I'm wrong..

[PumaKing16]

even if they weren't a threat to us (they were), there were still eastern european countries like Turkey and Greece that they were oppressing. Not to mention Berlin.

[Tenniru]

This man was a genius. Say what you will about his presidency, this is one of the greatest uses of television by a politician, as well as one of the earliest. It's ironic that television, which he used so well here, turned on him in the 1960 debate and probably lost him that election.

[unquenchablefire]

You could send live dogs, in crates, through the mail? Holy shit. Times have changed.

[purelyonawhim]

ha ha, i know that comment and name.....i thought the same thing about the dog

I think it is disgusting that they are totally eating up michelle obama's clothing makers and shit. i really dont care what she wears. the news needs to get better programming if they spend countless ours describing what color dress she is wearing and what their kids will eat for school. ridiculous

[Morrison64]

get a fuckin clue student nixon was already president and fucked up dearly

[bondjames99999]

I watched this video after reading about it in Roger Morris' biography of Nixon "Richard Milhous Nixon, Rise of an American Politician." It gives wonderful background on how he prepared and rehearsed the speech. It also explains how the last part of the speech infuriated Eisenhower.

[NeoWarrior007]

Good Lord! That man didn't know a bit about body language. It bugs me why he was choose as U.S. president back then.

[namesaretaken1]

this is when he was with Eisenhower as VP

[Negligible91]

Honestly, I'd say he did a pretty good job considering politicians had rarely (or never?) used the television for publicity before. And namesaretaken1 is right; this is when he was running as Eisenhower's VP.

[taytaystrk]

HAHA...His head is big! My mom and her friends used to call him spud!(=

[fistofthenorthstar89]

Phillipic

[graficnoise]

Perfect arm waves Mr.Nixon, make them a little bigger, ok, perfect! Now, throw in some fists, shake that fist!! Yeah! Good Mr.Nixon

[mrslele2011]

i gave this speech in school its is a very good speech

[CountArtha]

Wow, Nixon was so awkward on TV. He would never be elected in this day and age.

Just look at Mitt Romney.

[anglo2001]

Nixon was often awkward in private, personal sessions but in front of large crowds he was a very effective campaigner, he even enjoyed it immensely.

[CountArtha]

I'm watching him right here and I say he's awkward.

[magicalshrimp23]

Keep in mind, though, that NO ONE did TV speeches back then. This was new. The idea of seeing a politician as he gave his speech was a big innovation.

Plus, Nixon was a master manipulator. ^^"

[8xngc]

Things have changed a lot with political publicity, nixon obviously didnt have coaches for this speech

[amadeus5889]

"I'm not a quitter"...well, you also said "I'm not a crook."

[bucsrule9997]

id hit it

[RockyBalboa211]

Mr. Nixon!!

[RockyBalboa211]

God bless!

[lexo30]

Does a "Republican cloth coat" look different to other kinds of coat?

What a master of bullshit he was.

[metrodash]

Did you see Palin in her "Thriller" red leather jacket

[ewetubeviewer]

Palin doesn't have a chance.

[bdb08]

Palin needs to give a speech like this if she has any hope.

[kassandrasduplex]

Eisenhower went on to approve of various extra-judicial executions (assassinations such Patrice Lumumba)and to start the Vietnam War and then to plan the Cuban Invasion. An excellent example of American might used to end a democratic revolution and return the wealth of a nation (Cuba) to cronies and mobsters (such as Myer Lansky).

[kassandrasduplex]

1. He attacks the Korean War and its architects and then goes on to assist plans as VeeP,for the Vietnam War and the Cuban Invasion.

2. Uses his daughters shamelessly to avoid discussing his secret slush fund. The slush fund is entirely ignored.