Changes
nomination was mispelled as "nimination", fixed.
[[Image:1972election.jpg|thumb|300px]]
The Democratic party was deeply split after [[United States presidential election, 1968|their near-colapse in 1968]] and in 1972 the leftwing faction won out, then self-destructed. The nominee after a nasty primary battle was South Dakota Senator [[George McGovern]], and initially his running mate was [[Thomas Eagleton]]. Eagleton had a secret history of mental illness (complete with electric shock treatments to his brain) that was revealed after he accepted the niminationnomination. Although McGovern said he was "1000% behind Eagleton," the insanity issue threatened to destroy the credibility of McGovern's crusade and Eagleton was forced off the ticket. Numerous leading Democrats publicly rejected the VP nomination until finally a Daley-supporter and Kennedy in-law, [[Sargent Shriver]], accepted. Polls showed Nixon winning a huge landslide, as indeed happened.
The McGovern camp counted on the vote of young people disaffected by the [[Vietnam War]] to boost their support as the voting age was dropped from 21 down to 18. Their turnout stayed low.
