In a letter to the Washington Post on July 29, 2007, Walter Mondale criticizes the power exerted by Vice-President Dick Cheney while touting his own use of that office and ground-breaking work to give it significance.
"Our [Pres. Carter’s and my] relationship depended on trust, mutual respect and an acknowledgement [sic] that there was only one agenda to be served -- the president's. Every Monday the two of us met privately for lunch; we could, and did, talk candidly about virtually anything. By the end of four years we had completed the "executivization" of the vice presidency, ending two centuries of confusion, derision and irrelevance surrounding the office."
Read the whole letter.
Wow! Mondale and Carter did all this for the office of the vice president. Some accomplishment! He brags they "executivized" the office of vice president and then condemns Cheney for using the office in an executive manner even to the point of claiming executive privilege. Why is it that the several Republican administrations' use of that executive office is abhorrent, but the Dem writer’s use was proper? It’s just typical Dem partisanship.
Closing his letter, Mondale fondly recalls,
"Since the Carter administration left office, we have been criticized for many things. Yet I remain enormously proud of what we did in those four years, especially that we told the truth, obeyed the law and kept the peace."
He conveniently ignores the horrendous Misery Index and the hostages who were held for 444 days by Iran. (They were not about to break the peace. They let Iran thumb its nose at the USA for more than a year.) President Carter was so inept, he could not even run for a second term. Ronald Reagan trounced Carter’s Vice-President, Walter Mondale, in the bid for the next presidency. Only Minnesota cast its electoral votes for the letter writer--a miserable, embarrassing fact we cannot erase, but would love to forget.
3 comments:
I believe Carter ran for reelection in 1980 and Mondale ran in 1984.
You are correct. I should have been clearer by stating: "President Carter was so inept, he could not even run successfully for a second term." That is a rare event in the history of the presidency.
Check out the USA presidents page.
In 1980, Carter carried just 49 electoral votes and in 1984, Carter's former Vice-President, Walter Mondale, and Geraldine Ferraro received a meager 13 electoral votes, carrying Minnesota as the only state. Source.
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