Word: mcgoverns
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...Even if McGovern sometimes seemed a little stupid as in the California $1000 give-away blunder, he was a decent and likable fellow. But this winning image disappeared within two weeks, just as most voters were beginning to find out about the unknown from South Dakota who had captured the Democratic nomination...
...Eagleton medical disclosure was a bad business to start with, but McGovern made the worst of it. The presidential candidate had to make a quick decision. He could have told the public that because he was not a doctor, he would postpone a judgment on Eagleton for 72 hours, which would give him time to consult the proper medical authorities. Or he could have condemned Eagleton, with some justification, for failing to mention his psychiatric problems when the vice presidential nomination had been proposed, and then dumped him from the ticket. This would have been cruel to Eagleton...
...very least, McGovern could privately have decided to ignore the advice of the two men who had been given the job of checking into Eagleton's medical history, which had been the subject of countless convention-time rumors. But McGovern listened to the only people who had a vested interest in minimizing the importance of the Eagleton crisis--Eagleton himself and the convention name checkers, Frank Mankiewicz and Gordon Well, who had earlier been responsible for briefing McGovern on the $1000 grant scheme. And they told him that McGovern listened to the architects of disaster, and pledged...
Roberts described his powerlessness and a campaign neophyte, silently watching the professional politicians put McGovern's hard-won reputation through a shredder. He believes that the nature of decision making during the Eagleton crisis can only be explained by the fact that a Campaign organization is not so much a bureaucracy as a "very unstable feudal court, with people clearly jockeying for positions and influence in the next White House...
...Eagleton matter did not blow over, and it soon became clear that McGovern had decided not a decide until after he had gauged public reaction. Deciding no to decide is a time-honored political strategy, but it requires timing, grace and absolute self-confidence, all of which McGovern lacked...