Just Like Richard Nixon.

Politics  Ahead of tonight's US presidential debate (2am, here, um, not sure, might stay up) and with only so much speculation available, the web's also been busy looking for other angles. What about debates of the past? What of their participants? What of Nixon? Again?

1960's Awkward Richard Nixon
Dicky finds himself trying to spin himself out of a massive put down by his president in the famous debate opposite Kennedy. It's roughly the moment he started sweating, an involuntary response which would continue, unabated, for several decades.

The Checkers Speech After 60 Years
He went on to be at the forefront of a number of firsts though unfortunately most of them weren't for the most positive reasons.  The Checkers Speech was the first televised address by a politician, not because of war, not because of a national disaster, but to answer questions about abusing a political expense fund.  If only some of our own politicians had been as forthright a couple of years ago.

Nixon gets socked in Laugh-In’s most famous, and influential, five seconds
It's the Nixon equivalent of Blair's "Am I Bovvered..." moment.  Except that Nixon was running for office.  Obama later appeared on The Daily Show though arguably his appearance was far more directed towards hard news in style than some of what purports to be hard news in the US.

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