Liberals were disgusted, partly because it was something of a sham, but mostly because it was maudlin. Eisenhower was, at the time, president of Columbia University; twenty-three full professors at Columbia, including Allan Nevins, Lionel Trilling, and Richard Hofstadter, issued a statement in which they denounced the Checkers speech, which Nevins described as “so essentially dishonest and emotional an appeal that he confused a great many people as to the issues involved.”98 Walter Lippmann said that watching it was “one of the most demeaning experiences my country has ever had to bear.” But
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