Minneapolis: Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, a liberal icon who lost one of the presidential elections after unequivocally asking voters to expect a tax increase if he were to win, died Monday. He was 93.
The death of the former senator, ambassador and attorney general in Minnesota was announced in a statement from his family. No cause was mentioned.
Mondale followed in the footsteps of his political mentor, Hubert H. Humphrey, from Minnesota politics to the U.S. Senate and vice presidency, who served from 1977 to 1981 under Jimmy Carter.
In a statement Monday night, Carter said he considers Mondale to be the best vice president in our country’s history. He added: “Fritz Mondale has given us all a model for public service and private conduct.” Mondale’s own try for the White House, in 1984, was at the height of Ronald Reagan’s popularity. His choice of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate made him the first presidential candidate of the biggest party to put a woman on the ticket, but his statement that he would raise taxes helped define the race.
On election day, he carried only his homeland and the District of Columbia. The election vote was for Reagan 525-13 – the biggest landslide in the Electoral College since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon in 1936. (Sen. George McGovern won 17 votes in his 1972 defeat by winning Massachusetts and Washington, DC) “I have my best,” Mondale said the day after the election, blaming no one but himself.
“I think you know I never really warmed up on television,” he said. “When it’s ready for television, it never really warmed me up.” Mondale said years later that his campaign message was the right message.
“History has confirmed to me that we will have to raise taxes,” he said. “It was very unpopular, but it was unquestionably correct.” In 2002, State and National Democrats looked at Mondale when Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., Died in a plane crash less than two weeks before election day. Mondale agreed to vote for Wellstone, and early polls showed him with a lead over Republican candidate Norm Coleman.
But the 53-year-old Coleman, who emphasized his youth and vitality, knocked out the then 74-year-old Mondale in an intense six-day campaign. Mondale was also hurt by a partisan memorial service for Wellstone, in which thousands of Democrats attended Republican politicians. One speaker pleaded: “We beg you to help us win this election for Paul Wellstone.”
Polls showed the service deterred independents and cost Mondale votes. Coleman wins by 3 percentage points.
“The praise singers were the most hurt,” Mondale said after the election. “It does not justify it, but we all make mistakes. Can we not now find it in our hearts to forgive them and move on? ‘It was a particularly bitter defeat for Mondale, who even after his loss to Reagan had comfort in his perfect record in Minnesota.
“One of the things I’m most proud of,” he said in 1987, “is that I have never lost an election in Minnesota once in my public career.” Years after the defeat in 2002, Mondale returned to the Senate to stand alongside Democrat Al Franken in 2009 when he was sworn in to replace Coleman after a protracted narration and court battle.
Mondale began his career in Washington in 1964 when he was appointed to the Senate to replace Humphrey, who resigned to become vice president. Mondale was elected in 1966 with about 54 percent of the vote to a full term of six years, although the Democrats lost the governorship and suffered other setbacks in the election. In 1972, Mondale won another Senate term with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
His senate career has been marked by advocacy for social issues such as education, housing, migrant workers and child nutrition. Like Humphrey, he was an outspoken advocate of civil rights.
Mondale tested the waters for a presidential bid in 1974, but ultimately decided against it.
“I basically found that I did not have the overwhelming desire to be president, which is essential to the kind of campaign that is needed,” he said in November 1974.
In 1976, Carter chose Mondale as number 2 on his ticket and left Gerald Ford.
As vice president, Mondale had a close relationship with Carter. He was the first vice president to occupy an office in the White House, rather than in a building across the street. Mondale traveled extensively on behalf of Carter and advised him on domestic and foreign affairs.
While he did not have Humphrey’s charisma, Mondale has a sense of humor.
When he withdrew the 1976 presidential game, he said, “I do not want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns.” Mondale reminded him shortly before he was selected as Carter’s running mate, saying, “I checked and found that they were all refurbished and that they were wonderful places to stay.” Mondale never returned from his liberal principles.
“I think the country needs more progressive values than ever before,” Mondale said in 1989.
That year, Democrats tried to persuade him to challenge Minnesota GOP senator Rudy Boschwitz, but he decided not to make it to the race and said it was time to make room for a new generation. .
“One of the requirements of a healthy party is that it renews itself,” he said at the time. “You can not keep driving Walter Mondale for everything.” This paved the way for Wellstone to win the Democratic nomination and further upset Boschwitz. Wellstone prepared to tackle Mondale in a by-election, but would have been a heavy underdog.
Source: Telangana Today