Mediaboss Marketing

OPINION Walter Mondale was one of the last of the dinosaurs, Midwest liberals who roamed the American plains in the middle of the 20th century.

Mondale, who died April19 at 93, was a protege of a leader of that rapidly vanishing herd, Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Mondale met Humphrey when the energetic young Minneapolis mayor ran for the U.S. Senate in 1948, not realizing he would one day replace him there, and later serve beside him.

Mondale was appointed as Minnesotas attorney general in 1960 and elected to the post two years later. When HHH was elected vice president along with Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Mondale was named to the Senate seat. When he took office in 1965, he met another prairie populist, South Dakota Sen. George McGovern.

Mondale, McGovern and Humphrey, a Wallace, S.D., native who grew up in Huron before moving to Minnesota, were small-town Midwest boys who made good.

Mondales and McGoverns fathers were pastors; Humphreys dad was a druggist. Their sons all tried for the brass ring in American politics, falling just short.

These young, sharp, driven politicians became friends, political allies and, at times, rivals.

After Humphrey sought the White House but lost to Republican Richard Nixon in 1968, he came home to Minnesota, but soon bounced back into politics and was elected to the Senate again in 1970.

Minnesota, with Humphrey and Mondale, and South Dakota, with McGovern and, after the 1972 election, Jim Abourezk, had four of the most liberal senators in the country. Hard to imagine today, but that was the politics of that era.

Three of them sought the White House. Humphrey first tried in 1960 but lost the Democratic nomination to Jack Kennedy. He got the nod in 1968 but lost a narrow race.

In 1972, McGovern and Humphrey were the last two Democrats standing before McGovern took the nomination. But unlike his friend, he was soundly drubbed by Nixon.

Mondale considered a run for the presidency in 1976 but turned it down, saying he didnt want to spend months in Holiday Inns campaigning across the country. Humphrey burned to be president, but Mondale, a much quieter man and candidate, didnt have that same need to win the top job in politics.

Instead, he agreed to be former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carters running mate. Grits and Fritz, they were dubbed, and they started the 1976 campaign with a massive lead over President Gerald Ford and his running mate, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.

The Midwest was well-represented in national politics back then.

In fact, from 1964-84, there was a Minnesotan or a South Dakotan Humphrey was both on the Democratic ticket. HHH was the VP candidate in 64 and presidential candidate in 1968. McGovern was atop the ticket in 72, and Mondale was Carters VP in 76 and 80 and the presidential candidate in 1984.

Democrats won just two of those six elections, and have turned away from candidates from the heartland, other than Barack Obama of Illinois in 2008 and 2012. All the other candidates for the top two posts have been from the coasts or the South.

As vice president, Mondale was closely involved, unlike previous VPs, who mostly attended funerals, presided over the Senate as needed and spent a lot of time looking out windows. When he accepted the offer, Mondale asked to be a senior advisor, and not just a figurehead. Carter agreed.

When his longtime friend and ally died, Carter issued a statement saying Mondale was the greatest VP in American history. He certainly set a pattern of involvement and influence that endures to this day.

They were true partners, with Mondale given the right to speak frankly with the Washington outsider. They did many good things for the country, but Carter could not get a handle on inflation, and was unable to free the hostages seized in Iran.

That led to a landslide loss in 1980, as Republican Ronald Reagan brought in an era of conservative politics and government that is only now receding. Mondale upheld the liberal tradition in 1984 when he took on Reagan, but his loss was even worse than Carters had been four years earlier.

Mondales best moment that year was when he turned back Gary Hart for the Democratic nomination. Hart, a handsome, telegenic New Democrat, posed a real challenge to Mondale, whose hair had turned gray, matching his image and reputation. McGovern made his final bid for office that year, but dropped out early, leaving his old friend Fritz and Hart, his 1972 campaign manager, to fight it out.

I was living in Reno then and attended a Democratic caucus in my neighborhood with my friend Ellen. I made a strong argument for Hart, saying McGoverns time had passed and Mondale had no real chance to beat Reagan.

I was surprised when I was elected a delegate to the state convention based on my brief speech, and I later turned it down. So ended my political career.

Mondale was a lifer. He seized on a popular Wendys commercial during a March 1984 debate, saying Harts centrist views were more image than substance.

Im reminded of that ad, Wheres the beef? he said.

The quip stuck, labeling Hart as a candidate who was trying to sell himself like a hamburger. Mondale took the nomination, and made news and history by choosing New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate.

It made a splash but it didnt make a difference. Like McGovern a dozen years earlier, Mondale carried just the District of Columbia and a single state, Minnesota, and that was a close call.

McGovern lost South Dakota but carried Massachusetts and D.C. The old friends were able to laugh through the pain later, but it still stung.

I remember when, after I lost my race for president, I went to see George, Mondale told POLITICO in October 2012 after McGoverns death I said, Tell me how long it takes to get over a defeat of this kind. He said, Ill call you when it happens. Thats the kind of guy he was, he was funny.

Mondale had a brief flash of hope in 1984 when Reagan, who later was diagnosed with Alzheimers, appeared unfocused during their first debate. He was at the time the oldest president ever and whispers about his age and ability to perform grew louder.

But at the second debate, Reagan shrugged off the question with one of his most memorable lines.

I will not make agean issue of this campaign, The Gipper said with a typical shrug. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponents youth and inexperience.

Everyone laughed, including Mondale. The election, for all intents and purposes, wasover.

After that campaign, Mondale returned to Minnesota. to practice law. He resurfaced in 1993 when President Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to Japan. He held that post until 1997 when he came home, apparently retired from politics.

But like Humphrey, there was an unexpected final chapter. When Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash in October 2002, just 11 days before the election. The Minnesota Democrats needed a candidate, and the old warhorse agreed to give it one more run.

Mondale probably would have won, but the Democrats turned a memorial service for Wellstone into a boisterous political rally. It was televised statewide and voters were appalled by the blatant politicking at what should have been a solemn, nonpartisan affair.

Mondale lost to Republican Norm Coleman, ending his political career. He kept a very low profile after that race, instead serving as a mentor to the next generations of Minnesota Democrats.

Mondale was vice president when Humphrey died on Jan. 13, 1978. Humphrey had spent his waning days calling old friends and political rivals, including Nixon, who was an outcast after resigning from president in 1974. Humphrey invited his old friend to the funeral, helping emerge from the shadows.

Mondale acknowledged the grace displayed by his old friend.

He taught us how to live, and finally he taught us how to die, he said.

In his final days, Mondale also called old friends, including President Joe Biden, who was a Senate colleague for four years.

Unlike Humphrey, who was just 66 when he died, Mondale got to live a long, full life. Minnesota has been a Democratic stronghold for decades, and both men played a major role in that.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who ran for president in 2019-20, making a stop in Sioux Falls in December 2019, honored Mondale on Twitter.

On the wall of the Carter Library is a quote of Walter Mondales at the end of their time in office: We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace. That pretty much sums up Walter Mondales life and service.

Thats a fitting tribute to a good man. Thanks for your work, Fritz.

To read all of today's stories, Click here or call 642-2761 to subscribe to our e-edition or home delivery.

Read the original here:
Walter Mondale, one of the last of the 20th century Midwest liberals, will be remembered fondly - Black Hills Pioneer