Joshua M. Glasser, author of "The Eighteen Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign in Crisis," will speak at the Woodrow Wilson School on Thursday, October 11, 2012, at 4:30 p.m., in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. The discussion is cosponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School and the Mudd Library.  The discussion is part of the Wilson School's "Talk of 2012: The Upcoming Presidential Election" thematic lecture series. A public reception will follow the discussion in Shultz dining room.

On the eve of the 2012 vice presidential debate, Joshua Glasser will bring the audience inside a campaign unlike any other in American presidential election history: the only time a vice presidential running mate has left a ticket for reason other than death. Glasser goes behind-the-scenes in George McGovern's 1972 bid for the White House, exploring the candidate's decision to select—and ultimately drop—Senator Thomas Eagleton from Missouri as running mate. Glasser is the author of the recently published book, “The Eighteen-Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign in Crisis” (Yale University Press), which draws upon material found in the George S. McGovern Papers of the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University. The documents helped him recreate the events of Eagleton's eighteen-day candidacy and bring the transformative McGovern campaign back to life.

July 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of what has become known as the “Eagleton Affair.”  Glasser’s book is very timely in its description of how a campaign was undone and its impact on the heightened scrutiny and vetting of potential vice-presidential candidate. http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/joshua-glasser-on-the-eighteen-day-running-mate/

The event will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s web media site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.