In case you missed it with the coverage of the Chauvin verdict, the Global Climate Summit, and the debate over the American Jobs Plan, former Minnesota Senator, Vice President, and 1984 Democratic Presidential Nominee Walter Mondale passed away this week at the age of 93.
President Jimmy Carter, for whom Mondale served from 1976 to 1981 stated:
"Today I mourn the passing of my dear friend Walter Mondale, who I consider the best vice president in our country's history. During our administration, Fritz used his political skill and personal integrity to transform the vice presidency into a dynamic, policy-driving force that had never been seen before and still exists today. He was an invaluable partner and an able servant of the people of Minnesota, the United States, and the world. Fritz Mondale provided us all with a model for public service and private behavior. Rosalynn and I join all Americans in giving thanks for his exemplary life, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family."
President Joe Biden issued a statement from the White House which said:
"It’s with great sadness that Jill and I learned of the passing of Vice President Walter Mondale, but great gratitude that we were able to call one of our nation’s most dedicated patriots and public servants a dear friend and mentor.
Jill and I had the opportunity to speak to Fritz and his family over the weekend, to reflect on the years of friendship we shared, and how much we learned from and leaned on each other.
When I arrived in the United States Senate in 1973, Walter Mondale was one of the first people to greet me. Through his work as a Senator, he showed me what was possible. He may have been modest and unassuming in manner, but he was unwavering in his pursuit of progress; instrumental in passing laws like the Fair Housing Act to prevent racial discrimination in housing, Title IX to provide more opportunities for women, and laws to protect our environment. There have been few senators, before or since, who commanded such universal respect.
When President Obama asked me to consider being his Vice President, Fritz was my first call and trusted guide. He not only took my call, he wrote me a memo. It was Walter Mondale who defined the vice presidency as a full partnership, and helped provide a model for my service.
And Joan did the same for Jill, helping her carve out a role for herself as our nation’s Second Lady.
He not only created a path for himself, he helped others do the same. Walter Mondale was the first presidential nominee of either party to select a woman as his running mate, and I know how pleased he was to be able to see Kamala Harris become Vice President.
In accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, he described the values he was taught to live by: “to play by the rules; to tell the truth; to obey the law; to care for others; to love our country; to cherish our faith.”
As a Senator, an Ambassador, a Vice President, and a candidate for President, he lived and spread those values.
Our hearts go out to the Mondale family. And we take some comfort in the fact that he is with Joan and Eleanor now."
From Humphrey Protegee to Carter's Vice President.
A protegee of Hubert Humphrey, another Minnesota Senator, Vice President, and Presidential Nominee (1968,) Mondale was a left-of-center Democrat who championed Civil Rights and progressive policies like fair housing and environmentalism.
After flirting with a run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1976 (apparently he tired of spending endless nights in Holiday Inns,) he became Jimmy Carters Vice Presidential Nominee that year.
In the first-ever Vice Presidential Debate, Senator Mondale bested Senator (and 1996 Republican Presidential Nominee) Bob Dole, calling the Kansan a "hatchet man" after the Republican accused Democrats of bringing on every war on the Twentieth Century (World War One, World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam.)
Changing the Vice Presidency.
After the Carter/Mondale Ticket won a close election in 1976 over the Ford/Dole one, President Carter, with a supporting Vice President Mondale reshaped the office of the Vice Presidency to what it is today.
[caption id="attachment_108298" align="alignnone" width="500"]
Walter Mondale being sworn in as Vice President with Joan Mondale, Jimmy Carter, and Nelson Rockefeller looking on. Photo from Minnesota Historical Society.[/caption]Before the Carter/Mondale Administration, Vice Presidents served at the whim of the Presidents who chose them.
Comments surrounding the position went back to the first Vice President John Adams who said:
"I am Vice President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything."
"My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
Woodrow Wilson's Vice President, Thomas Marshall (who if there was the 25th Amendment in 1919 probably could have assumed the Presidency following Wilson's stroke) said:
"Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected vice president of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again."
Franklin Roosevelt's first Vice President, John Nance Garner commented that "the vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm piss.”
Roosevelts last Vice President Harry Truman (who had a short stay in the role becoming President after FDR's death in 1945) said:
"Look at all the Vice Presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow's fifth teat."
Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale changed all that by:
- Making sure the Vice President received the same classified briefings as the President. Remember Harry Truman did not fully know about the atomic bomb until after he became President. That distancing of information to the Vice President lasted until Mondale.
- Making the Vice President a partner and consigliere to the President.
- Giving the Vice President an office in the West Wing.
- Putting the Vice President in the military chain of command.
- Having weekly lunches with the President.
According to journalist Jonathan Alter, Carter reportedly told staffers “If you get an order from Fritz, it’s as if it's an order from me.” Alter then wrote: "He (Carter) added that if any of them followed the historical pattern and tried to sideline the veep, they would be fired."
While a good relationship that continued in friendship until Mondale's dying day, there were some disagreements.
The Vice President thought President Carter erred when he gave the Crisis of Confidence Malassie Speech in 1979 (history proved him right there despite the initial support.) Mondale reportedly said to Carter “You have a style problem...You can’t uplift people” (ouch.)
Mondale also thought Carter should not have imposed a grain embargo on the Soviet Union.
Mondale erred by suggesting that Carter allow the Shah of Iran into the United States for medical treatment. This would be one of the causes of the 15-month Iranian Hostage Crisis from 1979 to 1981.
But as Mondale liked to say on many occasions when asked about the Carter/Mondale Administration:
From a historical perspective, former Vice President and 2000 Presidential Popular Vote Winner Al Gore said that you could divide the periods of Vice Presidents into two groups: "Before Walter Mondale and After Walter Mondale."
Running for President in his own right and making history with Geraldine Ferraro
Four years after the Carter/Mondale team lost to the Reagan/Bush ticket in 1980, the former Vice President ran and won the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1984.
Mondale immediately made history by choosing the first woman, New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, to be the Vice Presidential nominee on a major party ticket.
In his acceptance speech, Mondale committed the political cardinal sin of being honest with the American People by telling the American People that he or Reagan would raise their taxes.
Mondale was right. Reagan did raise taxes before and after the 1984 Presidential Elections.
Mondale performed very well in the two Presidential Debates against Reagan. Unfortunately, pundits only play Reagan's only good line of the debates when he said, with Mondale laughing, that he would not make the former Vice President's "youth and inexperience" a campaign issue.
Mondale, despite most people agreeing with him on many issues, would lose to Reagan in a massive landslide in 1984 carrying only his home state of Minnesota and Washington DC.
After 1984
Mondale retired to Minnesota and practiced law until President Bill Clinton nominated him to serve as the Ambassador to Japan in 1993. He would serve in that role until 1996.
Following the death of Senator Paul Wellstone in the ending phase of his reelection campaign in a plane crash in 2002, Mondale was put up as a replacement candidate.
Unfortunately, the celebration honoring Wellstone's life turned hyperpartisan, turning off some political independents and Mondale lost to Norm Coleman in what would be his last campaign.
Vice President Mondale is survived by two children. His wife, Joan, passed away in 2014. His daughter died from brain cancer in 2015.
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