"Checkers"- Part of my Rhetorical Analysis Draft

“I am not a crook.” These words made Richard M. Nixon famous (or infamous) in the Watergate Scandal of the 1970s. But Nixon was being accused of unethical business and political practices long before that. In 1952 he had been accused of using $18,000 for personal gain that was supposed to have been used for a campaign fund. In a speech aired on TV on September 23, 1952 Nixon appeals to his audience’s—republicans of voting age—sense of pathos by using the rhetorical tools of repetition and rhetorical questions. His speech is mostly effective in convincing the public that he is innocent of the charges with which he is laid, even though there are some logical fallacies that leave room for doubt.

The first rhetorical tool that Nixon uses is repetition. Throughout the entire speech Nixon frequently uses phrases that express the first person: “I say,” “I want,” “I’m going to tell you.” These phrases help him draw closer to the American people. It makes Nixon seem like he is a real human being with real feelings of compassion and caring for his audience.

These phrases also let the American people know that Nixon is not trying to persuade them of Eisenhower’s point of view, of the Republican party’s point of view, or of anyone’s point of view but Nixon’s. He is speaking, it would seem, one-on-one and person-to-person with each individual American citizen.

Another tool of repetition that Nixon uses throughout the entire speech is his use of the word, “incidentally.” He uses this word at least ten times and then shares a story or piece of information that may seem incidental to the audience, but is actually a very powerful rhetorical argument.

For example, when he is talking about how the Senators get paid, he says, “Incidentally, that allowance is not paid to the Senator. It is paid directly to the individuals that the Senator puts on his pay roll.” Using the word “incidentally” does a few things. One thing it does it to make the audience think that Nixon is giving them information that really doesn’t matter for his argument, but that he wants to share with them as a side note because he is having a friendly conversation with them and cares about what he thinks.

Secondly, it makes an argument for his case without making it seem like he’s making an argument for his case. By saying incidentally, he is telling the audience that this little piece of information really doesn’t matter one way or the other. The audience then doesn’t feel like Nixon is trying to persuade them to believe something but just sharing some extra information. Instead, what is happening is that the audience is receiving this extra piece of information into their brain and using it to formulate their opinion about Nixon. So, the people think that the information is non-persuasive, when it is actually the very information that they are using to formulate their opinion of Nixon There are a few other examples where Nixon uses repetition. For example in his 4^th paragraph, he uses the word “wrong” or “morally wrong” seven times to speak of the crime of embezzlement. The audience definitely think that this crime is wrong, but then Nixon says that he thinks it is wrong too, if he had anything to do with it. He then says that he had nothing to do with it. So not only does the audience now know that the crime is wrong, but they believe that Nixon had nothing to do with it, so he must be the opposite of wrong—right.