NY Observer > Walter Mondale

Obama Bounce Starting to Show Up

Steve Kornacki — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:48:54 -0400

Maybe the media outlets that have been pushing the Obama’s-not-getting-a-bounce theme jumped the gun. The latest Gallup daily tracking poll – the result of interviews conducted between Monday and Wednesday nights this week – finds Obama pulling ahead by six points, 48 percent to John McCain's 42 percent. That’s a clear jump for Obama from earlier this week, when Gallup showed John McCain actually edging into the lead by a point.

This is hardly surprising. Convention bounces don’t usually appear until a few days into the convention, or even just after the nominee’s acceptance speech – the idea that polls released earlier this week said anything about whether this convention had been helpful to Obama was rather silly to begin with. read more »

Mondale Is Sure That Biden Will Work Out

Andrew Rice — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:51:59 -0400

DENVER -- Howard Dean came up from behind and clapped Walter Mondale on the shoulder. “Joe Biden,” he said. “Great choice. Great choice.”

It was two glasses into cocktail hour on Sunday evening at the International Leaders Forum, a quadrennial powwow of foreign dignitaries hosted by the National Democratic Institute, an organization that promotes good governance around the world. The NDI is loosely affiliated with the national Democratic Party, which explains why the forum’s opening reception, held at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, attracted both Dean and Mondale, who’d spoken at an earlier panel discussion. (Not to mention House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who gave an opening speech, and a shambling Ted Turner, who politely declined to be interviewed. read more »

Obama's Poor Finish and the General Election

Steve Kornacki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:43:36 -0400

“In many ways,” the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney wrote over the weekend, “Mr. Obama is wheezing across the finish line after making a strong start: He has won only 6 of the 13 Democratic contests held since March 4, drawing 6.1 million votes, compared with 6.6 million for Mrs. Clinton.”

Actually, it’s now worse than that: Mr. Obama’s late-in-the-campaign numbers took an additional hit on the final weekend of primary season, when Puerto Rico handed him his eighth loss since March. It is now indisputable that Mr. read more »

Hillary as Mondale, Again

Steve Kornacki — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:00:48 -0500

Hillary Clinton is on the air in Texas (and quite possibly Ohio) with a television ad that takes her argument about experience to a new emotional level. Per NBC's First Read, the Clinton spot says:

"It's 3 A.M. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. read more »

Bob Bauer and the Return of Mustard Gas

Steve Kornacki — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:48:35 -0500

The vicious reaction of Barack Obama's lawyer to the emergence of an anti-Obama 527 group calls to mind yet another parallel between this year's Clinton-Obama race and the 1984 contest between Gary Hart and Walter Mondale.

Mondale, the Hillary-like machine/establishment candidate of 1984, was—like every other candidate back in those days—accepting federal matching funds for his campaign, meaning that his primary season spending was capped at $20 million.

Like Hillary's brain trust, the Mondale campaign never anticipated a prolonged primary season, believing that a frontloaded calendar (which was rammed through the DNC by Mondale allies) would hand the nomination to their man by early March. They spent their money accordingly. read more »

Gary Hart: Obama Won't Fade

Steve Kornacki — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:20:41 -0500

The Super Tuesday stalemate has only reinforced comparisons between the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama contest and the fight for the Democratic nomination 1984, another one-on-one race that pitted an insurgent against the party establishment -- and one that wasn’t settled until the party’s July convention in San Francisco.

In that ‘84 campaign, the Obama role was played by Gary Hart, whose “new ideas” fueled a stunning 13-point victory in New Hampshire that rocketed him to the top of the race and, within weeks, brought Walter Mondale -- who had entered the campaign as the most prohibitive favorite in primary history -- to the brink of capitulation. A Hart sweep of Super Tuesday in early March 1984 would have flushed the former vice president from contention, but when Mondale narrowly won two states that day (to Hart’s seven), the press declared him reborn. When the primaries and caucuses finally finished in June, it was a draw: Both men had won about the same number of pledged delegates and Hart had even edged Mondale in the combined popular vote.

But the nomination was Mondale’s because most of the superdelegates -- party leaders and elected officials who account for 20 percent of all convention votes -- had been with him from the start, long before Hart had emerged as a viable option.

“My wife and I called every one of them personally between the California primary (on June 2) and the convention, and overwhelmingly they said, ‘I wish I hadn’t committed to Mondale, but I’m committed,’” Hart said.

More after the jump. read more »

How Barack Obama's S.C. Win Differs From Jesse Jackson's

Steve Kornacki — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:52:48 -0500

When Bill Clinton pointed out yesterday, while talking about Barack Obama's South Carolina victory, that Jesse Jackson won the state in 1984 and 1988, the former President got plenty of attention.

Clinton seemed to be encouraging the perception that Obama won because of support from black voters, and that his victory was more about racial allegiances than substance.

He was also misrepresenting history.

It's true that Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. But Clinton failed to mention several key points. For one, the state held caucuses back in those days, not primaries, and they attracted only a fraction of the participation that yesterday's primary did. Also, Jackson is a native of Greenville, South Carolina, which gave him an extra advantage. Finally, and most importantly, no one campaigned against Jackson either time, and the contests had nowhere near the same significance to the race. read more »

Mondale and Applebaum in Iowa

Katharine Jose — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:57:53 -0500

A union spokesperson sent over this photo of former Vice President Walter Mondale campaigning for Hillary Clinton with R.W.D.S.U. President Stuart Appelbaum and members of the union in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last weekend.

Clinton and Mondale, Hagel at CFR

Katharine Jose — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:47:13 -0500

Steve Kornacki draws parallels between the Clinton campaign and Walter Mondale’s in 1984.

Also from the Observer, Niall Stanage reports on Chuck Hagel at the Council of Foreign Relations, where he spoke about the current president, his willingness to consider running on a Democratic ticket, and his (apparently high) opinion of Hillary Clinton.

Inevitable Hillary and the Mondale Express

Steve Kornacki — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:38:35 -0500

Forget all the comparisons from the Democratic also-rans between Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: 2008 is no 2004. The dynamics of this race are vastly different and the foundation of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, aided by deep establishment support and a perception of inevitability that’s been nursed by the media for years, is far sturdier than Dr. Dean’s ever was. read more »