Walter Mondale, RIP

Whenever I think of Mondale, which I admit is not really all that often, I wonder what could have been had a solid liberal like him had actually been able to defeat Reagan in 1984. I remain determined that the “Dems lost three elections in a row because they were too liberal and so had to nominate a DLC-type like Bill Clinton in 1992” is a conventional wisdom narrative that is completely wrong, even though I know it was the narrative in 1992 as well. But of Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis, the only one who was actually an old-school New Deal liberal was Mondale and thus my feelings for him are stronger. And to his credit, he told Carter ahead of time that the malaise speech was terrible politics. Alas, he was very right.