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Hello, and welcome to this day in esoteric

0:43

political history from radiotopia. My

0:46

name is Jody Avregon. Today,

0:50

we mark two related instances

0:53

of political canine deflection.

0:56

two American politicians, FDR and

0:58

Richard Nixon, who used stories about

1:00

their dogs to help navigate political

1:03

crises. and they are related

1:05

to each other. So the first was in nineteen

1:07

forty four in a speech by Franklin

1:09

Towner Roosevelt in which he lashed

1:11

out at his political critics, but tucked

1:13

into that speech was an anecdote about

1:16

his dog, Falla, who had also

1:18

received some criticism in the press,

1:20

and That funny and charming

1:22

anecdote was actually written with the help of Orson

1:24

Wells, believe it or not, and it made the

1:26

speech into a hit, and it in

1:28

many ways put FDR back on solid

1:31

political footing. Now,

1:33

cut to eight years later or

1:35

fifty some odd years and dog years.

1:37

And to the day, to the very

1:39

day. Vice presidential candidate Richard

1:41

Nixon is caught up in a swirl of accusations

1:44

of his own about improper campaign funding

1:47

and he is at risk actually being dropped

1:49

from the ticket by Eisenhower. And

1:51

he gives this long speech that includes

1:54

a charming anecdote about his dog.

1:56

checkers. This comes to be known actually

1:59

as the checker speech. It's one of the most significant

2:01

in American political history and it's one that kinda

2:03

saved Nixon's career. So And

2:06

moreover, you know, there's obviously the relation between

2:08

these two speeches and anecdotes about dogs, but

2:10

you could maybe even think of these two speeches

2:13

as a bracket sorts in American political

2:15

history. The first signaling the

2:17

height of FDR new deal populism

2:19

and the second signaling kind of

2:21

the end of that FDR era and really

2:24

laying the groundwork as Nixon does in his

2:26

speech for a new type of

2:28

conservative populism flowing

2:30

from Nixon to Reagan and beyond. or

2:32

maybe they were just too charlie because it's not

2:34

dogs. I'll

2:37

leave it to the historians to see how big they think

2:39

they wanna get with this. but

2:41

let's talk about it with, as Nicole

2:43

Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson

2:45

of Wesley. Hello there.

2:46

Hello. I have to say I do like

2:49

the idea of using Fallon and checkers

2:51

as a kind of historical periodization.

2:53

We should always use dogs as a

2:55

marker for ends and beginnings

2:57

of

2:57

eras. my my Ph. C. is

2:59

in the mail. Right?

3:00

Should just keep checking that

3:02

box every day. Can

3:04

I just say this is not a coincidence that I

3:06

am drinking coffee off you right now for my

3:08

black dogs. Oh my god.

3:12

So I'm like, the mics being your mother.

3:14

Let's start

3:15

there, Nikki. as resident

3:17

both

3:17

twentieth century historian and

3:19

dog owner and lover. I

3:22

wanna do checkers first and then go

3:24

back in time maybe in the you feel like. But

3:27

but very quickly, checkers follow

3:29

what kind of dogs were they? And if you had

3:31

to own one of them, which would you own?

3:32

So Fawla was a Scotty, and

3:35

checkers was a cockerspaniel. And

3:38

Nala, my little puppy who is dozing next

3:40

to me as I speak, is a

3:42

habanese poodle mix or a

3:44

havapu.

3:46

A havapu. Right now? Just just

3:48

sit there with it. Dog

3:53

lovers. So, you know,

3:55

I will confess, like, I

3:57

just feel like the checker's speech comes

3:59

up over and over as, like,

4:01

legendary speeches in American political history.

4:03

And, you know, I kinda had a rough sense of

4:05

of it that there was this charming anecdote tucked into

4:08

this larger thing. But, you know,

4:10

in digging into this, the

4:12

first thing I noticed was my good

4:14

god. This is a long speech. Like,

4:17

incredible. And it's not all

4:19

dog related. But, you know, and so I think, like, Nixon

4:21

bridal a bit about the fact that, like, I gave this super

4:23

long speech that that sort of did all these things

4:25

and people are just remembering the dog part. But

4:28

About the identity theft was my gender.

4:31

It's a master class in reflection.

4:34

Right? Because if

4:36

you can get people to

4:38

talk about or think about focus on something

4:40

else, which he does with checkers,

4:42

so I look with me. By telling this

4:44

story of how a man

4:46

in Texas heard

4:48

them on the radio and that they were two

4:51

youngsters that had a dog

4:53

and that they wanted to give this dog

4:55

to him as a gift. And

4:57

so they meet the little copper

5:00

spaniel that's in a crates and all the

5:02

way from Texas and it's black and

5:04

white and spotted. And our

5:06

little girl, Trisha, was six years

5:08

old at the time, we decided to name it

5:10

checkers and, like, there's all this,

5:12

like, warm, fuzzy feelings about,

5:14

like, getting a dog for the first time

5:16

and what you name it and how people

5:18

are so

5:19

caring and and

5:21

that becomes what people think they're

5:23

teaching. Yeah. And let's take step back and talk about

5:25

why he's talking about this dog

5:27

to begin with. So Nixon

5:29

had made a reputation for himself

5:31

nationally as part of the House on American

5:33

Activities Committee particularly prosecuting

5:35

the case of of Alteryx. And

5:39

he is named

5:41

as Eisenhower's running mate in nineteen

5:43

fifty two, And no sooner as he named

5:45

as Eisenhower's running mate, then there are these

5:47

accusations leveled

5:49

against Nixon that he had a secret

5:51

political slush fund, and he was misappropriating

5:55

and misusing funds. And this

5:57

is actually a serious crisis because Eisenhower

5:59

is like, I do not need this. he was

6:01

getting ready to dump Nixon from

6:03

the ticket. And Nixon

6:05

in a way goes over Eisenhower's

6:08

head directly to the American

6:10

people on television. And

6:12

by nineteen fifty two, millions

6:14

of Americans have televisions. And

6:18

Nixon is able to get a half hour of

6:20

time where he's on this kind

6:22

of set where he's sitting behind

6:24

a desk at times or like standing

6:27

sitting next to his his wife

6:30

in this kind of living room slash

6:32

office kind of setting. And he

6:35

goes through all of his finances

6:37

on national television in

6:39

order to make clear that he

6:41

has not been getting rich off of his

6:43

political career and he even

6:45

talks about how his wife, Pat,

6:48

she doesn't have a Minko coat. She

6:50

has a respectable Republican cloth

6:52

coat. and this idea

6:54

that that these are humble

6:58

people

6:58

-- Mhmm. --

6:59

who are not splashing around a lot of

7:01

wealth. And that's when he says

7:03

near the end of the speech, I have to

7:05

admit I did take one political gift,

7:08

and that political gift was checkers.

7:10

And then after that little description,

7:12

he's like, and and whatever

7:14

they say about it, we're not giving

7:16

her back.

7:17

Yeah. Yeah. So

7:19

It's like deflection, but

7:21

also that I don't know what the rhetorical name for it

7:23

is, but the sort of narrowing down for it.

7:25

Well, if I did do something improper, look how

7:27

cute it know, I guess we're like a slight

7:30

concession, but also just sort of redefining

7:32

the terms. Like, people probably walk away from

7:34

that speech to be like, well, the accusation is that

7:36

he took this cute dog or whatever. I took

7:38

her dog. And he took her out of that.

7:39

And his daughter's probably, like, daddy, can

7:41

we do him? And then, you know, who could have

7:43

existed their daughter? Like Yeah. a great

7:46

But, you know, a couple other tidbits and then

7:48

I think this larger question of kind of the nature of

7:50

the speech and the impact of the speech. But, you know,

7:52

we're talking about eighteen thousand dollars here in in the

7:54

slash fund is really the sort of crux of the amount of

7:56

money, which not an insignificant amount

7:58

back then, but, you know, I just think,

8:00

like, it's such a marker of

8:02

there's so many markers of that era there. Right.

8:04

You know? Eighteen thousand dollars flowing

8:06

in a slightly shady way would

8:08

cause such a scandal. Well, at the same time, I

8:10

would say, like, clearly, Nixon is

8:12

a slash fund lover from day one. You

8:14

know? Like, you know, you're just like, yeah.

8:16

Maybe actually there was should've cut cut than

8:18

I understand. Secret stashes of money.

8:21

But but also, you know,

8:24

the fact that, like, this was our happening

8:26

at a moment of attention span

8:28

being just so different from it is now because

8:30

the length of the speech, but also just the kind

8:32

of like almost like

8:35

brutal rhetorical style.

8:38

So, you know, there's deflection, but there's

8:40

also he just sort of drowns the

8:42

audience in anecdotes and information and

8:45

circular language. Like, he starts with this

8:47

whole thing that's kinda like a

8:49

thought exercise about how he done it. Would

8:51

it have been wrong? if it were

8:53

if it had happened, I would say that it's morally

8:56

wrong, and it would be illegal. And then he says,

8:58

but no, it didn't happen. And it's not, you don't have to

9:00

put, like Again, master class

9:02

of a time.

9:04

But if you if you're giving this speech now,

9:06

it's kinda like, if you're not telling

9:09

me exactly what you wanna tell me within the

9:11

first thirty seconds, you've lost the audience. Yeah.

9:13

And instead here, he just does this kind of,

9:15

like, really long,

9:17

but also just like because he knows he

9:19

can hold he can hold the audience.

9:22

But on that on that sort of stuff you described,

9:24

Nikki, about the

9:26

coat and his family finances in both the

9:28

sort of level of detail, but also painting this

9:30

picture of what I think a lot of people

9:32

have come to see is like a real

9:35

style of conservative populism

9:37

and saying, you know, I am

9:39

just like you. People

9:41

struggling. I'm just like you. It

9:43

really does feel like it lays a blueprint in

9:45

many ways, and you can see that kind

9:47

of language. all the way through to

9:49

today.

9:49

Absolutely. And it it cuts

9:51

such a contrast to somebody like

9:53

Eisenhower who was a larger than life figure.

9:56

And Nixon brings that kind

9:58

of modesty to the ticket. It's an

10:00

interesting parallel to somebody like Harry

10:02

Truman who they were following. who

10:04

himself was a pretty modest president who

10:06

didn't have a ton of money. So,

10:08

yeah, there is this conservative populism

10:10

going forward that leans into this idea that

10:12

we're just like one you

10:15

that, you know, were not

10:17

wealthy, fancy people. It's not just conservative. I mean, you

10:19

can see it in somebody like Jimmy Carter

10:21

as well. But

10:24

definitely, Nixon is is But do you

10:26

mean paint your picture? Actually poor.

10:28

Like, actually poor. You know? Yeah. And it grew

10:30

up a peanut farmer. Like, although Nixon

10:32

grew up in poverty as well.

10:34

It's just yeah. Yeah. So he

10:36

later becomes

10:37

wealthier through his political career. I'm

10:39

probably wondering if you slash runs on

10:41

the side. But,

10:43

you know, and this happens, you

10:45

know I mean, it happens

10:47

on both sides. I Carrie tried to

10:49

paint himself, you know, in many ways. Salt

10:52

Everybody a little bit of a stretch there.

10:54

Yeah. But, you know, it is it

10:56

is remarkable, you know, you look at sort of republican

10:59

presidents. And it's like, Reagan

11:01

had to sort of make people forget

11:03

that he was a really famous, very wealthy

11:05

movie star -- Mhmm. -- you know, George w

11:07

Bush had to, like,

11:08

go, you

11:09

know, weed whack on a ranch in Texas

11:11

in order to make people forget that he'd come

11:13

from kind of the bluish to bluish to kids.

11:15

And so, you know, I think it's

11:18

always been a a thing. And and you can

11:20

see those seeds planted here.

11:21

Well, then I also think there's a hint of populism

11:23

in he goes about this on television because what ends

11:25

up happening is the

11:27

Eisenhower campaign is

11:29

flooded with telegrams of people who

11:31

are like you cannot

11:34

dump this man. This is an

11:36

honest man. You have to keep him on the ticket. And

11:38

so he's actually using kind of popular

11:41

will to keep himself

11:43

on as Eisenhower's running mate

11:45

-- Yeah. -- using this new medium

11:47

of television. Yeah.

11:49

because there's reporting that the Eisenhower

11:52

Camp was, like, really, really

11:54

close to asking Nixon to actually withdraw

11:56

from the ticket in this speech. Mhmm. And

11:58

then they totally changed changed

12:00

the

12:00

narrative. I mean, the speech is sort of,

12:02

I guess, makes sense, hey,

12:04

Mary, in some ways. Like, this like, well,

12:07

if they're gonna let me go, at least let me

12:09

have my say, at least let me

12:11

tell my side of the story, and

12:13

then whether it happens or not, at least

12:15

I've gotten my my

12:16

piece out there.

12:18

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

12:20

So We have speech in

12:23

nineteen fifty two, and it

12:25

has the story of a dog tucked

12:27

inside of it. Now, It does

12:29

appear that the choice

12:31

to include that anecdote

12:33

was in part because of

12:35

someone in Nixon's world knew their political

12:37

history and thought, just eight

12:39

years ago, there was another speech that

12:41

hadn't that had sort of had a similar vibe

12:43

of someone trying to recast themselves

12:46

and it included a speech about a dog.

12:48

And so, you know, these are really

12:50

connected, not just sort of coincidentally, but it really

12:52

does seem like the checkers anecdote

12:54

was inspired by the Fala

12:56

anecdote. And so let's turn to

12:58

that. What are the circumstances under

13:00

which FDR has to go out and give

13:02

this big speech And then why does he decide

13:04

to tell a story about a doctor? This

13:06

is the craziest scandal in some

13:08

way, so it's the middle of World War

13:10

two. It is the middle of

13:13

Roosevelt's fourth presidential

13:15

election campaign. And

13:18

he had flown out to the Ilyushan Islands

13:20

to do a tour, to meet with folks in

13:22

the US Navy, and Republicans

13:24

accuse him of

13:27

leaving behind his little dog fella.

13:29

and then requiring a US

13:31

navy destroyer to go out there and to retrieve

13:34

him at just sort of like over the

13:36

top costs to taxpayers. So here's

13:38

this profligate waste of taxpayer

13:40

money because Roosevelt left

13:42

behind his tiny dog. This

13:45

dog that went with him everywhere,

13:48

and I mean, everywhere. It

13:50

was obviously in the Oval Office, but it

13:52

was also with him when he met

13:54

with British prime minister Winston Churchill,

13:56

like everyone sort of knew this

13:58

dog, which is also kind of funny

13:59

that he would take the dog absolutely

14:02

everywhere. and forget about him.

14:04

I'll leave him

14:07

on on these islands. But, of course, the idea

14:09

of, you know, sparing no expense. to

14:11

retrieve him causes a real

14:13

car ruffle. And so

14:15

Roosevelt works this into

14:17

a speech. where he

14:19

talks about the way that Republican

14:21

leaders not only attack me, they not only

14:23

attack my family, but now

14:25

they've tacked my dog. And

14:27

he's like, it doesn't matter to me, it doesn't matter

14:29

to my family, but followed

14:31

relying on some ethnic

14:33

stereotypes. is

14:34

scotch and therefore very

14:36

cheap. So he is furious.

14:39

In fact, he says that Fala has

14:42

not been the same dog since Comps

14:46

foot too much. South Am I

14:48

am I am I wrong? Am I reading here

14:50

that there isn't like a

14:51

full on denial. I mean, he

14:53

calls it fiction. Right? But then he very

14:55

quickly just makes a joke and says,

14:57

you know, my dog is upset at

14:59

all these accusations and so forth. But,

15:01

you know, I think maybe that was the

15:03

rhetorical approach. It was just, like, don't

15:05

even engage trivialize it

15:07

as quick trivialize it as quickly as possible, but

15:09

there isn't, like, a straight up.

15:12

This is not true. I

15:15

mean, goes back to what you said earlier.

15:17

It's like, but did you

15:18

want to do not? Like, yes or no.

15:22

You don't get I mean, the the

15:25

it's the politician's

15:25

answer. Right? You're never gonna get a

15:27

straight yes

15:28

or no. It's always gonna be this long

15:30

metaphor, this long siliquis about,

15:32

you know, some other way

15:34

of making America great.

15:35

Whatever. You know, like, there's always these ways

15:38

of creating some sort of,

15:40

again, deflection so that

15:42

we're not paying attention to

15:44

money that was spent. We're focused

15:46

on this other thing that they want

15:48

us to pay attention to. It's very

15:51

you know, a a magician's trade.

15:53

Yeah. I mean, he says, you know,

15:56

I, as a dog owner, I have

15:58

a right to resent to libelous statements

16:00

about my dog. And you almost you

16:02

almost expected to then say and like and

16:04

all your dog owners out there would totally

16:07

understand that if your dog was left at an island, you would

16:09

move head or use every -- Yeah. --

16:11

possible, you know, resource at

16:13

your disposal to go retrieve that dog.

16:15

And, of course, they sent a destroyer to get

16:17

me a fighter way doesn't

16:19

say that. But wait.

16:22

I was kinda kinda playing with

16:24

that. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe the dog maybe the

16:26

dog owner demographic large enough

16:28

to swing an election. But yeah. Well,

16:29

I also just think the humor won

16:32

so many people over, the

16:34

people who were in the room were laughing and

16:36

they were cheering and hooting and hollering,

16:38

but this was also carried on radio.

16:40

So people back home in their

16:42

living rooms listening along were also

16:44

chunkling to this to this story.

16:46

And it diffuses as you were saying Jody

16:48

even without like this explicit angry denial.

16:51

It it diffuses the accusation

16:53

and of course has has

16:56

little effect on Roosevelt's

16:58

re reelection. Oh,

17:00

got it. orson

17:03

Wells. So it really is the case

17:05

that Wells was a result supporter

17:08

and campaigned for him and then

17:10

would occasionally just sort of send him bits

17:12

and lines and stuff to use.

17:14

Wells, I think, was self effacing in this instead

17:16

of kind of, like, he uses my material

17:19

in office beaches that don't matter. But in

17:21

here, really was they

17:23

were chatting and well sort

17:25

of ad libbed the joke.

17:28

the follow joke for the president who loved it and

17:30

then kind of a little bit later wrote

17:32

it with the staff into the

17:35

speech. and it really it really worked well. And so, you know, I think

17:37

there's a story here probably too of just kind

17:39

of like a I mean, FDR,

17:41

of course, understood

17:43

the power of radio. You know, and

17:45

that's a big part of the FDR story. But certainly

17:47

here, I think there's also a story of

17:49

just the performative side -- Yeah. --

17:51

and -- Yeah. -- being

17:53

a modern politician. And

17:55

a reminder that Hollywood was deeply

17:57

implicated in US politics from

17:59

the moment the studio system appeared. So we shouldn't

18:01

be surprised that presidents and

18:05

actors and are

18:07

behind the construction of films are

18:10

entangled with one another. Mhmm.

18:12

Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm. Falla

18:14

died in nineteen fifty two, the age of twelve. He

18:16

is buried in near the

18:19

president in Hyde Park. I've I've

18:21

been there. family right near there,

18:23

and I've seen the those

18:25

graves. And then moreover, in

18:28

DC, there's

18:28

a statue of Roosevelt and

18:32

Falla

18:32

is featured beside Roosevelt.

18:35

I believe the only presidential

18:37

pet to ever be memorialized in

18:39

statue form of this kind. my

18:41

new project is to get

18:44

more

18:44

more presidential pets in

18:46

Statue form. No one will tell you

18:48

what will happen. Yeah. Exactly.

18:49

Once we tie it on how the confederate sanctions,

18:51

we're gonna put that up. Right? Although,

18:53

you know, it's gonna be like be like, oh,

18:55

you know, stonewall jack's and how to pet up, and then

18:58

it's gonna this was gonna be a thing.

19:00

Yep. Did if we do an

19:02

episode

19:02

on pets or, like, presidential pets or

19:04

something like that? We did. Of course. Of, like,

19:07

who has what? Like Oh, yeah. Well,

19:09

because Teddy Roosevelt, for folks who wanna check

19:11

it out, had a whole menagerie at the

19:13

at the White House. So

19:16

check out that earlier episode on

19:18

presidential pets. Yeah. There

19:19

you go. We'll put the link in the

19:21

show description. Alright. Well, that

19:24

brings this to an end. And,

19:26

yeah, this is our way of I like this. We've been the

19:28

checker's speech has been on our list for a long time, but

19:30

I think connecting it to that other follow speech

19:32

and realizing there really was it. direct

19:34

connection and inspiration there.

19:36

And, I don't know, the clock's ticking. It's been

19:38

we were on an eight year cadence. It's been way too

19:40

long to sometimes use the patch to

19:43

deflect them Well Oh, you mean with Romney and his

19:45

dog? Oh, you mean with Romney and his

19:47

dog? Oh, right. Yeah. He could've he could've

19:49

maybe deflected that and turned those into

19:51

jokes, but instead Scott sort of up and down. hammered. Yeah.

19:55

Yeah. But, you know, the other thing I was thinking

19:57

about here is just

19:59

just

19:59

that obviously

20:01

politicians have shown personality

20:03

or whatever. But, like, I just don't

20:05

think like a random story about a

20:07

dog would like no one would even bat

20:09

an eye now. You know? Like politicians, I

20:11

mean, especially in the Trump era. It's like,

20:13

look, we expect them to just sort of

20:15

start about whatever. You know? And it's just gonna be

20:18

like, now they're talking about this. Now they're talking about

20:20

toilet. Now they're talking about the dog. Now they're talking about the dog. Now I'm talking about it.

20:22

So it's just kinda like Wasn't

20:23

Biden's dog in the news at one

20:25

point? like Major was a little

20:27

a little bitey. Yeah.

20:29

Yeah. That's what I was like, keep it somewhat.

20:31

I am pretty sure.

20:33

But

20:33

it's so funny that I guess, if I didn't

20:36

try and, like, crack a joke or two out of that, but

20:38

it's also just like it's just such a

20:40

you're not gonna hold people's attention in this

20:42

way. you're not gonna be able to actually change their

20:44

mind anymore. Mhmm. And so, you know, even if

20:46

someone is inspired by these two speeches now, I

20:48

just don't think our media

20:50

environment is such that it would actually work.

20:53

No. But yeah.

20:55

Alright. Well, that brings us

20:57

to the end of the episode. Nicole

21:00

Hammer, thanks to you. Thank you, Jody.

21:02

And, Kelly, Cardi Jackson, thanks to you.

21:05

My pleasure. send us your dog pictures photo.

21:07

Please tweet us at this day

21:09

pod. I really

21:09

held myself back from doing that. Who's a good

21:12

boy? Who's a good

21:12

boy? And I am

21:17

accustomed to hearing

21:19

malicious falsehoods about myself.

21:23

but I think I have a right

21:25

to resent, to

21:27

object to libelous statements

21:30

about my dog. One other thing

21:32

I probably should tell you

21:34

because if I don't feel probably be saying

21:36

this about me too, we

21:38

did get something a gift after

21:41

the election.

21:45

A man down in Texas heard Pat in the

21:47

radio mentioned the fact that our

21:49

two youngsters would like to have a