This is a BIG 'chucking' deal

When the Race to the White House is Turbo-Charged...

Joe Biden just made a self-sacrificing decision that will change the history of our nation; one way or the other. And, in Joe Biden’s own words, it’s a big fucking deal.

But it isn’t without risk.

I started writing Uncontemplated (the original working title of the manuscript) as a means of instant gratification while working on a book about my friendship with Senator George McGovern. In what could be the last first-hand account of McGovern, I wanted to document the lessons I learned sipping martinis with him and the things I regret not asking him when I had the chance.

Here’s a quick recap of some of those stories.

What I Have Been Saving

I haven’t shared with you the harrowing story of the rush to pick a Vice President. Here is that story straight from Martinis with McGovern (the current working title of the manuscript) of when Senator Thomas Eagleton chose self over country.

The Rock In The Landslide

George did not believe voters rejected his position on Vietnam. In the chapter he titled “The Rock in the Landslide” of his memoir, George McGovern wrote that “even a casual backward glance at the attention given to the Eagleton matter leaves no doubt that it became the number one news and editorial development of that campaign. It overshadowed the Watergate scandal as a subject of journalistic concern. It - not Watergate, not Vietnam, not the American economy - was the political story of 1972.”

It was a story built on a series of unfortunate decisions made by nearly every actor on the stage.

The unforeseen competitiveness of the California primary cost McGovern precious time. Time that was necessary to properly vet a Vice Presidential candidate. McGovern believed that if Ed Muskie had dropped out of and endorsed him, the California primary would have easily been his, which would have put an earlier end to the in-fighting.  But instead, Governor Muskie of Maine, who had no chance of becoming President after his emotional speech in New Hampshire, stayed in the primary in an effort to push McGovern to a more conservative place on welfare reform. 

“I should have instructed Gary to set up a small group of trusted people to recommend and check out the backgrounds of vice presidential possibilities.” McGovern reflected. Why wasn’t this done? Fatigue, the California worry, the feeling that there are enough attractive options - that certainly we would not have trouble finding an able and willing candidate.”

Senator George McGovern

But, at the time, McGovern wanted Senator Ted Kennedy. He courted him and he waited for him to work through his “Chappaquiddick incident.” 

McGovern won California. Then Illinois went his way. George McGovern had clinched the Democratic brass ring. George immediately called Teddy. “After listing the reasons, I added that I was painfully aware of the great sacrifices his brothers and his family had made, but that I felt that he owed it to the nation to help me turn the country in a more constructive direction.”

While Teddy pondered the Vice Presidency, McGovern finally turned his attention to other prospects. Including Walter Mondale, Kevin White and Tom Eagleton. Senator Mondale didn’t want to jeopardize an almost guaranteed re-election. He recommended Eagleton. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, still pondering, was adamantly opposed to Boston Mayor Kevin White. 

Ultimately, it was an hour and a half before the filing deadline. Time had ticked away and when the hard “no” came from Senator Kennedy. Numerous trusted friends - including Teddy - recommended Tom Eagleton.

“I just don’t know enough about Tom.”

Senator George McGovern

Eleanor McGovern expressed concerns too. But there was only minutes left before the 4:00 PM filing deadline. So, the McGovern’s squelched their doubts and, with Senators Kennedy, Mondale and Nelson squarely in support of Eagleton, George dialed the phone. 

“George, I am going to say ‘YES’ before you change your mind.”

Eagleton reassured the McGovern team that there would be nothing in his background that would cause the campaign any embarrassment. The paperwork was filed. It was done. Like done, done. 

Days later, Senator Eagleton’s lifelong fight with depression, his hospitalization and his electro-shock therapy was headline news all across America.

Tom had lied to George.

He had lied to everyone.

But the FBI had a file.

The FBI that was controlled by Attorney General John Mitchell. The John Mitchell who chaired The Committee to Re-Elect the President. They had the file.

Nixon had the file. 

McGovern, stunned, goes into harrowing detail of the week that unfolded in his memoir. The short of it is, George told Eagleton that they would try to ride it out. Eagleton told George that, if it got unmanageable, he’d go quietly.

It quickly got unmanageable. 

Reading the events in McGovern’s words is difficult. The first call from reporters was about alcoholism. The Eagleton team told the McGovern team that it was nonsense. Then came the call about hospitalization.

“Exhaustion,” said the Eagleton team.

Exhaustion, really? “Twice?” The reporter wasn’t buying it.

Okay, the Eagleton camp sheepishly had to admit, it was depression.

Then came the call from an anonymous “McGovern supporter.” The caller told the woman who answered the phone that he had documented evidence that Eagleton had been hospitalized three times and had undergone shock treatment therapy.

The documents he had already given to a reporter. 

The McGovern memoir clearly shows McGovern’s disappointment in Eagleton but also his deep, deep capacity for empathy.

“He omitted the truth at the convention, but Eleanor and I understood how anxious he had been to close a painful series of events in his life that he believed belonged in the past. For several years we had lived with a deep emotional disturbance involving one of our children. We saw the same tormented look on Tom’s face as he told his story and, as Eleanor described it, we literally reached our arm’s out to him.”

Senator George McGovern

Before he was asked to join the campaign, Tom and his wife had discussed how much of his story to tell the McGovern team. They decided to keep it private. When Tom and his wife walked into that meeting with George and his wife, they knew or should have known, that there would be more to come. They also knew that, legally, the “only man to remove Eagleton from the ticket was Eagleton himself.” 

Tom Eagleton promised George that if his situation became problematic to the campaign, he would leave. He promised that George would not have to publicly push him out. He promised lots of things. But public sympathy for Eagleton was palpable and it buoyed Eagleton himself.

A few days later, on his way to a labor convention in Hawaii, Eagleton told reporters “I have never been more determined in my life about any issue than I am today about remaining on this ticket.” He said he wasn’t going to allow lies to scar his family. “No, you’re not going to get me out of this race. Never.” 

Meanwhile, there were medical experts telling McGovern that someone with Eagleton’s history should not be under the level of stress that would come along with the Vice Presidency, and, God forbid, the Presidency. There were seasoned political consultants, historians and donors telling McGovern that Eagleton must go. His health and his lack of candor left no other choice. When McGovern told Eagleton that they needed to revisit his position on the ticket, Eagleton agreed.

Minutes later, however, Eagleton phoned reporters and told them that “McGovern supports Eagleton 1000 percent.” 

Eighteen days after Senator Tom Eagleton accepted the VP position, Sargent Shriver - of the Kennedy clan - replaced him. 

Just sixty days after Eagleton left the ticket, he was the honoree at the Truman Day Awards dinner in his home state of Missouri. George was the Keynote.

“You know, George, Tom is now the most popular politician in America.”

Barbara Eagleton

After the event, George asked Tom if he would “make a television commercial” for the McGovern campaign. “He said no.” To the bitter end, Eagleton continued to choose his own ambition over the ideology he professed to believe in and the voters he professed to serve. Eagleton won re-election with sixty percent of the election. In the end, his most notable legacy is the Eagleton-Hatch Act, which, if passed, would have rendered abortions unconstitutional.

George thought that Tom Eagleton cost him the Presidency. As he told Hunter S. Thompson, the indecision made George, who staked his claim on a campaign of ‘candor and reason,’ look just like every other politician who waited for the polls to tell him what to do.

The Eagleton Affair happened while Richard Nixon’s own sitting Vice President was actively under criminal investigation for tax fraud and corruption.

Slowly, Then All At Once

June 17, 1972 - Watergate Break-in

July 11, 1972 - McGovern Announced Eagleton as his running mate

August 8, 1972 - Robert Sargent Shriver replaced Eagleton as McGovern’s VP

October 10, 1973 - VP Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace

August 8, 1974 - President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace