Posted on 08/01/2007 8:58:35 AM PDT by MplsSteve
T he Washington Post's recent series on Dick Cheney's vice presidency certainly got my attention. Having held that office myself over a quarter-century ago, I have more than a passing interest in its evolution from the backwater of American politics to the second most powerful position in our government. Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive -- until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track.
The founders created the vice presidency as a constitutional afterthought, solely to provide a president-in-reserve should the need arise. The only duty they specified was that the vice president should preside over the Senate. The office languished in obscurity and irrelevance for more than 150 years until Richard Nixon saw it as a platform from which to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1960. That worked, and the office has been an effective launching pad for aspiring candidates since.
But it wasn't until Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency that the vice presidency took on a substantive role. Carter saw the office as an underused asset and set out to make the most of it. He gave me an office in the West Wing, unimpeded access to him and to the flow of information, and specific assignments at home and abroad. He asked me, as the only other nationally elected official, to be his adviser and partner on a range of issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
I could find a number of things wrong with this op/ed piece by crusty Fritz Mondale - but I'll let my fellow Freepers tear it apart.
Comments or opinions - anyone?
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Actually if you throw in his failed Senate campaign, he’s a 50-state loser.
The man live in a delusional world. I remember the Carter years, Mondale must have been living somewhere else.
“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.”
It’s interesting to hear Mondale talk about how they kept the peace. The roots of today’s Islamo-fascism arguably can be traced to the Iranian revolution when Jimmy was president. And our weak response to the hostage crisis technically may have kept the peace in a troubled part of the world, but may have helped lead to where we are today.
heck, Bill Clinton “kept the peace” in the ‘90s by never responding to terrorists attacks against America overseas and treating the 1st World Trade Center bombing as simply a criminal matter, not an act of war by terrorists. And Bill Clinton “keeping the peace” arguably helped lead to what happened on Sept. 11th.
With Carter as President of course it would take on a bigger role to take up the slack.
Sadly enough however Fritz was the one taking up the slack and was just as bad as Carter.
I knew Minnesota could be a “Red” state!
You both were criticized long before you left office for your political buffoonery.
My property is not big enough to show up in blue without extreme resolution capabilities. ; )
The good old days when the GOP was designated in blue and the Dems in commie red. Those were the traditional color designations in every election up ‘til 2000, when the TV media made a concerted effort to eradicate the Dems = Reds association. ....quite successfully, as it turned out.
i recently met a woman from minnesota and she is left of left.
cheney is a doer.
that’s the difference.
mondale is not a doer.
Now - this loser is telling America what and how we should think?
Will anyone save the Republic from these leftist bastards?
This linked "Time Line" is from the Leftist and Liberal Loving WASHINGTON POST:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/timeline.htm
Yeah, and Hitler was a dog-lover who eliminated German unemployment. Mondale, Carter, McGovern - the dementia-addled wing of the democratic party....
In 2004, he lost his 50th state.
That's because Jimmuh was busy overseeing the White House tennis court scheduling....
I really think that Carter and Mondale have peanut butter rather than grey matter for brains.
And he even screwed that up and the court wound up with a shortage balls...too.
Even his friends hated him.
LOL!
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