I Thought Failure Was Supposed To Be An Orphan?

The Pioneer Press revives Walter Mondale from his latest electoral trouncing to help him reassert his significance to American history:

Mondale, 77, a former Minnesota attorney general and U.S. senator, was vice president under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 through 1980. He was the first vice president to have an office in the White House, have access to all presidential information and play a meaningful role in running the country.

Yes, he did play a meaningful role in running the country . . . into the ground!

As I understand it, not only was Mondale the first VP to have an office in the White House, he was also the first to be assigned his very own stapler and post-it note dispenser.

Come on. I've lived in Minnesota all my life, have had teachers and the local media reverently genuflect at the name of Mondale the whole time, but never have I heard that he was a seminal figure in anything. Except perhaps in setting new standards for crushing electoral college defeat.

But there it is, in the Pioneer Press. Walter Mondale was the first Vice President in history to play a meaningful role in running the country. I'll take their word for it and assume that the major accomplishments of the Carter years were meaningfully influenced by our man Fritz. The fall of Iran to religious extremists, American hostages shamefully paraded on an international stage, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets, domestic economic tribulations, downward spiraling national morale etc. etc. etc. All guided by the invisible, shaky hand of Walter Mondale. I buy that.

But someone needs to get this information out to the wider world. For example, the Wikipedia entry for Mondale says nothing about his transformative role of the office of Vice President. They don't even see fit to cite the fact he was the first Vice President to have an office in the White House. They do mention this fact:

He was the first vice president to reside at the official vice presidential residence, Number One Observatory Circle.

Will the precedents never cease?! What's next, he was the first Vice President to get a locker in the White House steam room? He was the first Vice President to leave the lid up in the Oval Office restroom?

The Wikipedia entry does reminds us of this irrefutable record held by Mondale:

Mondale set a political record of sorts as a result of this loss [2002 Senate vs. Norm Coleman], becoming the only major party candidate in U.S. history to lose statewide elections in all 50 states.

Failing a bid by Jimmy Carter to run for any statewide office in Georgia (Governor, Soil and Water Commissioner, Peanut Czar - I'm sure the rejection would be similarly overwhelming), that's a record that may stand for a thousand years.

And it's that record that we should logically keep in mind when judging the significance of Walter Mondale's pronouncements on public policy matters. Meaning, that when he does deign to open his trap, perhaps some room should be cleared in the newspaper on the comics page or near the horoscope predictions. In the Pioneer Press, content of this kind gets the front page of the metro section treatment. For all I know, a new redesign will soon put the comics and horoscope on this page too. Because where else would you expect to read Walter Mondale level credibility pontification such as:

Cheney's record on the facts leading up to this war is pretty appalling. He's the one who talked about imminent nuclear weapons delivery systems, chemical laboratories, the al-Qaida connection, and the Niger yellowcake and aluminum tubes. We now know he was making most of those points long after the agencies of our own government were saying, "This stuff is not true." But he kept doing it. I think that's outrageous.

This response and other whoppers appear in an "interview" conducted by Bill Salisbury. In it Mondale is allowed to spout off any theories he likes, and no clarifications are asked for, no factual assertions are required. What he charges is all printed obediently without qualification.

Coincidentally, Jay Nordlinger from National Review noticed this exact same phenomenon occurring with another political observer of Mondale level credibility, his old running (limping) mate Jimmy Carter.

Since he left office in 1981, Carter has opined, written, and pontificated, over and over again. But he's pretty much never questioned. He's never challenged. Of course, once in a while he submits to an interview, but it's not really an interview - it's more like a fawn-fest. Carter never faces what my colleague Rick Brookhiser calls "comeback."

Mondale and Carter, politicians whose domestic and foreign policies are the most repudiated in modern American history, now attaining the level of wise old sages, on domestic and foreign policy. Now that's an historical transformation.