The Geezer's McMoment

One of this blogger's favorite historians is Northwestern's Garry Wills. Wills takes us back to 1972, when George McGovern (D-SD) dumped his VP choice, Tom Eagleton (D-MO). In this prelude to the current Palin soap opera, investigative reporters discovered that Eagleton had received ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), known as "shock treatments" in the early 1960s. In the fallout, George McGovern accepted Eagleton's "withdrawal" and replaced him with R. Sargent Shriver (JFK's brother-in-law). As a veteran of a few ECT treatments (This blog's contents reveal how well that works.), this blogger recommends a few ECT treatments for The Geezer after his own VP pick. If this is a (fair & balanced) jolt, so be it.

[x NY Fishwrap]
McCain’s McGovern Moment
By Garry Wills

One of the most bizarre political events I ever attended was the second Democratic nominating convention of 1972. It was held in August at a Washington hotel ballroom, not in a big arena like the Miami Beach Convention Center, where the party had nominated George McGovern for president four weeks earlier.

All the elements of a normal convention were there, but in a shrunken condition. There were token delegations from all the states, each with its upright name-standard. The nominating and seconding speeches were delivered, followed by a full roll call, an acclamation and an acceptance speech — delivered by R. Sargent Shriver, who officially became Mr. McGovern’s new running mate. Perfunctory balloons were dropped and a band prodded false cheer from the delegates. This sheepishly formal charade had to be gone through, since the man nominated at the regular convention, Thomas Eagleton [1929-2007], had been forced off the ticket two weeks after winning the nomination.

The original ticket was not so far from this year’s Republican pair. Mr. McGovern, the senator from South Dakota, was a decorated (Distinguished Flying Cross) war pilot. His running mate was a young politician (a 42-year-old man) about whom little was known. He had been the youngest attorney general and youngest lieutenant governor of his state (Missouri), but he had served only two-thirds of his first term in the Senate. The McGovern team had not vetted him thoroughly, and he had not told the man at the top of the ticket about a potentially embarrassing fact: he had hospitalized himself three times in the early 1960s for nervous exhaustion, and twice he had been given electroshock therapy — a treatment more common and better regarded at that time than it is now.

There should, perhaps, be no prejudice against the healthy practice of seeking therapy, but the prejudice existed then. Mr. McGovern, when the facts came out, tried to stay loyal to his pick, saying he supported him “a thousand percent.” But the talk and rumors and jokes became an insurmountable distraction to the campaign, and the candidate had to ask Senator Eagleton to leave the ticket. Hence the huggermugger conventionette in Washington.

The lesson for succeeding races was that a vice presidential candidate should be thoroughly vetted — a lesson apparently neglected by Senator John McCain.

Perhaps Senator McCain knew everything that has, with dizzying suddenness, emerged about his vice presidential pick, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska — that she was a director of a political committee in support of Ted Stevens, the Alaska senator now under indictment; an initial supporter of the so-called bridge to nowhere; an appointer of a man who had been officially reprimanded for sexual harassment as the public safety commissioner in Alaska; a mother of an unwed and pregnant 17-year-old; and other things being ferreted out by the minute. But it is an insult to Senator McCain’s intelligence to think even half of these or other matters were known to him before he chose her.

Perhaps Senator McGovern should not have deserted Tom Eagleton. Perhaps Senator McCain should stick by Governor Palin. But if he does soldier on with her by his side for a while, will he end up having to call another midget convention like the one that had to be cobbled together to nominate Sargent Shriver? That is hardly in his best interests.

Perhaps Governor Palin, realizing that and trying to minimize her own humiliation in coming days, should withdraw before she is nominated and let Senator McCain turn again to one of his more experienced options. We should remember that Senator Eagleton went on to serve honorably after his withdrawal, both during his time in the Senate and in charitable work after he retired from public office. He died last year, respected and beloved.

[Garry Wills won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, which describes the background and effect of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Wills is an emeritus professor of history at Northwestern University. Wills attended a Roman Catholic seminary, but did not enter the priesthood. He received his PhD in classics from Yale in 1961. In 1995 Wills received a LHD from Bates College. He also received an honorary doctorate from the College of the Holy Cross. In 1998, he won the National Medal for the Humanities. He has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Wills' book, Nixon Agonistes, landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents. John Leonard said in The New York Times that Wills "reads like a combination of H. L. Mencken, John Locke and Albert Camus." Wills' most recent book is What the Gospels Meant.]


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