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What if Nixon's "Checkers" Speech, where he managed to completely deflect accusations of conflict of interest surrounding a "slush fund", not only failed to work, but made the American people think he was nothing more than a sleazy film-flam man? Would the issue, which was so disregarded IOTL, have, in reaction to the failed speech, been so overblown that criminal charges are a possibility? Would Eisenhower have booted him off the ticket, and who would have replaced Nixon? Dirksen? Driscoll? Taft? Even Adams? What would be the consequences for the rest of Nixon's career? Would he have been censured, if not expelled, by the Senate? Would the scandal drag down Eisenhower's campaign sufficiently to make Stevenson do better?
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