Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

by Hunter S. Thompson

  But I guess you wouldn’t remember that episode, eh? Fuck no, you wouldn’t! You dope-addled fascist bastard. I’m heading east in a few days, and I think it’s about time we got this evil shit cleared away. Your deal is about to go down, John. You can run, but you can’t hide. See you soon…

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Dark Interlude

  Immediately after the Democratic Convention I flew to Los Angeles and spent several days hanging around the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Then I went back to Woody Creek to prepare for the ordeal of returning to Miami Beach for the Republican Convention in August. Not much seemed to be happening on the political front. That sleepless week in Miami had left the entire McGovern staff in a state of exhaustion. Most of them disappeared in their own directions for a week or so of vacation. The plan was for McGovern’s key staff wizards to convene ten days hence for strategy sessions at the Sylvan Lake Lodge outside Custer, South Dakota. Since the press would be barred from these confidential meetings I saw no point in going over there just to hang around and get drunk every night with a bunch of reporters.

  En route to the press conference where Eagleton’s history of mental illness & electric shock was officially revealed. UPI PHOTO

  The only people who knew at that point that all hell was about to break loose at the Sylvan Lake Lodge were Hart, Mankiewicz, and McGovern. When a notice appeared on the bulletin board in the Lodge press room announcing a joint McGovern/Eagleton press conference on Tuesday, it didn’t cause much of a stir. But most of the reporters went anyway because there was nothing else to do. On Wednesday every paper in the country carried a story similar to this one below, which appeared on the front page of the Washington Post:

  Eagleton Reveals Illness

  Hospitalized 3 Times in ’60s For ‘Fatigue’

  By William Greider

  Washington Post Staff Writer

  CUSTER, S.D., JULY 25—Sen. Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, unexpectedly revealed today that he was hospitalized three times between 1960 and 1966 for psychiatric treatment, suffering from “nervous exhaustion and fatigue.”

  Under questioning, he said the illness involved “the manifestation of depression” and that twice he received electric shock therapy, which he described as a recognized treatment for that type of ailment.

  Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee, promptly expressed full confidence in Eagleton and said he will discourage any talk of dumping Eagleton from the ticket.

  Eagleton revealed his medical history after reporters for the Knight Newspapers had confronted McGovern staff members with accounts of it….

  I left immediately for Custer, driving at top speed in a rebuilt Hudson Hornet. About four hours later, less than twenty miles from the 12,000-foot summit of Loveland Pass, the Hornet developed a fire in its electrical system and I was forced to abandon it. By that time I had already heard on the radio that Eagleton had left for Hawaii and McGovern had gone into seclusion. So I went back home and followed the Eagleton story for the next few days on television. There was plenty of speculation but not much in the way of hard news. Meanwhile over in Custer the linear press was becoming more and more dismayed at the way McGovern was handling the situation:

  Vacation Ordeal: Good Vibrations

  at Lodge Jarred by News of Eagleton

  By William Greider

  Washington Post Staff Writer

  CUSTER, S.D., JULY 28—The people who run George McGovern’s campaign for the presidency were all gathered after dinner one night in the pine-paneled lobby of their resort lodge singing folk songs.

  “Amazing Grace.” “This Land Is Your Land.” “Shenandoah.” Good vibrations all around.

  The candidate stood easily among them, not demanding to be the center of attention like so many politicians. McGovern sang softly himself while his research man, John Holum, played guitar. Even raspy newspaper reporters found themselves leaning into the circle, humming along.

  The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the black preacher-politician from the District of Columbia, sang in his high tenor of that serene biblical promise: “There Is a Balm in Gilead.”

  They came out here to the Black Hills to plot strategy for the fall campaign, yet they put great store in such moments of personal warmth. “We shall overcome,” they sang, as if good feeling among themselves was as crucial as any of those charts about where to find 270 electoral votes.

  That was last weekend. Before the Eagleton business. Before the big bad headlines: the alarmed phone calls and telegrams.

  Now McGovern dines privately in cabin 22 with his family, no more mingling with the reporters and tourists up at the lodge. The press has his cabin staked out and the Secret Service agents keep them at a distance. What began as a vacation, mixed with political activity, is ending as an ordeal.

  The Democratic nominee will be back in Washington Sunday. “He’s going to stay home and rest,” press secretary Dick Dougherty advised reporters today. “Rest up from his holiday,” he added dryly.

  The Black Hills in the western end of South Dakota are a proper setting for “Gunsmoke” or “Bonanza,” with magnificent pine-covered mountains lined by heroic bluffs of stone and narrow trails which wind among the eroded spires of rock. It doesn’t seem right for high political drama, but McGovern is facing it all with the public coolness of a western gunfighter.

  McGovern probably chose this spot to help promote the tourist business of his home state and, during the first week of his visit, he cooperated with the ritual appearances.

  He went horseback riding, wearing a silk ascot and looking only slightly more at ease than some of the mounted reporters and staff aides who followed him up the trail.

  The next day, he airily signed a photograph which showed his profile alongside the four presidential faces carved on Mt. Rushmore—“From George McGovern, the fifth man.”

  Everyone was loose. The hoard of reporters and TV crews were camped about eight miles away at the Hi Ho Motel in Custer, probably to give the nominee some privacy. But each evening, they would gather at the Sylvan Lake Lodge to mingle freely with the man and his staff, to share the grand view of Harney’s Peak and the “hail storms,” a pioneer drink served in mason jars.

  Then, without any warning, it became the bleak hills. Sen. Thomas Eagleton flew in with his entourage on Tuesday and made his public admission about the past psychiatric problems.

  “A gutsy performance,” said Fred Dutton, a senior advisor, reserving judgment on the political impact.

  “It could turn into a plus,” said Bill Dougherty, the lieutenant governor of South Dakota. His hopefulness was not widely shared.

  McGovern went to play tennis, shirtless, with his teacher, Washington tennis pro Allie Ritzenberg.

  The reporters bombarded everyone with questions. For a day or so, McGovern and Dougherty and the others tried to answer them. No, he was not dumping Eagleton. As of now. Well, did that mean he might? No, it didn’t mean that.

  Allie Ritzenberg went back to Washington, so did most of the campaign staff. Dutton and Dick Dougherty stayed on to counsel the candidate, but mostly to fend off the reporters. The questions got nastier.

  The candidate became more remote, no more interviews, his press conference cancelled. Finally, when the Eagleton story wouldn’t go away, he issued a public notice to his campaign staff, telling them to keep their mouths shut on the subject.

  But George McGovern flew a B-24 in World War II and his friends insist that he still does his best thinking when the flak is heavy. At least he remained cool.

  When an aide called him yesterday to report that Jack Anderson had added new accusations against Eagleton, the candidate replied: “Do you know how to paddle a canoe?” and invited the aide to join the family in a canoe trip on Sylvan Lake.

  That afternoon, he appeared at the movie house in Custer to see a promotional showing of “The Candidate,” a movie which depicts an idealistic young man co
nverted to a cosmetic politician, trading ideals for glamour.

  There was scattered applause in the Harney Theater when one character exclaimed, “Politics is bullshit.” McGovern and his family laughed hardest when a political manager in the film instructed the press secretary: “Get all the reporters on the press bus and drive them over the nearest cliff.”

  On his last night in South Dakota, McGovern relaxed and chatted again with reporters and agreed that his vacation had been something of a fiasco. “It’s not what I had in mind,” he said. “What I wanted was a time for reflection.”

  This morning, good to his word, McGovern showed up for the annual tourist parade which Custer stages to commemorate the discovery of gold in the valley on French Creek nearly one hundred years ago. He and Mrs. McGovern wore buckskin jackets and brown Stetsons, but the Secret Service had them ride in a closed car, not on horses.

  “Let’s just talk about the Discovery Days parade,” McGovern told a reporter.

  A horse dyed yellow led the line of march, which included blue and red horses too. The security helicopter circling over the tiny town added excitement. The floats followed McGovern. “The Massacre of the Metz Family,” by the Custer Lumber Co. “Our Discovery of Gold,” by the Young Homemakers Extension Club.

  Dutton, wearing a dowdy cowboy hat, cheered the press corps as it puffed by beside McGovern’s car. The line of tourists and Custer citizens complained. “You’re spoiling our view,” a lady yelled from the curb.

  Past the Monster Mansion, past the How the West Was Won Museum. At the Gold Pan Saloon, McGovern got out to shake hands.

  “How’s your vacation, Mrs. McGovern, hectic?” a girl asked. Eleanor McGovern sighed. “Yes it is.”

  The parade ended at the east end of Custer in front of Scott’s Rock Shop, which sells rocks. The senator and his wife accepted gifts from the mayor, a squirrel and book ends of rose quartz, a local mineral.

  “It’s been very pleasant for us to be out here,” McGovern assured the mayor.

  Then the Democratic presidential nominee mingled with tourists from all over Florida, Utah, Illinois, Rhode Island. Rhode Island?

  “One of my first visits is going to be to Providence,” McGovern told the man from there. “We’ll probably be in there next month.”

  It sounded as if he could hardly wait.

  The McGovern Image

  Candor of Democratic Nominee Viewed

  as Chief Casualty of Eagleton Affair

  By James M. Naughton

  Special to the New York Times

  WASHINGTON, JULY 30—The biggest political casualty in the Eagleton affair may prove to be not Senator Thomas F. Eagleton but the man who chose him to seek the Vice Presidency. In the five days since Senator Eagleton disclosed a history of treatment for nervous exhaustion and depression, Senator George McGovern appears to have undone much of his effort over the last 18 months to establish an image as an unusually candid Presidential candidate.

  The Democratic nominee declined on Tuesday even to consider Senator Eagleton’s offer to withdraw from the ticket, saying that its make-up was irrevocably set. Three days later, he began orchestrating an attempt to persuade Mr. Eagleton to withdraw from the ticket.

  McGovern Comments

  Having asserted on Tuesday that “there is no one sounder in body, mind and spirit than Tom Eagleton,” Mr. McGovern was telling reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane last night that “the one thing we know about Eagleton is that he has been to the hospital three times for [mental] depression.”

  The Democratic Presidential nominee publically admonished his staff to stop gossiping about what effect Mr. Eagleton’s disclosure might have on the Democrats’ chances in November. A day later, he contrived through his staff to assemble a group of reporters for a casual discussion on the same subject.

  Mr. McGovern appeared, even to disillusioned members of his campaign staff, to be saying one thing and doing another—which was the charge he had been preparing to make in the campaign against President Nixon.

  In the Democratic primaries, Senator McGovern managed to convey the impression that he was somehow not a politician in the customary sense—that he was more open, more accessible, more attuned to the issues and more idealistic than other candidates.

  Pro-Eagleton Calls

  But his reaction to Mr. Eagleton’s disclosure may have seriously impaired that image. When newspapers appeared yesterday morning with articles about Senator McGovern’s apparent decision to reassess Mr. Eagleton’s candidacy, telephone calls began inundating the McGovern headquarters here to back Mr. Eagleton. One McGovern worker said that there were “tons” of pro-Eagleton calls and that the instructions were not to make that information public.

  It all seemed to illustrate, as have other events since Mr. McGovern won the Democratic nomination, that he is, after all, a politician.

  “Above all else, George McGovern is a very practical, pragmatic man,” said George V. Cunningham, deputy campaign manager and a political associate of Mr. McGovern since 1955.

  The South Dakota Senator won the nomination with a grass-roots campaign that went around the party professionals, but now he has installed Lawrence F. O’Brien, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on the eighth floor of McGovern headquarters and has given Mr. O’Brien the coveted title of campaign chairman.

  Daley Is Courted

  It was Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine who faltered in the primaries by relying on the big names in the Democratic establishment to win the nomination for him. But now it is Mr. McGovern who is energetically courting the big-city machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley in Chicago and implying that the only issue separating him from former President Lyndon B. Johnson is the Vietnam war.

  Despite a pledge to give “unequivocal” support to an attempt to put more women on the South Carolina delegation to the Democratic National Convention, Mr. McGovern allowed his operatives to throw some votes against the women’s challenge rather than risk a parliamentary showdown that might have imperiled his own nomination. But a McGovern staff study theorizes that, for the first time, wives are equal to husbands in influencing the political attitudes of spouses, and the Senator unabashedly named Mrs. Jean Westwood of Utah to the high visibility post of party chairman.

  Closed Door Session

  When Mr. McGovern went to Houston last June to meet with disgruntled Democratic Governors, he was pressed to explain why the session would be held behind closed doors. After months of pledging to end secrecy in government, how could he square a secret meeting, Mr. McGovern was asked.

  “I can’t square it,” he replied. “Sometimes I’m just going to have to be inconsistent.”

  No one could say without absolute certainty today that Mr. Eagleton would be removed from the ticket when he and Mr. McGovern meet tomorrow to consider the question. But while Mr. Eagleton was traveling on the West Coast last week, Mr. McGovern’s staff was said to be imploring the Presidential nominee to dump his running mate.

  At the time, Mr. McGovern was vacationing in the Blacks Hills of his native South Dakota. On Friday, Mr. McGovern saw a special screening of the recent movie, The Candidate, in which an idealistic office-seeker is cosmeticized by practical politicians on his staff.

  Mr. McGovern did not like the film. It showed, he said, “some of the sicker side of American politics.”

  The McGovern Course

  By William Greider

  Washington Post Staff Writer

  JULY 31—George McGovern, confronting a political crisis which could destroy his candidacy for the White House, moves like a sailboat headed down the bay.

  First, he tacks in one direction, and this is reported. Then he tacks back the other way, and that too is reported. But the reports of these movements do not necessarily reveal where he is ultimately headed.

  McGovern apparently wants it that way. Let others seem to speak for you. Hint at your intentions, but don’t state them directly. Retreat, move forward. Shave the a
ngle of your words. Keep your objective sufficiently flexible so that, if you must, you can always change it.

  In the “old politics,” this sort of maneuvering was an accepted technique for approaching tough decisions, euphemistically known as “keeping your options open.” The “new politics” of the McGovern campaign, which likes to frown on the old ways, will have to think of something different to call it.

  The South Dakota senator has always insisted that he is, above all, a pragmatic politician and his handling of the Eagleton crisis confirms his description. Beneath the exterior of the earnest and open man, there is a cautious tactician, more calculating than either his hard-boiled critics or his starry-eyed admirers have admitted.

  He began by embracing his running mate, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, promising full support for the man who had just disclosed to the world that three times earlier in his career he had been hospitalized with psychiatric problems. Never mind, said McGovern, who insisted he would have chosen Eagleton even if he had known.

  McGovern held to that heading Tuesday and Wednesday, both in his own comments and in statements released through his press secretary. But an avalanche of negative comment was building up, both from newspaper editorial writers and from McGovern supporters.

  On Thursday, the sailboat turned about—though not so dramatically that one could say McGovern had reversed directions. The senator cancelled a press conference, which meant he did not think it wise to repeat all of his lines about full support for Eagleton.