In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt gave a campaign speech that went down in history as the Fala Speech. Why? In this speech, Roosevelt took a stand on the accusation of his political opponents who had claimed that the incumbent president had sent a warship to pick up his dog "Fala", which had been forgotten on an island during a journey.
Roosevelt countered in his speech that his dog was very frugal and offended at such accusations. "The Scottish soul of his dog was deeply affected". The whole speech attracted a lot of attention because Roosevelt used great rhetorical skill to defend himself against the continuing defamation from the ranks of his political opponents and used "Fala" as a sympathetic figure to do so.
The calculation worked. It was later the reason for Richard Nixon to give the "Checkers speech".
Who was Checkers? You guessed right. Checkers was Nixon's dog, who in turn was on the verge of losing his office at the time because of suspected corruption. Nixon made it clear in his speech that the dog was the only gift he had ever received and that he would not give it away under any circumstances. The speech is considered instrumental in Nixon later winning the presidential election. Checker's speech" is also considered a rhetorical masterpiece.