President Biden on Sunday paid tribute to one of his closest friends and mentors, the man who guided him in some of the darkest times in his life, taught him how to be a senator and advised him on the vice presidency.
In a 30-minute speech that was at times humorous and other times emotional, Biden called former vice president Walter Mondale “one of the great giants in American history — and that’s not hyperbole.”
Biden recalled that when he was asked to be Barack Obama’s vice president, one of his first calls was to Mondale, another longtime senator who had served as second-in-command to a relative Washington newcomer. Mondale reformed the way vice presidents conceptualized their role, he said, turning it into more of a direct partnership, and Biden tried to use that as a model.
Mondale was also the Democratic nominee for president in 1984, and among his most notable moves was putting the first woman on a major party presidential ticket, selectingas his running mate. They lost to President Ronald Reagan in a landslide, but Ferraro paved the way for such figures as Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and Vice President Harris.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said it was Mondale who first encouraged her to run for the Senate. He was also the first, she said, to teach pundits how to pronounce her last time. And when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, he warned her about the dangers of relying on a Teleprompter.“I could see Walter Mondale in the front row,” Klobuchar said. “I made eye contact with him, and I have never seen a more pointed I-told-you-so nod in my life. I nodded back.
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