Walter Mondale

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (5 January 1928 – 19 April 2021) was an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976, he was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1984 presidential election, but lost to incumbent Ronald Reagan in an Electoral College and popular vote landslide. His vice presidential nominee, U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro from New York, was the first female vice-presidential nominee of any major party in U.S. history.

Quotes

• If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.
  • As quoted by Ann Landers, in The Poughkeepsie Journal (26 March 1978); cited as "Mondale's Law" in The Book of Laws (1979) by Harold Faber, p. 13

• He taught us how to live, and finally he taught us how to die.
  • Walter Mondale paying his final respects to Hubert Humphrey at his funeral.

Quotes about Mondale

• * In 1980 the Democrats were pretty much stuck with Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, who ran under the slogan "Four More Years?" The Republicans, meanwhile, had a spirited primary campaign season, which came down to a duel between Reagan and George Herbert Walker Norris Wainright Armoire Vestibule Pomegranate Bush IV, who had achieved a distinguished record of public service despite having a voice that sounded like he had just inhaled an entire blimp-load of helium.
  • Dave Barry, Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort-Of History of the United States (1989), p. 167