The Carter-Obama Comparisons Grow Walter Mondale himself sees a parallel.

wsj ^ | 9/22/2010 | john fund

[milwguy]

Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being made—and by Democrats.

Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama.

But within a few months, liberals were already finding fault with his rhetoric. "He's the great earnest bore at the dinner party," wrote Michael Wolff, a contributor to Vanity Fair. "He's cold; he's prickly; he's uncomfortable; he's not funny; and he's getting awfully tedious. He thinks it's all about him." That sounds like a critique of Mr. Carter.

[justlurking]

Then there was the final election he lost as the stand-in for Paul Wellstone. No bitterness, just a crack about making history as the first guy to lose elections in all 50 states.

Another interesting fact: in the Reagan vs. Mondale election, Reagan didn't even bother to campaign in MN. He made an unscheduled stop in Rochester, MN, one or two days before the election. I suspected they landed for fuel and decided to make a brief appearance.

Despite all that, Reagan missed winning Minnesota by less than 1 vote per precinct.... i.e. about 3,000 votes. Several third-party candidates collected that many votes... apiece. And I've heard through the grapevine that the only reason Mondale won MN was because a lot of votes were manufactured at the last minute for him in northeastern MN (which was always the last to report results).

To elaborate on an earlier posting: the reason that Mondale didn't lose an election in MN until he substituted for Wellstone was that Mondale was never confronted with a "contested" election -- primary or general. In all of his state-wide elections, he always had the incumbent Democrat advantage, because he was first appointed to the position as a political favor.

[VRWCmember]

That is interesting. Sort of like Gerald Ford who served as both VP and President without ever being elected to either office.

[laotzu]

"Look at 'em....we're gonna tax their asses off"
Democrat Presidential Candidate Walter Mondale

[A'elian' nation]

Thanks for your reasoned words on Mondale.
He is a nice guy, but I’m glad he finished last.

By the way, Mondale’s running mate was Geraldine Ferraro.

Fox News keeps posting this photo of Bill Clinton,
lips pursed and squinting - and it is amazing how much
he is looking like Geraldine. Too funny.

Bill Clinton: the first black and female president.

[Vigilanteman]

Your statement is correct with one small correction: Reagan's final stop of the campaign was in Rochester, Minnesota at around 10 p.m. on election eve.

It was planned at the last minute. They really didn't need fuel, though that may have been the official excuse at the time.

There was a large crowd in Rochester to greet Ron and Nancy and he stepped off the airplane and made a few brief remarks.

The plane was on the way to his ranch in California where he would await the election results.

I remember it well because we were in the same general media market and it made our local 10 p.m. news. Sometime later, our local fishwrap which had received advance notice of the stop along with the television stations, ran a feature article which explained the trip.

Reagan's staff had hounded him repeatedly in the closing days of the campaign to make a stop in Minnesota because his pollster (Richard Wirthlan, if I recall) showed the state was in play. However, Reagan's priority was getting as many senators and congressmen elected as possible. The staff persisted and Reagan finally agreed to a short airport stop in Rochester on the way back to California.

We were newlyweds at the time. My father called us up at 7 a.m. the day after the election (after we have been up late celebrating the night before) and asked "Did you hear they caught both of those guys?"

"Both of what guys?", I asked as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

"Both of those guys who voted for Mondale", replied Dad.

[Emmett McCarthy]

The word I hear among certain portions of the population is that BoyObaMao’s failures are due to interference by “rich white people”. So, yes, it’s entirely possible that something like that could happen.

[Ditto]

I hope he's no Carter. That would mean we will be stuck listening to his holier than thou sanctimony for another 40 years.

[Reeses]

The hundreds of comments at that article are near unanimous. We're all Freepers now.

[MNJohnnie]

You know the Presdient 0 is also starting to resemble LBJ, massive expansion of Fed power while micromanaging a war effort in Asia.