Decades after Walter Mondale was vice president and years after his own bid to become the president of the United States, the Minnesota Democrat can draw many comparisons to the political environment when he was at the top of his political game to the current climate.
In the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam era, the time he was running on Jimmy Carter's ticket, Mondale could "sense the need for change." The issues may be different now, but the former vice president says the American people are still relying on the same principles and reacting to the world around them. "Each new president is an antidote to the previous president," Mondale said while talking with Steve Scully of C-SPAN and students from George Mason, Pace, and Denver Universities. Mondale mused that with George Bush's approval rating bottoming out the American people are as ready for change now as they were in the late 1970's.
The tight race that is emerging in the Democratic Party's primary is another piece of current events that has a flashback quality for Mondale. 1980 was the last time the party was deadlocked. This was the year Mondale was vying for the Democratic nomination against Ted Kennedy. "I asked him not to run, but he was not going to leave voluntarily," Mondale said of Kennedy. "When people start fighting it just gets worse," he added.
Although Walter Mondale was on the winning end of the stalemate in the Democratic Party, he did not win the overall election. His legacy though is still strong as Mondale is credited with creating the modern vice presidency.
He was the first to realize the importance of having his office in the West Wing, much closer to the Oval Office. Mondale sacrificed his ceremonial office which he said "might as well have been in Baltimore," in order to be closer to the President's office. This was not a power play. As Mondale notes, the vice president should not be someone seeking power and should not be turned into a co-presidency. Instead, the vice president should be “in-sync” with the president as Mondale says he was with Carter.
Mondale had one-on-one lunches with President Carter on a weekly basis. From these lunches the only thing that came out was an understanding between Mondale and Carter on the issues of the day and how they would be approached. There was never a note-taker and there was never a leak to the media or other sources from one of these meetings.
Mondale has many accolades and places in history for his service to the American people. His role as vice-president and his run for president where he chose his running mate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president. He held a seat in the U.S. Senate early in his career and then made a second attempt at the seat when his friend running for the spot in Minnesota passed away in a tragic plane crash, and even more.
After learning all about these experiences a student asked Mondale, “What are you most proud of?” His response, in reference to his years as vice president, “I did tell the truth, obeyed the law and kept the peace."
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