Walter Mondale

Former Vice President Walter Mondale In Memoir: Proud To Call Himself A Liberal!

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Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who was influential in shaping the growth of that office while serving under President Jimmy Carter from 1977-1981, has just published his memoir, THE GOOD FIGHT: A LIFE IN LIBERAL POLITICS, at a time when he is nearing 83 years of age in January, which also marks 30 years since he and Carter left the White House!

Carter and Mondale have already set a record for the longest joint retirement of a President and Vice President!

Mondale made the Vice Presidency a very significant office, with the cooperation of President Carter, who had him share in all decisions and did not see Mondale as a threat to his own ego!

Mondale went on to run for President against President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and told the truth when he said he would have to raise taxes, and so would Reagan. He was truthful, and Reagan misled, as taxes did indeed go up in 1986!

Mondale also chose the first woman candidate for Vice President, Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of New York!

Although Mondale lost the race to Reagan in a landslide, winning only Minnesota, his home state, and Washington, DC, he went on to serve with distinction as Ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton!

Mondale, in an interview on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, stated that he was proud to call himself a liberal in the 1960s and 1970s, when he served with distinction in the US Senate, and he still is proud to say that today!

In that, the author joins him, as it is liberal and progressive ideas that brought about all of the great political, social and economic reforms in the 20th century, and now, in the early part of the 21st century! 🙂

Jimmy Carter: Time For Re-Evaluation Of The Man And His Presidency!

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Former President Jimmy Carter turned 86 today, and thankfully, left the Cleveland hospital where he had been admitted a few days ago after taking sick on an plane flight from Atlanta, on his way to a book signing of his newly published Diary of his Presidential years from 1977-1981!

Carter is often portrayed as a “failed” President, who has become regarded as a very successful, active, accomplished former President, way beyond most Presidents!

Carter has been intimately involved in promoting world peace, fighting hunger, promoting housing for the poor through Habitat for Humanity, and witnessing the legitimacy of elections all over the world! His Carter Center in Atlanta, and his Presidential Library have been active participants in advocating social justice and human rights! He has also become controversial in his statements and actions, particularly regarding Middle East peace between Israel and the Palestinians!

Carter has never avoided those who are critical of his ideas and actions, has been unafraid of his detractors, and with his nearly thirty years of retirement, he is nearing a record for the longest post Presidency, with only Herbert Hoover having lived in retirement longer!

In September 2012, he will break the record of 31 years, 7 months and 16 days of Hoover! Around Labor Day in 2012, we will be celebrating the longevity of a man who deserves a new revision of his time in the Presidency!

With Carter’s Diary and Vice President Walter Mondale’s Memoirs coming out, and the short volume in the American Presidents series by Henry Holt and Company also being published, it is time for historians to dig into the records of the Carter Library and other archives and reassess the impact of his Presidency on America!

Despite the harsh criticisms visited on Carter during and since his Presidency, it is likely that his reputation over time will grow, and he will be regarded as a much better President than most think of him in the present!

Democratic Party Strategy Against The Republican Party: Finally Playing Hardball! :)

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The Democratic National Committee has finally decided to play “Hardball” against the opposition Republicans, something they have been lacking in for many years, going back to the time of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, and John Kerry!

The Republicans have never had any problems with setting out to destroy the opposition, showing no ethics in their attacks on Democratic opponents at every level up to the Presidency! Now the DNC has decided to make clear to voters that there is a direct connection between the Tea Party Movement fringe and the GOP, so much so that at many rallies, the Republicans stand by as Tea Party extremists use racist, anti semitic language, and promote hate and division as they seek to repeal much of the Constitution and set back progress!

The message of the DNC will be that the GOP is linked to these anti government fanatics, and are outside the mainstream with candidates such as Rand Paul and Sharron Angle, along with other Tea Party favorites around the nation who have captured the local control of the Republican Party!

Tea Party extremists have called for the end of Medicare, repeal of the Obama Health Care legislation, privatizing of Social Security, extension of the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy, repealing the 17th Amendment and the 16th Amendment, modification of the 14th Amendment to take away birthright citizenship, abolition of the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, and the destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency! 🙁

It is hilarious that the chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, is now asserting that the Democrats are promoting the “politics of fear”!

The Republican Party has long been the party of fear, a master of using scare tactics going back many years, including the years of Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s! Who are they to use that term against the Democrats, when the GOP is the master of distortion of the truth, lies, deception, and character assassination! 🙁

The Republicans have done everything in recent months to show the American people that they are willing to do and say anything, no matter how divisive and manipulative it is, to regain power and do the bidding of the corporations and the wealthy! 🙁

Under the circumstances, the Democrats have no choice but to respond in kind, as regrettable as that is! It would be preferable to have an honest, sincere debate of differences, but the playing field does not allow that! So, as the old saying goes, “what is good for the goose, is good for the gander!”