Walter Mondale
Encyclopedia
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (born January 5, 1928) is an American
Democratic Party
politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States
(1977–1981), under President
Jimmy Carter
, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota
(1964–1976). He was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in the United States presidential election of 1984
.
Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota
and graduated from the University of Minnesota
in 1951. He then served in the US Army in the Korean War
before earning a law degree in 1956. He married Joan Adams
in 1955. Working as a lawyer in Minneapolis, Mondale was elected to the position of attorney general
in 1960. He was appointed US Senator in late 1964 as a member of the Democratic Party
upon the resignation of Hubert Humphrey
, and held that post until 1976. In the Senate, he supported open housing, tax reform
and the desegregation
of schools. He opposed United States involvement in the Vietnam War
.
In 1976, Carter, the Democratic presidential nominee, chose Mondale as his vice presidential running mate in the forthcoming election. The Carter/Mondale ticket defeated incumbent president Gerald Ford
. Carter and Mondale's time in office was marred by a worsening economy, and although both were renominated by the Democratic Party, they lost the 1980 election
to Republican Ronald Reagan
.
In 1984, Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination and campaigned for a nuclear freeze, the Equal Rights Amendment
and a reduction of US public debt. In the election, Mondale was defeated in a landslide by President Reagan, gaining electoral votes from only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.
After the election, Mondale joined the Minnesota-based law firm of Dorsey & Whitney
and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
(1986–93), and was credited with successes in Poland
and Hungary
. President Bill Clinton
appointed Mondale United States Ambassador to Japan
in 1993; he retired in 1996. Since then, Mondale has returned to working at Dorsey & Whitney and remains active in the Democratic Party.
, Minnesota
, the son of Claribel Hope (née Cowan), a part-time music teacher, and Theodore Sigvaard Mondale, a Methodist minister. His father's family was Norwegian American
. The family name comes from Mundal by Fjærland
in the Sogndal
Commune of Norway
. He attended public schools. His half-brother Lester Mondale
was a Unitarian
minister.
Mondale was educated at Macalester College
in St. Paul and the University of Minnesota
, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science
, graduating in 1951. He did not have enough money to attend law school. He enlisted in the U.S. Army
and served for two years at Fort Knox
during the Korean War
, reaching the rank of corporal. Through the support of the G.I. Bill, he was able to attend law school, and graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School
in 1956. While at law school he served on the Minnesota Law Review
and as a law clerk in the Minnesota Supreme Court
under Justice Thomas F. Gallagher
. He began practicing law in Minneapolis
, and continued to do so for four years before entering the political arena.
's successful Senate
campaign in 1948. Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman
appointed Mondale in the race for Minnesota Attorney General in 1960, filling the vacancy left by Miles Lord
, who was appointed to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota
by President John F. Kennedy
. Mondale had just managed Freeman's successful gubernatorial campaign. Mondale was 32, and four years out of law school when he became attorney general of Minnesota. During his tenure as Minnesota Attorney General, the case Gideon v. Wainwright
(which ultimately established the right of defendants in state courts to have a lawyer) was being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. When those saying that a lawyer wasn't required organized a Friend of the Court brief from some state Attorneys General for that position, Mondale organized a countering Friend of the Court brief from many more state Attorneys General, arguing that defendants must be allowed a lawyer. He served for two terms as attorney general.
He also served as a member of the President’s Consumer Advisory Council from 1960 to 1964. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Mondale played a major role in the proposed but ultimately unsuccessful compromise by which the national Democratic Party offered the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
two at-large seats.
Karl Rolvaag
to the United States Senate
to fill the vacancy caused by Hubert Humphrey
's resignation after being elected Vice President of the United States
. In 1966, Mondale defeated Republican
candidate Robert A. Forsythe, 53.9% to 45.2%. In 1972, George McGovern
offered him an opportunity to be his running mate, which Mondale declined. The voters of Minnesota returned Mondale to the Senate again in 1972 with over 57% of the vote. He served in the 88th
, 89th
, 90th
, 91st
, 92nd
, 93rd
, and 94th congresses
.
During his years as a senator, Mondale served on the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee
; the Finance Committee
; the Labor and Public Welfare Committee
; the Budget Committee
; and the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
. He also served as chairman of the Select Committee on Equal Education Opportunity and as chairman of the Intelligence Committee
's Domestic Task Force. He additionally served as chairman of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee's subcommittee on Children and Youth, as well as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on social security financing.
, Edward H. White
, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire on January 27 while testing the Apollo 204
spacecraft. NASA
Administrator James E. Webb
secured the approval of President Lyndon B. Johnson
for NASA to internally investigate the cause of the accident according to its established procedures, subject to Congressional oversight. NASA's procedure called for the Deputy Administrator (and de facto general manager), Dr. Robert C. Seamans
, to appoint and oversee an investigative panel.
In February, a reporter passed a leak to Mondale, of the existence of an internal NASA report issued in 1965 by Apollo program director Samuel C. Phillips
, detailing management, cost, delivery and quality problems of the Apollo prime contractor North American Aviation
. In the February 27 hearing, Mondale asked Webb if he knew of such a report. Webb had not yet seen the December 1965 written report, so he responded in the negative. Seamans had passed along to Webb, neither the written report, nor the briefing presentation made to him in January 1966 by Phillips and Phillips' boss, Manned Space Flight Administrator George Mueller
.
Both Seamans and Mueller had also been called to testify at this session. Mueller denied the report's existence, even though he must have been well aware of it, as he had appended his own strongly-worded letter to the copy sent to North American president Lee Atwood.
But Seamans was afraid Mondale might somehow be in possession of a copy (which he was not), so he admitted that NASA often reviewed its contractors' performance, with both positive and negative results, but that this was nothing extraordinary. Under repeated questioning from Mondale, Webb promised that he would investigate whether this "Phillips Report" existed, and if so, to see if a controlled release could be made to the Congress. Immediately after the hearing, Webb saw the Phillips report for the first time.
The controversy spread to both houses of Congress, and grew (through the efforts of three of Mondale's fellow committee members, Republican
s Margaret Chase Smith
, Edward Brooke
and Charles H. Percy
) to include the second-guessing of NASA's original selection in 1961 of North American as the prime Apollo spacecraft contractor, which Webb became forced to defend. The House NASA oversight committee, which was conducting its own hearings and had picked up on the controversy, was ultimately given a copy of the Phillips report.
While the Committee as a whole, believed that NASA should have informed Congress of the Phillips review results in 1966, its final report issued on January 30, 1968, concluded (as had NASA's own accident investigation completed on April 5, 1967), that "the findings of the [Phillips] task force had no effect on the accident, did not lead to the accident, and were not related to the accident." Yet Mondale wrote a minority opinion accusing NASA of "evasiveness, ... lack of candor, ... patronizing attitude exhibited toward Congress, ... refusal to respond fully and forthrightly to legitimate congressional inquiries, and ... solicitous concern for corporate sensitivities at a time of national tragedy".
Mondale explained his actions in a 2001 interview: "... I think that by forcing a public confrontation about these heretofore secret and deep concerns about the safety and the management of the program, it forced NASA to restructure and reorganize the program in a way that was much safer."
Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
, which investigated alleged abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
.
When Jimmy Carter
won the Democratic nomination for president
in 1976, he chose Mondale as his running mate. The ticket was narrowly elected on November 2, 1976, and Mondale was inaugurated as Vice President of the United States
on January 20, 1977. He became the fourth vice president in eight years, the other three being: Spiro Agnew
(1969-73), Gerald Ford
(1973-1974), and Nelson Rockefeller
(1974-77).
Under Carter, Mondale traveled extensively throughout the nation and the world advocating the administration's foreign policy. Mondale was the first vice president to have an office in the White House, and established the concept of "activist Vice President". Mondale established the tradition of weekly lunches with the president, which continues to this day. More important, he expanded the vice president's role from that of figurehead to presidential advisor, full-time participant, and troubleshooter for the administration. Subsequent vice presidents have followed this model in the administrations in which they serve.
, but soundly lost to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan
and George H. W. Bush
. That year, Mondale opened the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York
.
Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2007, they had been out of office for 26 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams
and Vice President Thomas Jefferson
, who both died on July 4, 1826.
Mondale ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1984 election, and from the early going, he was the frontrunner. His opposition included Rev. Jesse Jackson
and Senator Gary Hart
of Colorado
. Hart pulled an upset by winning the New Hampshire primary in March, but Mondale had a large portion of the party leadership behind him. To great effect, Mondale used the Wendy's
slogan "Where's the beef?
" to describe Hart's policies as lacking depth. Jackson, widely regarded as the first serious African-American candidate for President, held on longer, but Mondale clinched the nomination with the majority of delegates on the first ballot.
At the Democratic Convention, Mondale chose U.S. Representative
Geraldine A. Ferraro
of New York
as his running mate, making her the first woman nominated for that position by a major party. Aides later said that Mondale was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential candidate, considering San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein
, also a female, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley
, an African American, and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros
, a Mexican American, as other finalists for the nomination. Others preferred Senator Lloyd Bentsen
because he would appeal to the Deep South, or even nomination rival Gary Hart
. Ferraro, as a Catholic, came under fire from some Catholic Church leaders for being pro-choice
. Much more controversy erupted over her changing positions regarding the release of her husband's tax returns, and her own ethics record in the House. Ferraro was on the defensive throughout the campaign, largely negating her breakthrough as the first woman on a major national ticket, and the first Italian American
to reach that level in American politics.
When he made his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Mondale said: "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." While this was meant to show that Mondale would be honest with voters, it was largely interpreted as a campaign pledge to raise taxes, which was unappealing to many voters.
Mondale ran a liberal campaign, supporting a nuclear freeze and the Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA). He spoke against Reagan's economic policies
and in support of reducing federal budget deficits. However, he was going up against a popular incumbent and his campaign was widely considered ineffective. Also, he was perceived as supporting the poor at the expense of the middle class. Southern whites and northern blue collar workers who usually voted Democratic
switched their support to Reagan because they credited him with the economic boom and saw him as strong on national security
issues.
In the first televised debate, Mondale performed unexpectedly well, questioning Reagan's age and capacity to endure the grueling demands of the presidency (Reagan was the oldest person to serve as president—73 at the time—while Mondale was 56). In the next debate on October 21, 1984, Reagan deflected the issue by quipping, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
In the election, Mondale was defeated in a landslide, winning only the District of Columbia
and his home state of Minnesota
and even there his margin of victory was fewer than 3,800 votes, securing only 13 electoral votes to Reagan's 525. The result was the worst electoral college defeat for any Democratic Party candidate in history, and the worst for any major-party candidate since Alf Landon
's loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt
in 1936.
Mondale received 37,577,352 votes—a total of 40.6% of the popular vote in the election. Mondale received 40-49% in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Following the election, Mondale returned to private law practice, with Dorsey & Whitney
in Minnesota in 1987. From 1986 to 1993, Mondale was chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
. During the presidency of Bill Clinton
, he was U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996, chaired a bipartisan group to study campaign finance reform
, and was Clinton's special envoy to Indonesia
in 1998.
Until his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Mondale was a Distinguished University Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
, at the University of Minnesota
. In 1990, Mondale established the Mondale Policy Forum at the Humphrey Institute. The forum has brought together leading scholars and policymakers for annual conferences on domestic and international issues. He also served on nonprofit boards of directors for the Guthrie Theatre Foundation, Mayo Foundation
, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Diogenes Institute of Higher Learning, Prince Hall Masonic Temple, RAND Corporation and the University of Minnesota Foundation. His corporate board memberships included BlackRock Advantage Term Trust and other BlackRock Mutual Funds, Cargill Incorporated, CNA Financial Corporation, the Encyclopædia Britannica, First Financial Fund and other Prudential Mutual Funds, Northwest Airlines
and United HealthCare Corporation.
Mondale spoke before the Senate on September 4, 2002, when he delivered a lecture on his service, with commentary on the transformation of the office of the Vice President during the Carter administration, the Senate cloture
rule for ending debate, and his view on the future of the Senate in U.S. political history. The lecture was a part of a continuing Senate "Leaders Lecture Series" that ran from 1998 to 2002.
of Minnesota, who was running for re-election, died in a plane crash just 11 days before the November 5 election. At the age of 74, Mondale replaced Wellstone on the ballot, at the urging of Wellstone's relatives. This Senate seat was the one that Mondale himself had held, before resigning to become Vice President in 1977.
During his debate with the Republican nominee, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman
, Mondale emphasized his own experience in foreign affairs while painting Coleman as a finger-in-the-wind opportunist. "We've seen you shift around, Norman," Mondale said, alluding to Coleman's past as an anti-war college activist and, more recently, as a Democrat who had changed his party allegiance to the GOP while serving as mayor of St. Paul.
In a major upset, Mondale narrowly lost the election, finishing with 1,067,246 votes (47.34%) to Coleman's 1,116,697 (49.53%) out of 2,254,639 votes cast, earning him the unique distinction of having lost a statewide election in all 50 states as the nominee of a major party (he lost the other 49 in the 1984 Presidential Election).
The election was also marked by the controversy surrounding Wellstone's memorial event, which many critics, including then Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura
(IM
), considered to have been overly partisan.
Upon conceding defeat, Mondale stated: "At the end of what will be my last campaign, I want to say to Minnesota, you always treated me well, you always listened to me."
In 2004 Mondale became co-chairman of the Constitution Project
's bipartisan Right to Counsel Committee. He endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY
) for the Presidency of the United States and supported her campaign for the White House in 2008. On June 3, 2008, following the final primary contests, Mondale switched his endorsement to Senator Barack Obama
(D-Ill.
), who had clinched the nomination the previous evening.
Following the U.S. Presidential election of 2004 and the mid-term elections of 2006, Mondale is seen talking with Al Franken
about the possibility of the latter running for Norm Coleman
's U.S. Senate seat in 2008 in the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke
. In the film, Mondale encourages Franken to run, but cautions him, saying that Coleman's allies and the Republican Party were going to look for anything they could use against him. Franken ultimately ran and won the 2008 Senate election
by 312 votes after the election results had been contested in court by Coleman until June 30, 2009.
His wife, Joan Mondale
, is a national advocate for the arts and was the Honorary Chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities during the Carter Administration.
The Mondales' eldest son, Theodore A. "Ted" Mondale
, is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Nazca Solutions, a technology fulfillment venture. He is also a former Minnesota state senator. In 1998, Mondale sought the Democratic primary nomination for Minnesota governor. Mondale, a fiscal moderate who had distanced himself from labor, lost in the primary.
The Mondales' daughter, Eleanor
, was a television personality. She also had radio talk shows in Chicago
, and a long running program on WCCO (AM) in Minneapolis. She died of brain cancer at her home in Minnesota on September 17, 2011, at the age of 51.
Walter Mondale continues to maintain a residence near Lake of the Isles
in Minneapolis. Mondale is a Presbyterian. He enjoys fishing, reading Shakespeare and historical accounts, barbecuing, skiing, watching Monty Python
, and playing tennis.
Mondale has maintained strong ties to the University of Minnesota Law School
, which named its new residence on the West Bank of the Mississippi "Mondale Hall". He contributes cameo appearances to the Law School's annual T.O.R.T. ("Theater of the Relatively Talentless") presentations, and has allowed his name to be used as the nickname of the school's hockey team: "The Fighting Mondales."
. His family surname was originally Mundal and it originated in Mundal, Fjærland
. Upon entering the Senate in 1964 he took over the seat of vice president Hubert Humphrey
, another Norwegian-American. In later years Mondale has served on the executive committee of the Peace Prize Forum, an annual conference co-sponsored by the Norwegian Nobel Institute
and five Midwestern colleges of Norwegian heritage. During Norway's Centennial Celebration in 2005, he chaired the committee to promote and develop cultural activities between Norway and Norwegian-American organizations.
While he was in office, Twin Cities Public Television
produced a documentary
about him entitled Walter Mondale: There's a Fjord
in Your Past, a play on the well-known advertising slogan, "There's a Ford
in Your Future."
On December 5, 2007, Norwegian minister of foreign affairs Jonas Gahr Støre
announced that Walter Mondale would be named Honorary Consul-General of Norway, representing the Norwegian state in Minnesota.
The entire Walter F. Mondale collection includes senatorial, vice presidential, ambassadorial, political papers and campaign files, and personal papers of the United States Senator from Minnesota (1964–1976), Vice President of the United States (1977–1981), Ambassador to Japan (1993–1996), and Special Envoy to Indonesia (1998), documenting most aspects of Mondale's six-decade career, including all of his public offices, campaigns, and Democratic Party and other non-official activities.
Digital selections from this manuscript collection were made based on user and researcher interest, historic significance, and copyright status.
This project was made possible with the generous help of the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People grant.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
(1977–1981), under President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
(1964–1976). He was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in the United States presidential election of 1984
United States presidential election, 1984
The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982...
.
Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota
Ceylon, Minnesota
Ceylon is a city in Martin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 369 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:...
and graduated from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in 1951. He then served in the US Army in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
before earning a law degree in 1956. He married Joan Adams
Joan Mondale
Joan Adams Mondale is the wife of Walter Mondale, the 42nd Vice President of the United States and later the U.S. ambassador to Japan. She is an advocate for the arts....
in 1955. Working as a lawyer in Minneapolis, Mondale was elected to the position of attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
in 1960. He was appointed US Senator in late 1964 as a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
upon the resignation of Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, and held that post until 1976. In the Senate, he supported open housing, tax reform
Tax reform
Tax reform is the process of changing the way taxes are collected or managed by the government.Tax reformers have different goals. Some seek to reduce the level of taxation of all people by the government. Some seek to make the tax system more progressive or less progressive. Some seek to simplify...
and the desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of schools. He opposed United States involvement in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
In 1976, Carter, the Democratic presidential nominee, chose Mondale as his vice presidential running mate in the forthcoming election. The Carter/Mondale ticket defeated incumbent president Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
. Carter and Mondale's time in office was marred by a worsening economy, and although both were renominated by the Democratic Party, they lost the 1980 election
United States presidential election, 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
to Republican Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
.
In 1984, Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination and campaigned for a nuclear freeze, the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
and a reduction of US public debt. In the election, Mondale was defeated in a landslide by President Reagan, gaining electoral votes from only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.
After the election, Mondale joined the Minnesota-based law firm of Dorsey & Whitney
Dorsey & Whitney
Dorsey & Whitney LLP is a large law firm, with close to 600 lawyers and 650 staff located in 19 offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Its headquarters is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been since its inception. Dorsey is currently led by its managing partner, Marianne D. Short...
and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations. It was founded in 1983, shortly after the U.S. Congress created...
(1986–93), and was credited with successes in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
appointed Mondale United States Ambassador to Japan
United States Ambassador to Japan
The United States Ambassador to Japan is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States to Japan. Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period following the attack on...
in 1993; he retired in 1996. Since then, Mondale has returned to working at Dorsey & Whitney and remains active in the Democratic Party.
Early life
Walter Frederick Mondale was born in CeylonCeylon, Minnesota
Ceylon is a city in Martin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 369 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land.-Demographics:...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, the son of Claribel Hope (née Cowan), a part-time music teacher, and Theodore Sigvaard Mondale, a Methodist minister. His father's family was Norwegian American
Norwegian American
Norwegian Americans are Americans of Norwegian descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and...
. The family name comes from Mundal by Fjærland
Fjærland
Fjærland is a village in the municipality of Sogndal, along the Fjærlandsfjord, in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The Fjærlandfjord is a branch of the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in Norway...
in the Sogndal
Sogndal
Sogndal is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Sogndalsfjøra is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other main villages include Kaupanger, Kjørnes, and Fjærland...
Commune of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. He attended public schools. His half-brother Lester Mondale
Lester Mondale
The Reverend Robert Lester Mondale was an American Unitarian minister and Humanist. He was the only person to sign each of the three Humanist Manifestos of 1933, 1973, and 2003.- Biography :...
was a Unitarian
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
minister.
Mondale was educated at Macalester College
Macalester College
Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...
in St. Paul and the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, graduating in 1951. He did not have enough money to attend law school. He enlisted in the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and served for two years at Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, reaching the rank of corporal. Through the support of the G.I. Bill, he was able to attend law school, and graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is a professional school of the University of Minnesota. The school offers a Juris Doctor , Masters of Law for Foreign Lawyers, and joint degrees with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A, J.D./M.A., J.D./M.S., J.D./Ph.D.,...
in 1956. While at law school he served on the Minnesota Law Review
Minnesota Law Review
The Minnesota Law Review is a law review published by students at University of Minnesota Law School. The journal is published six times a year in November, December, February, April, May, and June. It was established by Henry J. Fletcher and William Reynolds Vance in 1917. The Minnesota Law...
and as a law clerk in the Minnesota Supreme Court
Minnesota Supreme Court
The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota and consists of seven members. The court was first assembled as a three-judge panel in 1849 when Minnesota was still a territory. The first members were lawyers from outside of the region who were appointed by...
under Justice Thomas F. Gallagher
Thomas F. Gallagher
Thomas F. Gallagher was a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1943 until his retirement in 1967....
. He began practicing law in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, and continued to do so for four years before entering the political arena.
Entry into politics
Mondale became involved in national politics in the 1940s. At the age of 20, he was visible in Minnesota politics by helping organize Hubert HumphreyHubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
's successful Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
campaign in 1948. Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman
Orville Freeman
Orville Lothrop Freeman was an American Democratic politician who served as the 29th Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1955 to January 2, 1961, and as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...
appointed Mondale in the race for Minnesota Attorney General in 1960, filling the vacancy left by Miles Lord
Miles Lord
Miles Welton Lord is a former federal judge, appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota by President Lyndon B. Johnson on February 10, 1966 to fill the vacancy left by Judge Dennis F. Donovan. He served as chief judge on the district court from 1981–1985 and...
, who was appointed to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota
United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Minnesota. Its two primary courthouses are in Minneapolis and Saint Paul...
by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. Mondale had just managed Freeman's successful gubernatorial campaign. Mondale was 32, and four years out of law school when he became attorney general of Minnesota. During his tenure as Minnesota Attorney General, the case Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright, , is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford their own...
(which ultimately established the right of defendants in state courts to have a lawyer) was being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. When those saying that a lawyer wasn't required organized a Friend of the Court brief from some state Attorneys General for that position, Mondale organized a countering Friend of the Court brief from many more state Attorneys General, arguing that defendants must be allowed a lawyer. He served for two terms as attorney general.
He also served as a member of the President’s Consumer Advisory Council from 1960 to 1964. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Mondale played a major role in the proposed but ultimately unsuccessful compromise by which the national Democratic Party offered the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement...
two at-large seats.
U.S. Senator
On December 30, 1964, Mondale was appointed by Minnesota GovernorGovernor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
Karl Rolvaag
Karl Rolvaag
Karl Fritjof Rolvaag was a U.S. politician and the son of Norwegian-American author and professor Ole E. Rølvaag...
to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
to fill the vacancy caused by Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
's resignation after being elected Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
. In 1966, Mondale defeated Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate Robert A. Forsythe, 53.9% to 45.2%. In 1972, George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
offered him an opportunity to be his running mate, which Mondale declined. The voters of Minnesota returned Mondale to the Senate again in 1972 with over 57% of the vote. He served in the 88th
88th United States Congress
The Eighty-eighth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1963 to January 3, 1965, during the last year of...
, 89th
89th United States Congress
-House of Representatives:- Senate :* President of the Senate: Hubert Humphrey , starting January 20, 1965* President pro tempore: Carl Hayden - Majority leadership :* Majority Leader and Democratic Conference Chairman: Mike Mansfield...
, 90th
90th United States Congress
The Ninetieth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1967 to January 3, 1969, during the last two years of...
, 91st
91st United States Congress
The Ninety-first United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1971, during the first two years...
, 92nd
92nd United States Congress
The Ninety-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives...
, 93rd
93rd United States Congress
The Ninety-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1973 to January 3, 1975, during the end of Richard...
, and 94th congresses
94th United States Congress
The Ninety-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1975 to January 3, 1977, during the administration...
.
During his years as a senator, Mondale served on the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee
United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences
The Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences was a standing committee of the United States Senate from 1958 until 1977, when it was folded into the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation...
; the Finance Committee
United States Senate Committee on Finance
The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures generally, and those relating to the insular possessions; bonded debt of the United States; customs, collection...
; the Labor and Public Welfare Committee
United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions generally considers matters relating to health, education, labor, and pensions...
; the Budget Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Budget
The United States Senate Committee on Budget was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It is responsible for drafting Congress's annual budget plan and monitoring action on the budget for the Federal Government. The committee has jurisdiction over the...
; and the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to: banks and banking, price controls, deposit insurance, export promotion and controls, federal monetary policy, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance of redemption of notes,...
. He also served as chairman of the Select Committee on Equal Education Opportunity and as chairman of the Intelligence Committee
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The...
's Domestic Task Force. He additionally served as chairman of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee's subcommittee on Children and Youth, as well as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on social security financing.
Apollo 204 accident
In 1967, Mondale served on the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee, then chaired by Clinton P. Anderson, when astronauts Virgil "Gus" GrissomGus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
, Edward H. White
Edward Higgins White
Edward Higgins White, II was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space. White died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the first manned Apollo mission at...
, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire on January 27 while testing the Apollo 204
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
spacecraft. NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Administrator James E. Webb
James E. Webb
James Edwin Webb was an American government official who served as the second administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961 to October 7, 1968....
secured the approval of President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
for NASA to internally investigate the cause of the accident according to its established procedures, subject to Congressional oversight. NASA's procedure called for the Deputy Administrator (and de facto general manager), Dr. Robert C. Seamans
Robert C. Seamans
SSV Robert C. Seamans is a 134-foot steel sailing brigantine operated by the Sea Education Association for oceanographic research and sail training; she is named for a former Chairman and Trustee of SEA's board. She is equipped with hydrographic winches, bathymetric equipment, biological and...
, to appoint and oversee an investigative panel.
In February, a reporter passed a leak to Mondale, of the existence of an internal NASA report issued in 1965 by Apollo program director Samuel C. Phillips
Samuel C. Phillips
General Samuel Cochran Phillips was a United States Air Force four star general who served as Director of NASA's Apollo Manned Lunar Landing Program from 1964 to 1969, the seventh Director of the National Security Agency from 1972 to 1973, and as Commander, Air Force Systems Command from 1973 to...
, detailing management, cost, delivery and quality problems of the Apollo prime contractor North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
. In the February 27 hearing, Mondale asked Webb if he knew of such a report. Webb had not yet seen the December 1965 written report, so he responded in the negative. Seamans had passed along to Webb, neither the written report, nor the briefing presentation made to him in January 1966 by Phillips and Phillips' boss, Manned Space Flight Administrator George Mueller
George Mueller
George Mueller is the name of:*George Mueller , former NASA deputy administrator*George Müller , Christian evangelist and coordinator of orphanages in England...
.
Both Seamans and Mueller had also been called to testify at this session. Mueller denied the report's existence, even though he must have been well aware of it, as he had appended his own strongly-worded letter to the copy sent to North American president Lee Atwood.
But Seamans was afraid Mondale might somehow be in possession of a copy (which he was not), so he admitted that NASA often reviewed its contractors' performance, with both positive and negative results, but that this was nothing extraordinary. Under repeated questioning from Mondale, Webb promised that he would investigate whether this "Phillips Report" existed, and if so, to see if a controlled release could be made to the Congress. Immediately after the hearing, Webb saw the Phillips report for the first time.
The controversy spread to both houses of Congress, and grew (through the efforts of three of Mondale's fellow committee members, Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
s Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican Senator from Maine, and one of the most successful politicians in Maine history. She was the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. House and the Senate, and the first woman from Maine to serve in either. She was also the first woman to have her name...
, Edward Brooke
Edward Brooke
Edward William Brooke, III is an American politician and was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican from Massachusetts in 1966, defeating his Democratic opponent, Endicott Peabody, 60.7%–38.7%...
and Charles H. Percy
Charles H. Percy
Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator from Illinois in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations...
) to include the second-guessing of NASA's original selection in 1961 of North American as the prime Apollo spacecraft contractor, which Webb became forced to defend. The House NASA oversight committee, which was conducting its own hearings and had picked up on the controversy, was ultimately given a copy of the Phillips report.
While the Committee as a whole, believed that NASA should have informed Congress of the Phillips review results in 1966, its final report issued on January 30, 1968, concluded (as had NASA's own accident investigation completed on April 5, 1967), that "the findings of the [Phillips] task force had no effect on the accident, did not lead to the accident, and were not related to the accident." Yet Mondale wrote a minority opinion accusing NASA of "evasiveness, ... lack of candor, ... patronizing attitude exhibited toward Congress, ... refusal to respond fully and forthrightly to legitimate congressional inquiries, and ... solicitous concern for corporate sensitivities at a time of national tragedy".
Mondale explained his actions in a 2001 interview: "... I think that by forcing a public confrontation about these heretofore secret and deep concerns about the safety and the management of the program, it forced NASA to restructure and reorganize the program in a way that was much safer."
Church intelligence committee
In 1975 Mondale served on Frank Church'sFrank Church
Frank Forrester Church III was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1981....
Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
Church Committee
The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
, which investigated alleged abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
.
Vice Presidency
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
won the Democratic nomination for president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in 1976, he chose Mondale as his running mate. The ticket was narrowly elected on November 2, 1976, and Mondale was inaugurated as Vice President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
on January 20, 1977. He became the fourth vice president in eight years, the other three being: Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
(1969-73), Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
(1973-1974), and Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
(1974-77).
Under Carter, Mondale traveled extensively throughout the nation and the world advocating the administration's foreign policy. Mondale was the first vice president to have an office in the White House, and established the concept of "activist Vice President". Mondale established the tradition of weekly lunches with the president, which continues to this day. More important, he expanded the vice president's role from that of figurehead to presidential advisor, full-time participant, and troubleshooter for the administration. Subsequent vice presidents have followed this model in the administrations in which they serve.
1980 Election
Carter and Mondale were renominated at the 1980 Democratic National Convention1980 Democratic National Convention
The 1980 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party nominated President Jimmy Carter for President and Vice President Walter Mondale for Vice President...
, but soundly lost to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. That year, Mondale opened the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....
.
Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2007, they had been out of office for 26 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
and Vice President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, who both died on July 4, 1826.
Presidential nominee of 1984
After losing the 1980 election, Mondale returned briefly to the practice of law at Winston and Strawn, a large Chicago-based law firm, but he had no intention of staying out of politics for long.Mondale ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1984 election, and from the early going, he was the frontrunner. His opposition included Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
and Senator Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. Hart pulled an upset by winning the New Hampshire primary in March, but Mondale had a large portion of the party leadership behind him. To great effect, Mondale used the Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
slogan "Where's the beef?
Where's the beef?
"Where's the beef?" is a catchphrase in the United States and Canada. Since it was first used as an advertising slogan, it has become an all-purpose phrase questioning the substance of an idea, event, or product.-History:...
" to describe Hart's policies as lacking depth. Jackson, widely regarded as the first serious African-American candidate for President, held on longer, but Mondale clinched the nomination with the majority of delegates on the first ballot.
At the Democratic Convention, Mondale chose U.S. Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Geraldine A. Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She was the first female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party....
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as his running mate, making her the first woman nominated for that position by a major party. Aides later said that Mondale was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential candidate, considering San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....
, also a female, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley
Tom Bradley (politician)
Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley was the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles, California, serving in that office from 1973 to 1993. He was the first and to date only African American mayor of Los Angeles...
, an African American, and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros
Henry Cisneros
Henry Gabriel Cisneros is a politician and businessman. A Democrat, Cisneros served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997...
, a Mexican American, as other finalists for the nomination. Others preferred Senator Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
because he would appeal to the Deep South, or even nomination rival Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
. Ferraro, as a Catholic, came under fire from some Catholic Church leaders for being pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
. Much more controversy erupted over her changing positions regarding the release of her husband's tax returns, and her own ethics record in the House. Ferraro was on the defensive throughout the campaign, largely negating her breakthrough as the first woman on a major national ticket, and the first Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
to reach that level in American politics.
When he made his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Mondale said: "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." While this was meant to show that Mondale would be honest with voters, it was largely interpreted as a campaign pledge to raise taxes, which was unappealing to many voters.
Mondale ran a liberal campaign, supporting a nuclear freeze and the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
(ERA). He spoke against Reagan's economic policies
Reaganomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...
and in support of reducing federal budget deficits. However, he was going up against a popular incumbent and his campaign was widely considered ineffective. Also, he was perceived as supporting the poor at the expense of the middle class. Southern whites and northern blue collar workers who usually voted Democratic
Reagan Democrat
Reagan Democrat is an American political term used by analysts to denote traditionally Democratic voters, especially white working-class Northerners, who defected from their party to support Republican President Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 elections. It is also used to refer to the...
switched their support to Reagan because they credited him with the economic boom and saw him as strong on national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
issues.
In the first televised debate, Mondale performed unexpectedly well, questioning Reagan's age and capacity to endure the grueling demands of the presidency (Reagan was the oldest person to serve as president—73 at the time—while Mondale was 56). In the next debate on October 21, 1984, Reagan deflected the issue by quipping, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
In the election, Mondale was defeated in a landslide, winning only the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and his home state of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and even there his margin of victory was fewer than 3,800 votes, securing only 13 electoral votes to Reagan's 525. The result was the worst electoral college defeat for any Democratic Party candidate in history, and the worst for any major-party candidate since Alf Landon
Alf Landon
Alfred Mossman "Alf" Landon was an American Republican politician, who served as the 26th Governor of Kansas from 1933–1937. He was best known for being the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States, defeated in a landslide by Franklin D...
's loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
in 1936.
Mondale received 37,577,352 votes—a total of 40.6% of the popular vote in the election. Mondale received 40-49% in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Private citizen and ambassador
Dorsey & Whitney
Dorsey & Whitney LLP is a large law firm, with close to 600 lawyers and 650 staff located in 19 offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Its headquarters is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been since its inception. Dorsey is currently led by its managing partner, Marianne D. Short...
in Minnesota in 1987. From 1986 to 1993, Mondale was chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations. It was founded in 1983, shortly after the U.S. Congress created...
. During the presidency of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, he was U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996, chaired a bipartisan group to study campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns....
, and was Clinton's special envoy to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
in 1998.
Until his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Mondale was a Distinguished University Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a graduate public affairs school located at the University of Minnesota, ranking among the top 15 professional schools of public affairs at public universities in the country. It is named after Hubert H. Humphrey, former Vice President of the...
, at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. In 1990, Mondale established the Mondale Policy Forum at the Humphrey Institute. The forum has brought together leading scholars and policymakers for annual conferences on domestic and international issues. He also served on nonprofit boards of directors for the Guthrie Theatre Foundation, Mayo Foundation
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Diogenes Institute of Higher Learning, Prince Hall Masonic Temple, RAND Corporation and the University of Minnesota Foundation. His corporate board memberships included BlackRock Advantage Term Trust and other BlackRock Mutual Funds, Cargill Incorporated, CNA Financial Corporation, the Encyclopædia Britannica, First Financial Fund and other Prudential Mutual Funds, Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
and United HealthCare Corporation.
Mondale spoke before the Senate on September 4, 2002, when he delivered a lecture on his service, with commentary on the transformation of the office of the Vice President during the Carter administration, the Senate cloture
Cloture
In parliamentary procedure, cloture is a motion or process aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. It is also called closure or, informally, a guillotine. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. Clôture is French for "ending" or "conclusion"...
rule for ending debate, and his view on the future of the Senate in U.S. political history. The lecture was a part of a continuing Senate "Leaders Lecture Series" that ran from 1998 to 2002.
2002 Senate election and beyond
In 2002, Democratic US Senator Paul WellstonePaul Wellstone
Paul David Wellstone was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College...
of Minnesota, who was running for re-election, died in a plane crash just 11 days before the November 5 election. At the age of 74, Mondale replaced Wellstone on the ballot, at the urging of Wellstone's relatives. This Senate seat was the one that Mondale himself had held, before resigning to become Vice President in 1977.
During his debate with the Republican nominee, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
, Mondale emphasized his own experience in foreign affairs while painting Coleman as a finger-in-the-wind opportunist. "We've seen you shift around, Norman," Mondale said, alluding to Coleman's past as an anti-war college activist and, more recently, as a Democrat who had changed his party allegiance to the GOP while serving as mayor of St. Paul.
In a major upset, Mondale narrowly lost the election, finishing with 1,067,246 votes (47.34%) to Coleman's 1,116,697 (49.53%) out of 2,254,639 votes cast, earning him the unique distinction of having lost a statewide election in all 50 states as the nominee of a major party (he lost the other 49 in the 1984 Presidential Election).
The election was also marked by the controversy surrounding Wellstone's memorial event, which many critics, including then Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
(IM
Independence Party of Minnesota
The Independence Party of Minnesota , formerly the Reform Party of Minnesota, is the third largest political party in Minnesota, behind the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Republican Party . It is the political party of former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura , and endorsed former U.S...
), considered to have been overly partisan.
Upon conceding defeat, Mondale stated: "At the end of what will be my last campaign, I want to say to Minnesota, you always treated me well, you always listened to me."
In 2004 Mondale became co-chairman of the Constitution Project
Constitution Project
The Constitution Project is an non-profit think tank in the United States that builds bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions. Founded and led by Virginia Sloan, the Constitution Project’s work is divided between two programs: the Rule of Law Program and the Criminal...
's bipartisan Right to Counsel Committee. He endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) for the Presidency of the United States and supported her campaign for the White House in 2008. On June 3, 2008, following the final primary contests, Mondale switched his endorsement to Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
(D-Ill.
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
), who had clinched the nomination the previous evening.
Following the U.S. Presidential election of 2004 and the mid-term elections of 2006, Mondale is seen talking with Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
about the possibility of the latter running for Norm Coleman
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
's U.S. Senate seat in 2008 in the documentary Al Franken: God Spoke
Al Franken: God Spoke
Al Franken: God Spoke is a 2006 documentary film starring political commentator and current United States Senator Al Franken. The film was made by the same producers of The War Room...
. In the film, Mondale encourages Franken to run, but cautions him, saying that Coleman's allies and the Republican Party were going to look for anything they could use against him. Franken ultimately ran and won the 2008 Senate election
United States Senate election in Minnesota, 2008
The 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota took place on November 4, 2008. After a legal battle lasting over eight months, Al Franken from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate...
by 312 votes after the election results had been contested in court by Coleman until June 30, 2009.
Family
Joan Mondale
Joan Adams Mondale is the wife of Walter Mondale, the 42nd Vice President of the United States and later the U.S. ambassador to Japan. She is an advocate for the arts....
, is a national advocate for the arts and was the Honorary Chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities during the Carter Administration.
The Mondales' eldest son, Theodore A. "Ted" Mondale
Ted Mondale
Theodore A. "Ted" Mondale is a politician and entrepreneur. He is the elder son of the former senator, ambassador and Vice President Walter Mondale and Joan Mondale. He is a former Minnesota state senator and is currently the CEO of Nazca Solutions, Inc...
, is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Nazca Solutions, a technology fulfillment venture. He is also a former Minnesota state senator. In 1998, Mondale sought the Democratic primary nomination for Minnesota governor. Mondale, a fiscal moderate who had distanced himself from labor, lost in the primary.
The Mondales' daughter, Eleanor
Eleanor Mondale
Eleanor Jane Mondale Poling was an American radio personality television host, and actress.-Biography:...
, was a television personality. She also had radio talk shows in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and a long running program on WCCO (AM) in Minneapolis. She died of brain cancer at her home in Minnesota on September 17, 2011, at the age of 51.
Walter Mondale continues to maintain a residence near Lake of the Isles
Lake of the Isles
Lake of the Isles is a lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota connected to Cedar Lake and Lake Calhoun. It is home to winter ice skating and hockey, as well as a New Year's Eve celebration featuring roasted marshmallows and hot chocolate...
in Minneapolis. Mondale is a Presbyterian. He enjoys fishing, reading Shakespeare and historical accounts, barbecuing, skiing, watching Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
, and playing tennis.
Mondale has maintained strong ties to the University of Minnesota Law School
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is a professional school of the University of Minnesota. The school offers a Juris Doctor , Masters of Law for Foreign Lawyers, and joint degrees with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A, J.D./M.A., J.D./M.S., J.D./Ph.D.,...
, which named its new residence on the West Bank of the Mississippi "Mondale Hall". He contributes cameo appearances to the Law School's annual T.O.R.T. ("Theater of the Relatively Talentless") presentations, and has allowed his name to be used as the nickname of the school's hockey team: "The Fighting Mondales."
In popular culture
- Bill MurrayBill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
and Garrett MorrisGarrett MorrisGarrett Gonzalez Morris is an American comedian and actor from New Orleans. He was part of the original cast of the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, appearing from 1975 to 1980.-Early life and career:...
played Mondale on Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
in the late 1970s, as did Dana CarveyDana CarveyDana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
in the mid-1980s. - In FuturamaFuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
Season 1 Episode 11 ("Mars UniversityMars University"Mars University" is episode eleven of the first production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on October 3, 1999 as the second episode in the second broadcast season of Futurama. This episode was written by J...
"), Amy WongAmy WongAmy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, is a fictional character, one of the main characters from the Fox and Comedy Central television animated series Futurama. She works as an intern at Planet Express...
mentions him when she says, "Boring! Let's hear about Walter Mondale already." This remark was made to a professor who was drawn to look like Mondale. In Season 2 Episode 7 ("A Head In The PollsA Head in the Polls"A Head in the Polls" is the third episode in the second production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on December 12, 1999 as episode seven in the second broadcast season. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Bret Haaland. Claudia Schiffer makes a guest...
"), Walter Mondale' Head is in the "Closet Of Presidential Losers" within the Head Museum. - One of his ads for his presidential campaign was featured on The Daily ShowThe Daily ShowThe Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
on March 3, 2008 as a satirical comparison to one of Hillary Clinton's campaign ads. - In the Simpsons episode "Lisa's First WordLisa's First Word"Lisa's First Word" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on December 3, 1992. In the episode, as the Simpson family gathers around Maggie and tries to encourage her to say her first word, Marge reminisces and tells the story of...
", Homer SimpsonHomer SimpsonHomer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
reads a headline that describes Mondale's "Where's the beef?" comment during the 1984 Presidential ElectionUnited States presidential election, 1984The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982...
. Homer laughs approvingly and remarks "No wonder he won Minnesota!" In the episode "Mr. Spritz Goes to WashingtonMr. Spritz Goes to Washington"Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington" is the fourteenth episode from The Simpsons 14th season which aired on March 9, 2003.-Plot:While watching a very late episode of The Three Stooges , the Simpsons feel the ground shaking. They discover an airplane flying dangerously close to their house...
", a janitor who "looks like" Walter Mondale helps newly elected Congressman Krusty the Clown get a bill to become law using underhanded methods.mIn "Bart vs. AustraliaBart vs. Australia"Bart vs. Australia" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 19, 1995. In the episode, Bart is indicted for fraud in Australia, and the family travels to the country so Bart can apologize...
", the family flees from Australia to a "laundry ship" named USS Walter Mondale. - In the American Dad episode, "Stan Knows Best", Stan SmithStan Smith (American Dad!)Stan Smith is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. Stan is a Central Intelligence Agency officer. Although once a case officer, he is now a weapons expert. Stan is voiced by the series' creator and executive producer, Seth MacFarlane.-Summary:Stan Smith born 12 February,...
says "Rubharb" when HayleyHayley Smith (American Dad!)Hayley Dreamsmasher Smith Fischer is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. She is voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, the younger sister of one of the series co-creators, Seth MacFarlane....
moves in with her boyfriend, Jeff. He claimed the word was a subliminal order he supposedly implanted into her subconscious to kill Walter Mondale. However, it is revealed that the word was implanted into SteveSteve Smith (American Dad!)Steven Anita “Steve” Smith is a character from the animated television series American Dad!. He is Stan and Francine Smith's only son and Hayley's younger brother as well as the youngest of the series' 6 main characters. Steve is voiced by Scott Grimes.According to TVTDB.com, Steve's original...
's mind. In "The Best Christmas Story Never", Stan goes back in time and alters the past, where Walter Mondale becomes the President instead of Ronald Reagan, and quickly hands over the US to the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. - In an episode of The O.C.The O.C.The O.C. is an American teen drama television series that originally aired on the Fox television network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 21, 2007, running a total of four seasons...
, "The Case of the Franks", Sandy CohenSandy CohenSanford "Sandy" Cohen is a fictional character on the FOX series The O.C., portrayed by Peter Gallagher.Sandy, a lawyer, raconteur, and son of Sophie Cohen, is married to Kirsten Cohen. Their eldest child, Seth, is something of a social misfit. Sandy's father left his mother when he was young and...
, in a flashback, is campaigning for the Mondale campaign. He attempts to give future wife KirstenKirsten CohenKirsten Cohen is a fictional character on the FOX television series The O.C., portrayed by Kelly Rowan. Kirsten is the wife of Sandy Cohen, mother to Seth Cohen, and the adoptive mother of Ryan Atwood...
a campaign button and states that he would tell her why Mondale and Ferraro wouldn't win, but campaigning for them felt right. - In the HBO Miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Mondale is portrayed by actor John SlatteryJohn SlatteryJohn M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men. He has been nominated for many awards, and has won two SAG Awards with the Mad Men ensemble....
Published works
The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics, Mondale's memoir, was published in 2010; Twelve Years and Thirteen Days: Remembering Paul and Sheila Wellstone, co-written with Terry Gydesen, was published in 2003; Crisis and Opportunity in a Changing Japan, co-written with William Regis Farrell, was published in 1999; and The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency, was written in 1976.Norwegian ancestry
Mondale has always maintained strong ties to his ancestral NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. His family surname was originally Mundal and it originated in Mundal, Fjærland
Fjærland
Fjærland is a village in the municipality of Sogndal, along the Fjærlandsfjord, in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The Fjærlandfjord is a branch of the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in Norway...
. Upon entering the Senate in 1964 he took over the seat of vice president Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, another Norwegian-American. In later years Mondale has served on the executive committee of the Peace Prize Forum, an annual conference co-sponsored by the Norwegian Nobel Institute
Norwegian Nobel Institute
The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established in 1904 in Kristiania , Norway.The principal duty of the Nobel Institute is to assist the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the task of selecting the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and to organize the annual Nobel event in Oslo.The institute is situated...
and five Midwestern colleges of Norwegian heritage. During Norway's Centennial Celebration in 2005, he chaired the committee to promote and develop cultural activities between Norway and Norwegian-American organizations.
While he was in office, Twin Cities Public Television
Twin Cities Public Television
Twin Cities Public Television is a non-profit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that operates the Twin Cities' two Public Broadcasting Service member Public television stations, KTCA-TV and KTCI-TV...
produced a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about him entitled Walter Mondale: There's a Fjord
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...
in Your Past, a play on the well-known advertising slogan, "There's a Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
in Your Future."
On December 5, 2007, Norwegian minister of foreign affairs Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having been appointed to Jens Stoltenberg's second cabinet on 17 October 2005. He represents the Norwegian Labour Party.-Personal life:...
announced that Walter Mondale would be named Honorary Consul-General of Norway, representing the Norwegian state in Minnesota.
Records
In the Walter F. Mondale Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society, digital content is available for researcher use. Researchers will find content that includes, but is not limited to: speech files, handwritten notes, memoranda, annotated briefings, schedules, correspondence, and visual materials.The entire Walter F. Mondale collection includes senatorial, vice presidential, ambassadorial, political papers and campaign files, and personal papers of the United States Senator from Minnesota (1964–1976), Vice President of the United States (1977–1981), Ambassador to Japan (1993–1996), and Special Envoy to Indonesia (1998), documenting most aspects of Mondale's six-decade career, including all of his public offices, campaigns, and Democratic Party and other non-official activities.
Digital selections from this manuscript collection were made based on user and researcher interest, historic significance, and copyright status.
This project was made possible with the generous help of the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People grant.
Further reading
- Gillon, Steven M. The Democrats’ Dilemma: Walter F. Mondale and the Liberal Legacy (1992)
- Mondale, Walter. The Accountability of Power (1975)
- Mondale, Walter. The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics (2010).
External links
- Congressional biography
- Senate Leaders Lecture Series Address
- Minnesota Public Radio: Coleman, Mondale debate on eve of election (November 4, 2002) – featuring audio of the 2002 debate
- Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs: The Mondale Lectures on Public Service
- Great Norwegians
- Two Views from Pennsylvania Avenue
- List of New York Times articles on Mondale
- Senator Mondale transfers money from NASA to social programs using political maneuvers
- AmericanHeritage.com / Lost in Space What Went Wrong with NASA?
- Walter F. Mondale: An Inventory of His Papers, including his Vice Presidential Papers, at the Minnesota Historical Society