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The frequent mention of the Eagleton affair during discussions over vice presidential selections in the past election cycle has further enhanced the relevancy of the controversy surrounding Senator George McGovern's choice of Senator Tom Eagleton as his running mate in 1972. That soon led to Eagleton's forced resignation because of past treatment for depression-the only nominee who has ever had to depart from the ticket. This is the first scholarly study of that controversy. It is grounded in extensive interviews and archival research in the McGovern and the untapped Eagleton Papers. This Greek tragedy has much to say about the two protagonists and the casual way in which political parties sometimes selected vice presidential candidates. As a result, the Eagleton affair has also contributed to a more thoughtful approach to the selection of vice presidential nominees.
The most defining moment in Tom Eagleton's public life involved his abbreviated Democratic nomination for the vice presidency in 1972 - the only vice presidential nominee ever forced to resign from the ticket. The Eagleton affair still appears in the popular literature, along with the Eagleton question - meaning the one that Democratic nominee George McGovern did not pose to his prospective running mate, only to discover that the Missouri senator had undergone electroshock therapy. As a metaphor, the Eagle- ton question has even recently reappeared in Sports Illustrated in connection with, of all things, the University of Miami's quest for a football coach. The feature story's opening paragraph referenced the affair in discussing the athletic director's probing question- ing of a top coaching candidate so as to avoid the pitfalls of the McGovern selection process (Smith 2007, 64). Most recently, Eagleton's name came up again following the controversial selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican party's vice presidential choice in 2008.
The Eagleton affair has all the elements of a Greek tragedy - it inflicted pain on two decent men and altered their political careers in ways that circumscribed their goals and ambitions. Both George McGovern and Tom Eagleton revealed human frailties because of mistakes in judgment - McGovern by acting impulsively, indecisively, and carelessly and Eagleton by placing ambition ahead of openness and good judgment. Eagleton would come out of the ordeal far better - even...