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The drama began early in the week when Eagleton was forced to reveal that on three occasions, in 1960, 1964 and 1966, he had been hospitalized in St. Louis or at the Mayo Clinic for nervous exhaustion. When the McGovern camp learned that the Knight newspapers were ready to break a story on Eagleton's medical history (see THE PRESS), McGovern and his running mate decided to break the news themselves at a press conference in Sylvan Lake, S. Dak. Eagleton described himself as "an intense and hard-fighting person," and added: "I sometimes push myself too far." After his successful 1960 campaign for attorney general of Missouri, he was hospitalized in St. Louis "on my own volition" for about four weeks for "exhaustion and fatigue." He spent four days at the Mayo Clinic in 1964, and about three weeks in 1966. On two of those occasions, in 1960 and 1966, he underwent electric-shock therapy for depression. Now, he said, "I have every confidence that I've learned how to pace myself and know the limits of my own endurance."
McGovern, seated at Eagleton's side, was quick to defend his man. "I think Tom Eagleton is fully qualified in mind, body and spirit to be the Vice President of the United States and, if necessary, to take on the presidency at a moment's notice," McGovern said. McGovern noted that when he had asked Eagleton to be his running mate, he had inquired "if he had any problems in his past that were significant or worth discussing with me." Eagleton told him no—"and I agree with that," McGovern said. He added: "If I had known every detail that he discussed this morning, he would still have been my choice for Vice President."
Dismay. If McGovern thought that those firm words would be the end of it, he was badly mistaken. Almost at once, the Furies descended. The telephones and news tickers at McGovern's temporary headquarters in Custer, S. Dak., quickly relayed the anger and dismay of key Democrats round the U.S. McGovern's finance chiefs, already facing a red-ink campaign, winced in despair. Editorialists let go their thunderbolts, crying for Eagleton to quit the ticket. McGovern calmly stayed put in South Dakota. Eagleton, at first shaken, gained strength through a hectic week of campaigning in California and Hawaii. By the end of the week, it was McGovern who seemed to be wavering as he apparently tried to ditch Eagleton without actually informing his running mate directly. They would meet early this week in Washington. But McGovern made no effort to discourage his backers from dump-Eagleton talk, and he tried to enlist the press in getting the word to Eagleton. In stories based on conversations with him but transparently attributed only to "sources close to McGovern," he passed the word that Eagleton should take himself out of contention. Eagleton had damaged the ticket, and he should jump without waiting to be pushed.
McGovern's shift away from Eagleton seemed to be based in part on the verdicts of major U.S. newspapers, most of which—including the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times—called for Eagleton to quit. After a two-day pause for reflection, the New York Times concurred.