Reply #14: Eagleton also blabbed to Novakula [View All]

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Amnesty, Abortion and Acid

On April 25, 1972, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary and journalist Bob Novak phoned Democratic politicians around the country, who agreed with his assessment that blue-collar workers voting for McGovern did not understand what he really stood for.<4> On April 27, 1972 Novak reported in a column that an unnamed Democratic senator had talked to him about McGovern.<5> "The people don’t know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot," the Senator said.<5> "Once middle America - Catholic middle America, in particular - finds this out, he’s dead."<5> The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and acid."<4><6>

Novak was accused of manufacturing the quote.<5> To rebut the criticism, Novak took Eagleton to lunch after the campaign and asked whether he could identify him as the source.<5> The senator said he would not allow his identity to be revealed.<5> "Oh, he had to run for re-election", said Novak.<4> "The McGovernites would kill him if they knew he had said that." Novak added.<4>

On July 15, 2007, Novak disclosed on Meet the Press that the unnamed senator was Thomas Eagleton.<4> Political analyst Bob Shrum says that Eagleton would never have been selected as McGovern's running mate if it had been known at the time that Eagleton was the source of the quote.<4> "Boy, do I wish he would have let you publish his name. Then he never would have been picked as vice president," said Shrum.<4> "Because the two things, the two things that happened to George McGovern—two of the things that happened to him—were the label you put on him, number one, and number two, the Eagleton disaster. We had a messy convention, but he could have, I think in the end, carried eight or 10 states, remained politically viable. And Eagleton was one of the great train wrecks of all time."<4>

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton