Eagleton withdrew from the race just 19 days later after it was disclosed that he had previously undergone mental health treatment, including electroshock therapy, and he was replaced on the ballot by Sargent Shriver of Maryland, a Kennedy in-law.

The convention, which has been described as "a disastrous start to the general election campaign",[4] was one of the most unusual—perhaps the most contentious in the history of the Democratic Party since 1924—with sessions beginning in the early evening and lasting until sunrise the next morning.

Previously excluded political activists gained influence at the expense of elected officials and traditional core Democratic constituencies such as organized labor.

[4][5][6] The 1972 convention was significant as the first implementation of the reforms set by the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, which McGovern himself had chaired before deciding to run for president.

As the convention was occurring on Miami Beach, Gloria Steinem chose The Betsy Ross Hotel as headquarters for the National Organization for Women (NOW).

One male Right-to-Life zealot spoke against, and Shirley MacLaine also was an opposition speaker, on the grounds that this was a fundamental right but didn't belong in the platform.

Having recently gained public notoriety for her feminist manifesto The Female Eunuch and sparring with Norman Mailer, Greer was commissioned to cover the convention for Harper's Magazine.

[12] A coalition of gay rights groups at the convention "drew up a proposed platform provision that called for, among other things, repealing laws against homosexuals marrying".

The McGovern platform is often criticized as a "reformist coup" responsible in large part for the subsequent decline in American liberalism and chasing away the Democratic Party's "best politicians".

It alienated the "working- and lower-middle class voters [who] saw [the platform] as threatening to traditional, deeply valued, if inequitable social arrangements"—so much so that one in three Democrats voted for Nixon, the Republican incumbent, in the presidential election in November.

For example: Although the McGovern platform did not promise socialism, it did pledge to eliminate—through government guarantee and dicta—any manifestation of free enterprise that could potentially produce inequality or failure.

[19] McGovern and his campaign staff felt that a Kennedy-style figure was best to balance the ticket: a Catholic, big city-based leader with strong ties to organized labor and urban political machines.

The delegates insisted on nominating eight candidates for vice president, including Eagleton, Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, former Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody, and Frances "Sissy" Farenthold of the Texas state house: Farenthold was the first serious female candidate for the Democratic vice president nomination [20] since Nellie Tayloe Ross in 1928.

By the time the roll call finally began, many of the delegates were angry and wary after the protracted infighting, and combined with the last-day-of-school atmosphere of the proceedings, caused the vice-presidential balloting to become nothing short of a farce.

The delegates cast ballots for a record 79 people, including many not involved in politics, as well as three deceased persons, Chinese leader Mao Zedong, and the fictional Archie Bunker.

Eventually, Eagleton secured the nomination at 1:40 a.m.[19] This delay forced the acceptance speeches of the candidates to be given well past the television prime time hours, and probably hurt the McGovern campaign by not creating the so-called "convention bounce".

Several days after the convention, it was revealed that Senator Eagleton had been hospitalized for depression and had electric shock treatment, and was also rumored to be more than a social drinker.

Since this incident, front-running presidential candidates have developed short lists of potential running mates, and have meticulously performed background checks.