Pundits, then and later, portrayed Eagleton as the victim of public ignorance, despite the vast differences between psychotherapy and electroshock therapy. After all, Eagleton's own doctors had told McGovern (after the disclosure) that the senator's depression was severe and that they worried terribly about whether he could serve as president. Years later, in 1988, Michael Dukakis would suffer more unfairly when rumors surfaced that he'd seen a shrink. President Reagan gibed that he wouldn't "pick on an invalid"--it took one to know one--and Dukakis, rather than risking discredit by defending psychotherapy, released medical records to disprove the rumors.