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Rhetorical Analysis Of President Nixon's Speech

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President Nixon is one of the most famous Presidents in American history for being the first one to resign from office. While Nixon is famous for doing such an unthinkable act, he is also the one that gave one of the best and most well known speeches in political history, The Checkers Speech. The speech was given by (Senator at the time) President Nixon when he was running for Vice President on General Eisenhower’s Presidential ticket. A newspaper, the New York Post, had a front page with the headline "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary"; the article alleged that people were donating to a secret fund that Nixon had for his personal benefit in trade for political favors. This scandal caused many Americans and Republican politicians to push Eisenhower to remove Nixon as his running mate and to question Nixon’s integrity. In rebuttal to the scandal, Nixon took the bull by the horns and defended himself by going on live national television and addressed the nation by giving the famous Checkers speech. The soon to be Vice-President articulated his speech with a perfect combination of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to turn the tables from making everyone hate him to making the American People and Republican Politicians love him. Nixon’s integrity was …show more content…

His use of ethos helped to reconstruct his lost creditability; By giving the people straight facts to marinate and chew on, Nixon let the people come to their own conclusion as to the type of person that he was; his appealing to the emotional side of people let them know that he too is a just an average person. In the end, the use of his techniques in harmony allowed him to win the hearts of the American people, which allowed them to see that he was an honest, hardworking, average Joe American with nothing to hide, just like the

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Nixon’s use of rhetoric devices underscore that he is relatable and trusting. He announces that he has not taken anything anyone has given him for his personal use except a dog from a man in Texas for his family. “It was a little cocker spaniel dog... black and white, spotted, and our little girl Tricia, the six year old, named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, loved the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it”(Nixon para.

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All of this deceit only made Nixon viewed as dishonest and shady to the American people, making his impeachment seem almost predictable. But something that was not predicted was Richard Nixon’s

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