 On Monday morning , Nixon flew to Los Angeles , making notes for his speech aboard the plane . He jotted down the line he had said in Eugene regarding his wife 's coat . He made notes concerning the family finances , upsetting Pat Nixon , who asked why people had to know their financial details . The senator responded that people in politics live in a fishbowl . He recalled the Fala speech , in which Franklin Roosevelt had sarcastically responded to Republican claims he had sent a destroyer to fetch his dog , Fala , and remembered the dog his children had recently received : A Texas traveling salesman named Lou Carrol had read a report that Pat Nixon said her children Tricia and Julie " longed " for a dog , and his own dog , an American Cocker Spaniel , had just had a litter . After a telegram exchange , he crated the puppy and shipped it by rail to the Nixons , and six @-@ year @-@ old Tricia Nixon named the dog " Checkers " . Nixon decided that including the anecdote evoking FDR would needle his enemies and delight his friends . 
