Minnesota was dominated by farming and mining, and it had a tradition of liberal, populist politics, with many Scandinavian-American residents like the Norwegian Mondales.Īfter serving in the U.S. His father was a Methodist minister, his mother a music teacher. 5, 1928, Walter Frederick Mondale was the sixth of seven children. Mondale's loss and a similar thrashing of fellow liberal Michael Dukakis in 1988 opened the way for more centrist Democrats like Bill Clinton to assert themselves in the party.īorn in Ceylon, Minnesota, on Jan. He said that after the second debate, "I was almost certain the campaign was over. "I think the public wanted to vote for Reagan," Mondale said later. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," Reagan joked, provoking laughter in the audience at the debate, and even from Mondale. "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. He allayed concerns about his age with his response to a question as to whether, at age 73, he was too old to be seeking four more years as president. Mondale was seen as the victor in their first debate, with the older Reagan coming across to some as out of touch and uncertain. The contest between Mondale and Reagan presented Americans with a clear choice between liberal and conservative candidates and doctrines. Mondale, still associated in voters' minds with Carter, faced the daunting task of trying to defeat a popular incumbent amid economic prosperity in 1984. The Carter-Mondale ticket lost in 1980 against Reagan and his running mate, George H.W. He did not always agree with Carter, as when he privately opposed Carter's preachy 1979 speech in which the president told Americans, besieged by a bad economy, that they were suffering from a "crisis of confidence." Mondale even considered resigning over the speech.Ĭarter increasingly looked like a weak president as he struggled with a hostage crisis in Iran, a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and tough economic times at home. He played a key role in buttressing the sometimes frayed relationship between Carter's White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Mondale became a more engaged vice president than many who preceded him. Mondale served in the Senate from 1964 until he was elected as vice president in Carter's 1976 victory over incumbent Republican Gerald Ford, who had become president after Nixon resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate corruption scandal.
Mondale was a protege of fellow Minnesota liberal Hubert Humphrey, also a senator and vice president, who lost the 1968 presidential election to Republican Richard Nixon. The line, borrowed from a humorous hamburger commercial popular at the time, hurt Hart's campaign. "It's something that I felt good about, and I thought I told the truth."Įarlier that year, Mondale made a memorable political quip when, during a primary debate, he tried to depict Gary Hart, a rival for his party's presidential nomination, as all style and no substance by asking: "Where's the beef?" "I'm really glad I did it," he told PBS in 2004. Even years later, he expressed no regrets. By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds," Mondale said during his speech in San Francisco accepting the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. Mondale lost narrowly to Republican Norm Coleman, who depicted him as the graying representative of a bygone era.ĭuring his race against Reagan, Mondale promised Americans he would raise their taxes, a vow that did little to help his candidacy. It was the first of two times that Mondale was sent into political retirement by a crushing defeat.Įighteen years later, grieving Minnesota Democrats beseeched Mondale, then 74, to run for the Senate after Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election. presidential election, losing in 49 of the 50 states and carrying only his native Minnesota as well as Washington, D.C. Ferraro died in 2011 at age 75.ĭespite the historic selection of a woman, Mondale suffered one of the worst defeats ever in a U.S. congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his vice presidential running mate.
Widely known as "Fritz," Mondale was the Democratic nominee in 1984 against Reagan, a popular incumbent Republican who had beaten Carter four years earlier, and selected New York Democratic U.S. "He was an invaluable partner and an able servant of the people of Minnesota, the United States, and the world."
0 kommentar(er)
