THE CAMPAIGN: George McGovern Finally Finds a Veep

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The decision to drop Eagleton raised deep questions about McGovern's leadership abilities. Yet the dilemma was a profound one in which the poignant personal considerations of both men collided with the brutal demand that public and party welfare come first. There was no way for McGovern to look good. His critics could contend that he put expediency above the anti-professional political idealism that his candidacy had seemed to espouse. Arguments will undoubtedly continue over whether his stature would have grown or diminished if he had never wavered in his support of Eagleton, fought out the health issue on purely medical grounds. His admirers and most professional politicians will argue that abandoning Eagleton was something he simply had to do if he was to stand any chance of getting the campaign focused on its real target, Richard Nixon. The worst thing about McGovern's performance was not that he was compelled to drop Eagleton, but that he at first rushed into "1,000%" support of him, only to waver toward a somewhat devious tactic of undercutting the man. In the end, McGovern proved coldly tough.

As they moved into the fateful week, both McGovern and Eagleton respected each other's position. Showing courage and a manly grace under pressure, Eagleton felt he had ridden out the storm and emerged with a broad new following. He was especially effective on a Sunday Face the Nation TV appearance. McGovern wanted to keep him, but feared that the controversy would not subside so long as Eagleton was on the ticket. On another Sunday-interview show, Meet the Press, two of the party's top officials, National Committee Chairman Jean Westwood and Vice Chairman Basil A. Paterson, urged him to step down. Since Mrs. Westwood had talked to McGovern before her appearance, her words were a sign that McGovern might have made up his mind. Yet, as one aide explained it, McGovern was "very troubled by the conflicting emotional pulls. There was a terrible ambiguity between his private desires [keeping Eagleton] and the public requirements [dumping him]."

If those ambiguities had already been resolved, the public execution was still to come. So was the pursuit of someone else to fill out the ticket. The travail of the Democratic Party developed this way day by day:

MONDAY. Michigan Senator Phil Hart found no ambiguity at all in what McGovern intended to do. As a group of Senators flew to the funeral of Louisiana Senator Allen Ellender, McGovern, sitting beside Hart, said flatly: "I've concluded that it is necessary to find a substitute." Hart readily agreed. Hart was struck by McGovern's controlled approach to the problem: "He seemed totally at ease. No bitterness, no anger. He seemed remarkably stable." McGovern laughed heartily when his colleague asked jokingly: "Does the law require that you have a Vice President?"

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