to say to my friend, frank king, that ohio may have passed a few times in this convention, but tom eagleton and i are not going to pass ohio. [cheers and applause] and i can say to governor gilligan, ohio is sometimes -- he is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign. [cheers and applause] and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge he made 10 years ago that next year you won't have richard nixon to kick around anymore. [cheers and applause] we have

listeners know that they can get involved in the conversation of the choosing or picking of senator tom eagleton by senator mcgovern to be his running mate in 1972. this is the 40th anniversary of the so-called eagleton affair. if you want to get involved in the conversation, the number is 202-737-00024 republicans. again, democrats, 202, 737-0001. independents, 202-628-0205. you can also send messages the a social media, twitter, facebook, and e-mail. when did the information start to come out -- when was it exposed or did they start to find out more about senator eagleton's mental illness and that he had in fact gone through some electric shock therapy? guest: they had some grumblings of mental illness or alcoholism in eagleton's past, even before selecting him, but nothing was entirely certain. right after he was announced, the grumblings were getting louder and the whispers no longer really whispers. mcgovern's campaign here's a little bit more later, but what really precipitates the revelation is a night newspaper reporter goes out to st. louis for a routine background piece on the vice-pre

initial reaction from the people working in the mcgovern campaign about his choice of senator tom eagleton to be his running mate in their reaction 18 days later when eagleton pulls himself of the ticket. caller: it was such crew the times -- crazy times, especially in politics. collation. thomas eagleton. i remember when mcgovern 00 mcgovern had huge -- mcgovern had huge you support. i almost thought it would have been a [unintelligible] you have all of these young people. the older democrats were outraged about the whole thing. that is the thing i wanted to say. guest: eagleton bridge the gap between the new and old elements of the party. he was antiwar, incredibly antiwar. he was well connected within the labor movement and the most establishment party politicians. it will son was something that bridge the gap. elatio nin missouri. missouri was proud of eagleton. they supported him. among mcgovern supporters, and his campaign workers for years to get him elected, there was outrage. there was extrapolation the seems to destroy all of their hard work. after the bulletin's revelations, eve

thomas eagleton, senator from missouri, cursory vetting which was, basically, an aide saying to eagleton, tomng around in your closet, and eagleton said, no, so he was nominated. soon it became known that eagleton had been more than once hospitalized with electroshock treatments, and mcgovern felt compelled to throw him off the ticket. there's a very good book on this called, i think, the 18-day candidate that came out not long ago. but presidential nominees since then have been so chastened by that, that there's now an elaborate vetting process, discussions with potential candidates. you saw this with mitt romney and paul ryan this year. the republic is much better served. >>st what are some of the more altruistic vice presidential picks that you can think of just -- >> guest: that were not for political reasons? >> host: the more altruistic. >> guest: it is very hard to think of them. one might be roosevelt choosing truman, oddly enough. there's some evidence that roosevelt chose truman knowing that he would not last his entire next term whether he died or had to resign for reasons of healt

thomas eagleton, senator from missouri, cursory vetting which was, basically, an aide saying to eagleton, tomng around in your closet, and eagleton said, no, so he was nominated. soon it became known that eagleton had been more than once hospitalized with electroshock treatments, and mcgovern felt compelled to throw him off the ticket. there's a very good book on this called, i think, the 18-day candidate that came out not long ago. but presidential nominees since then have been so chastened by that, that there's now an elaborate vetting process, discussions with potential candidates. you saw this with mitt romney and paul ryan this year. the republic is much better served. >>st what are some of the more altruistic vice presidential picks that you can think of just -- >> guest: that were not for political reasons? >> host: the more altruistic. >> guest: it is very hard to think of them. one might be roosevelt choosing truman, oddly enough. there's some evidence that roosevelt chose truman knowing that he would not last his entire next term whether he died or had to resign for reasons of healt