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A Political Cyber-Column By Rich Galen
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    The Mondale Myth

    Wednesday October 30, 2002

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      From Sharonville, Ohio

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    • Walter Mondale is being hailed as a behemoth standing astride the American political landscape.

    • It's a myth. The Mondale Myth. Walter Mondale is, at best, a modestly successful U.S. Politician.

    • Let's review Mondale's career:
    • APPOINTED to be the Attorney General of Minnesota. Won re-elections as an incumbent.
    • APPOINTED to the U.S. Senate after Hubert Humphrey became Vice President. Won re-elections as an incumbent.
    • SELECTED as Jimmy Carter's Vice Presidential running mate in 1976. Served one term in what was arguably NOT one of the greatest administrations in the history of the Republic.

    • If I didn't think it would be discourteous to Dan Quayle, I might say that Walter Mondale is the Dan Quayle of the Democratic Party.

    • Quayle actually won his first election for Congress AS A CHALLENGER against an 18-year incumbent. Then he actually won his first election for Senate AS A CHALLENGER against an 18-year incumbent.

    • Quayle, like Mondale, was selected out of the Senate to run as VP, and served one term.

    • So, why is Mondale the darling of the U.S. press corps? Any chance that it's because he's a Liberal and Quayle is a Conservative.

    • Back to the litany: Carter & Mondale were defeated by Reagan &Bush in the Presidential election of 1980.

    • Four years later Mondale, for the first and only time in his career, ran for election on his own and not as an incumbent.

    • Mondale lost in the electoral college 525-13.

    • He didn't lose BY thirteen electoral votes. He GOT thirteen electoral votes.

    • People who were born in the year Walter Mondale was last involved in a successful political campaign are now 26 years old. Mondale is oh-for-two since then.

    • Here's my unsolicited advice for the campaign of Republican Norm Coleman:
    • Dig out the ads you ran when you were the successful Mayor of St. Paul.
    • Remind people you used to be a Democrat.
    • Make this case: I used to be a Democrat. Now I'm a Republican. That translates to an INDEPENDENT voice for Minnesota.
    • "Independent" is not a bad word in Minnesota.

    • If Minnesotans want to be represented by the most Liberal politician in America, they should move to Vermont where the only self-identified Socialist in the House - Bernie Sanders - is the Congressman.

    • Minnesota Democrats - who have all but hired professional keeners to coldly use the memory of Paul Wellstone for political purposes - are engaged in a national effort to stop the Coleman campaign from doing anything but weep.

    • The Mondale forces would like nothing more than for a campaign moratorium to be in place until about Wednesday, November 6. In fact, it appears - as this is being written - that Mondale may not campaign at all. The calls for at least one debate are reasonable, but are likely to be ignored a la Lautenberg-Forrester.

    • It is not unreasonable for Mondale to help Minnesotans understand his positions on issues they face in the early years of the 21st century. He doesn't have to know the details of every pending piece of legislation, but it would be helpful to remind Minnesota voters that, no matter how much they might wish for it to be otherwise, Paul Wellstone will not be casting votes in the U.S. Senate.

    • Here's a little secret: The tracking polls show Mondale ahead by only low single digits.

    • In ABC World News Tonight, the other night, I said "this will be like the five-lap restart of a NASCAR race." It's too late for strategy. It's all tactics. The tanks have enough fuel, the cars have new rubber, the track is clear.

    • Let's race.

    • On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: That catchy list of Senators (reaching all the way back to Aaron Burr) who are available for last-minute replacements; bios of both Walter Mondale and Dan Quayle, a very pretty Mullfoto, and the usual things.

      --END --
      Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

                                                                           

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