Former Vice President Walter Mondale has passed away at age 93

[Dr. MB]

Assuming the current living vice presidents match Mondale's longevity:

Dick Cheney:  May 15, 2034
Joe Biden:  March 4, 2036
Dan Quayle:  May 19, 2040
Al Gore:  July 14, 2041
Mike Pence:  September 19, 2052
Kamala Harris:  February 2, 2058

Between Cheney-to-Gore + Bubba/Dubya/Trump, we may be in for a slew of POTUS/VP deaths in the 2030s and 2040s.

That's the thing about having so many presidents and VP's born close together. 4/5 of the past presidents and 4/6 (counting Biden) of the past VP's were born in the 1940s. Add in three more unsuccessful pres nominees. Since most of them are decently healthy for their age and obviously the fame+wealth+great healthcare benefit adds a few years to your life I'd expect them all to live a while longer but the human body can only go so far.

[Alcibiades]

RIP. One of the best Vice Presidents ever, and a man who stood up for liberal values at a time when they were very unpopular. One of America’s finest public servants of the last 50 years, and an icon in his home state. American politics is much poorer for his passing.

[President Johnson]

RIP FF. A liberal icon who would have made a fine president.

https://twitter.com/LBJLibrary/status/1384329248849076226
https://twitter.com/LBJLibrary/status/1384329261725609985

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

David Axelrod spearheaded Daley, Mondale, Kerry and Edwards and Obama and Biden campaigns , they were all lawyers but Kerry would have won VA or CO with Gephardt and Obama wouldnt have been Prez

This is why Ds won 257 seats in H in 2008, due to Rahm Emanuel and he was part of Axelrod team as well

[Fuzzy Bear]

A sad day.  Mondale was a massive FF.

Mondale was a far better public official than he was a candidate and campaigner.  This, I believe, is the most important fact to take from Mondale's long career.  There are lots of folks in both parties that I can't say that about.

[Torrain]

A FF who was often under-appreciated.

Mondale was a decent senator, and hugely courageous in '84. The fact the man was willing to risk his reputation on such a tough race, and be so gracious in the aftermath is hugely impressive to me. I remember listening to a WaPo podcast only a few months back, recorded in 2020, where a frail Mondale opined about the 1984 race. He still spoke confidently, and without a touch of bitterness.

In addition, Mondale's choice of Ferraro cannot be understated. Mondale put a woman in a national debate for the first time, and helped people visualise what a female president could look like. I agree with Obama's take that it's unlikely that we would have a VP Harris without Mondale/Ferraro.

Shirley Chisham ran not to win, but to fuel people's imagination, to show them what a President could look like. Mondale ended up doing the same, if not on purpose.

Rest In Peace.

[Mr. Illini]

https://twitter.com/edokeefe/status/1384326472337346560?s=20

RIP

[StateBoiler]

Assuming the current living vice presidents match Mondale's longevity:

Dick Cheney:  May 15, 2034
Joe Biden:  March 4, 2036
Dan Quayle:  May 19, 2040
Al Gore:  July 14, 2041
Mike Pence:  September 19, 2052
Kamala Harris:  February 2, 2058

Between Cheney-to-Gore + Bubba/Dubya/Trump, we may be in for a slew of POTUS/VP deaths in the 2030s and 2040s.

That's the thing about having so many presidents and VP's born close together. 4/5 of the past presidents and 4/6 (counting Biden) of the past VP's were born in the 1940s. Add in three more unsuccessful pres nominees. Since most of them are decently healthy for their age and obviously the fame+wealth+great healthcare benefit adds a few years to your life I'd expect them all to live a while longer but the human body can only go so far.

I think someone mentioned this with Canada, that they went so long with none of their former Prime Ministers dying they're in for a slew of them in short order.

If Quayle lives to 2040, he'll have had a 47-year post-VP career. Considering how he completely left politics after 1996 and has been largely quiet politically, he's going to be completely forgotten by everyone living then. If you say to know about politics you have to be say 18 years old, that would be everyone younger than 55 would know little about him.

Can't say I knew much about Mondale as far as during my life where I knew about politics (the '84 election was when I was 2 years old) other than he was parachuted in to replace Wellstone after his death in the Minnesota Senate race he wound up losing.

Mondale's the first death of a Vice President that did not become President since Spiro Agnew in 1996. Before him since Agnew was largely private in his life post-resignation, you have to go back to Nelson Rockefeller's death in 1979 (Nixon '94, Ford '06, G.H.W. Bush '18).

[Alcibiades]

A few more thoughts I’ve had on Mondale:

He had his first major involvement in politics, running Hubert Humphrey’s Senate campaign, in 1948. Now, granted he was very young - only 20 - but that is still a date which seems so, so distant politically. It really emphasises that Mondale was, before his death, one of the Democratic Party’s last living links to the storied New Deal era.

His background in this period (as well as his austere Norwegian-style upbringing, itself a link to the Europe of the 19th century) meant that I doubt we will ever see his kind of politician again. This is not meant to be a nostalgic, “they don’t make them like they used to” plea, but simply a fairly natural consequence of generational turnover.

But even for his period, Mondale possessed that most rare quality in politicians - he was the antithesis of the sound and fury demagogue, but he was also no stale technocrat, with his deeply held passion for liberal and progressive ideals. He was a man of quiet dignity - a quality which is needed in the political profession, but one which its nature tends to discourage. For this reason, combined with his considerable achievements in office, I genuinely think that he an underrated contender for one of the greatest men to hold political office in the last 100 years in America.

I think this quote of his from The Guardian’s obituary sums it up well:

Mondale recalled that his campaign staff in the 1984 race had tried hard to drag him into the TV era. They pleaded with him to change his hairstyle and his smile to charm more on camera.

“I didn’t like it, and I told them so,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Look, I’m all I’ve got. I can’t be someone I’m not.’”

Nowhere is this more apparent than in his 1984 campaign. He told the people the truth about Reaganomics when the truth was the last thing they wanted to hear, but the subsequent decades have completely vindicated him. Any Democrat was going to lose in 1984; we should be thankful that Mondale did it with dignity and principle, keeping the liberal flame alive, however low it burned.

I feel glad that, as shown in his extremely touching farewell letter, he was able to say a proper goodbye to those dear to him and to die feeling optimistic about the future of the country which he cared so deeply about.

[KaiserDave]

A few more thoughts I’ve had on Mondale:

He had his first major involvement in politics, running Hubert Humphrey’s Senate campaign, in 1948. Now, granted he was very young - only 20 - but that is still a date which seems so, so distant politically. It really emphasises that Mondale was, before his death, one of the Democratic Party’s last living links to the storied New Deal era.

His background in this period (as well as his austere Norwegian-style upbringing, itself a link to the Europe of the 19th century) meant that I doubt we will ever see his kind of politician again. This is not meant to be a nostalgic, “they don’t make them like they used to” plea, but simply a fairly natural consequence of generational turnover.

But even for his period, Mondale possessed that most rare quality in politicians - he was the antithesis of the sound and fury demagogue, but he was also no stale technocrat, with his deeply held passion for liberal and progressive ideals. He was a man of quiet dignity - a quality which is needed in the political profession, but one which its nature tends to discourage. For this reason, combined with his considerable achievements in office, I genuinely think that he an underrated contender for one of the greatest men to hold political office in the last 100 years in America.

I think this quote of his from The Guardian’s obituary sums it up well:

Mondale recalled that his campaign staff in the 1984 race had tried hard to drag him into the TV era. They pleaded with him to change his hairstyle and his smile to charm more on camera.

“I didn’t like it, and I told them so,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Look, I’m all I’ve got. I can’t be someone I’m not.’”

Nowhere is this more apparent than in his 1984 campaign. He told the people the truth about Reaganomics when the truth was the last thing they wanted to hear, but the subsequent decades have completely vindicated him. Any Democrat was going to lose in 1984; we should be thankful that Mondale did it with dignity and principle, keeping the liberal flame alive, however low it burned.

I feel glad that, as shown in his extremely touching farewell letter, he was able to say a proper goodbye to those dear to him and to die feeling optimistic about the future of the country which he cared so deeply about.

What wonderful and true words. I really appreciated reading this, thank you.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

RIP FF.

[Not Me, Us]

A massive FF and one of the three great Minnesota Senators of that era, along with Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy.

[Alben Barkley]

https://twitter.com/cartercenter/status/1384314376673452036?s=21

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Mondale's death also means that out of the three top presidential tickets in 1980 (Democratic, Republican, and Independent), Carter is the only nominee that is still alive. Carter and Dole are also the only two living nominees of 1976, although Dole has cancer and could very well be gone before this year is out. This also means that 1992 is now the earliest election in which both members of one major party's presidential ticket (Clinton and Gore) are still alive. All four major-party candidates of 1984 are now dead.

Although prior to Mondale's death, every Democratic Presidential nominee from 1976 onward was still alive. Quite a long timespan and probably has never been the case at any point in history prior.

[Calthrina950]

Mondale's death also means that out of the three top presidential tickets in 1980 (Democratic, Republican, and Independent), Carter is the only nominee that is still alive. Carter and Dole are also the only two living nominees of 1976, although Dole has cancer and could very well be gone before this year is out. This also means that 1992 is now the earliest election in which both members of one major party's presidential ticket (Clinton and Gore) are still alive. All four major-party candidates of 1984 are now dead.

Although prior to Mondale's death, every Democratic Presidential nominee from 1976 onward was still alive. Quite a long timespan and probably has never been the case at any point in history prior.

Agreed. Mondale was also one of the last surviving Senators to have been in office during the Johnson Administration.

[MABA 2020]

RIP FF and probably a great President in an alternative timeline

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

Biden is the oldest living president except for Carter.

[President Johnson]

Random fact: Walter Mondale was the first Democratic vice president to die since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. If he and Truman only count as presidents, the most recent Democratic vice president to die was John Nance Garner in 1967, who outlived Henry Wallace and Alben Barkley. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson is still last Democratic president who died.

[KaiserDave]

Random fact: Walter Mondale was the first Democratic vice president to die since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. If he and Truman only count as presidents, the most recent Democratic vice president to die was John Nance Garner in 1967, who outlived Henry Wallace and Alben Barkley. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson is still last Democratic president who died.

Humphrey died in 1978

[President Johnson]

Random fact: Walter Mondale was the first Democratic vice president to die since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. If he and Truman only count as presidents, the most recent Democratic vice president to die was John Nance Garner in 1967, who outlived Henry Wallace and Alben Barkley. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson is still last Democratic president who died.

Humphrey died in 1978

Of course, missed him. But still a very long time.

[H. Ross Peron]

Random fact: Walter Mondale was the first Democratic vice president to die since Lyndon Johnson in 1973. If he and Truman only count as presidents, the most recent Democratic vice president to die was John Nance Garner in 1967, who outlived Henry Wallace and Alben Barkley. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson is still last Democratic president who died.

Humphrey died in 1978

Also excluding Vice Presidents who later became Presidents (Ford and Bush Sr.), Mondale is the first Vice President to die since Spiro Agnew in 1996 when I was a month old.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Mondale and McGovern are the only Democratic President nominees to die since 1978. No nominee who won multiple states has died in the last 42 years.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It was 44 years since Mondale was elected VP, a record, even though his opponent Bob Dole is still alive.
Nixon 41
Bush Sr. 37
Adams 37

[junior chįmp]

RIP

[NYDem]

With Mondale's death, there are only 12 11 remaining Senators from the 93rd Congress. With the exception of President Biden, all were out of office by 1997. The only other one to even run for office in this century is Mike Gravel in 2008 and 2020. Hopefully they stick around, but there's a chance that by the end of a hypothetical Biden second term he could be the only one.