Behavior: Evaluating Eagleton

Thomas Eagleton was dumped as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate by politicians who assumed that many voters would be frightened off by his history of mental illness. Would the result have been different if Eagleton had been "tried by a jury of his peers" —the scores of thousands of Americans who not only can sympathize but empathize with him because they too have suffered depression that required hospitalization and perhaps electric-shock therapy? The answer, as ironic as it is surprising, is apparently no.

In interviews with TIME reporters across the country, most depression patients...

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